The Fly
E946072
"The Fly" is a short story by modernist writer Katherine Mansfield that explores themes of grief, power, and the futility of human struggle through a businessman’s cruel experiment with a fly.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Fly (1957 short story) | 2 |
| The Fly canonical | 1 |
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
literary work
ⓘ
short story ⓘ |
| author | Katherine Mansfield NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| centralSymbol |
fly
ⓘ
ink ⓘ |
| characterRelationship | the boss is Woodifield’s former employer ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | New Zealand–United Kingdom literary tradition ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 1922 ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn | The Nation and Athenaeum NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre | modernist fiction ⓘ |
| hasAdaptation |
radio dramatizations
ⓘ
stage readings and performances ⓘ |
| includedIn | The Garden Party and Other Stories (some editions) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| length | short fiction ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | modernism NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Mr. Woodifield
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
the boss ⓘ |
| motif |
office routine
ⓘ
war graves ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narration ⓘ |
| plotElement |
Woodifield mentions his daughters’ visit to their brothers’ graves in Belgium
ⓘ
the boss forgets what he was thinking about after the fly dies ⓘ the boss remembers his son killed in World War I ⓘ the boss tortures a fly by repeatedly dropping ink on it ⓘ the fly eventually dies from exhaustion ⓘ the fly repeatedly struggles to clean itself ⓘ |
| setting | the boss’s office ⓘ |
| settingPeriod | post–World War I era ⓘ |
| structure | single-scene story ⓘ |
| studiedIn |
modernist literature courses
ⓘ
short story studies ⓘ |
| symbolismInterpretation |
the boss’s treatment of the fly symbolizes the exercise of arbitrary power
ⓘ
the fly symbolizes human beings struggling against suffering and fate ⓘ the ink symbolizes external blows of fate or trauma ⓘ |
| theme |
class and authority
ⓘ
cruelty ⓘ futility of human struggle ⓘ grief ⓘ memory and forgetting ⓘ mortality ⓘ mourning ⓘ power and control ⓘ repression of emotion ⓘ the impact of war ⓘ |
| tone |
ironic
ⓘ
somber ⓘ tragic ⓘ |
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
The Fly (1986 film)
this entity surface form:
The Fly (1957 short story)
this entity surface form:
The Fly (1957 short story)