Class Notes for “The Fly”
by Katherine Mansfield
Examining the story from an analytical perspective.
Examining the Story
"The Fly" is a fine example of how an apparently
minor incident can illuminate a character's
fundamental personality.
 The story is a character sketch about a man,
significantly known only as "the boss." He is visited by
an old friend and associate, Mr. Woodifield, who
refers to their respective sons, both of whom were
killed six years earlier and World War I.
 Later, in coping with memories of his son, the boss
tortures a fly to death, revealing his basic personality
and confirming earlier hints that he is more complex
than he appears.

Themes in the Story
1) A person's actions reveal aspects of that
person's character.
2) People who feel unbearable emotions
may conceal them from themselves and
others.
Paradox in the Story
1)
2)
People act as if they live in a universe
that is comprehensible and predictable,
whereas, in reality, the universe may be
irrational and unpredictable.
The most powerful human being is
unable to control many aspects of his or
her own life, such as death.
Symbolism
Woodifield:
• Woodifield's major function is to evoke the boss's
memories of his son.
• Woodifield contrasts with the boss in a lack of
control Woodifield exercises over his life, and
Woodifield's behaviour elicits the boss's response to
weakness in others.
• Woodifield also contrasts with the boss in the
respective attitudes toward the death of their sons.
• Woodifield accepts the death and continues to
appreciate all the good in life. The quality of the
boss's life died with his son, who the boss used as an
extension of himself.
Symbolism (cont.)
The photo of the boss's son:
 The difference between the son's photograph and the
boss's memory of his son reveals the difference between
reality (the photo) and illusion (the boss's memories).
 The "grave-looking" photo of a "cold, even stern looking"
youth depicts the real son as a young adult, possibly
unhappy, and possibly a victim of his father's need to
control everything and everyone connected with his
own life.
 In order to be sure that his son became strong, the boss
may have given him overwhelming challenges just as he
did with the fly.
 The boss cannot ignore the true nature of either his son
or himself. He lives with illusions of both that he has
created to satisfy his own needs.
Symbolism (cont.)
The Fly:
 The fly symbolizes the boss's own life-experience in that, like
the fly, the boss is subject to forces beyond his control. (He had
no power to control his son's death.)
 The fly also symbolizes the boss's son in that the boss
challenges both to be successful, enjoys their successes, and
then finds that their abilities cannot prevent them from being
killed by forces beyond their control. The boss challenges both
to be as strong as they can because the boss's fear of his own
inner weakness make him intolerant of weakness in anyone
associated with him. The boss's torture of the fly is a re-creation
of his son's life and death. The fly's death confirms what his son's
death taught him about life, and the boss is so distressed and
frightened by this knowledge that he does not permit himself to
remember it or anything connected with it.
Word choice in the story

Every word in this story, sounding natural and
casual in its place, proves to have far-reaching
significance.
◦ Mr. Woodifield's thought that "We cling to our last
pleasures as the tree clings to its last leaves,"
provides one of the themes
◦ The description of the photograph of the boss's son
introduces the question of his personality;
◦ Mr. Woodifield's memory lapse foreshadows the
boss's later, related, memory lapse.
The Shadow-self



Jung defines the Shadow as "a living part of the
personality" that "personifies everything that the
subject refuses to acknowledge about himself and yet
is always thrusting itself upon him directly or
indirectly."
Just as a bully conceals a Shadow who is a coward, a
boss conceals a Shadow who is a wimp. Thus, the boss
in "The Fly" always feels compelled to
overcompensate for his fear of his week Shadow-self
by taking total control of himself and others.
His fear of his own weakness also makes him
intolerant of weakness in anyone or anything else,
including Mr. Woodifield, his son, and the fly.
The boss and weakness
The boss handles weakness in others by giving
them challenges they need strength to master. He
insists that Mr. Woodifield drink straight whiskey,
and he challenges the fly to overcome inkblots.
 Unfortunately, the boss's fear of weakness is so
strong that challenges he creates for others may
be too great for them. Recognizing that the fly's
efforts have become timid and weak, he
nevertheless is compelled to give it the challenge
that kills it. Thus, his behaviour contains both
sadistic and tragic qualities.

The epiphany in the story

The power of the story resides in what the boss's
treatment of the fly and his reaction to its death reveal
about him and his son. James Joyce would call this
incident and epiphany, a sudden moment of
illumination that reveals the boss's true character and
destroys the veil of illusion that has concealed the
private man beneath the public image. Thus, as the fly
copes with its challenges, the boss enjoys its successes
with the same pleasure that he watched those of his
son, and when he dies, his "grinding feeling of
wretchedness" frightens him into disconnecting his
memory of both the emotion and all that produced it.
Epiphany (cont.)
The scene in which the boss tortures the fly to
death is an epiphany in that it is an insignificant
event that suddenly reveals the boss's essential
nature. He has lived his life according to the
principle that those who are strong enough can
overcome any adversity, even the possibility of
death. His torture of the fly is an experiment which,
on a symbolic level, re-creates his son's life and
death under circumstances over which the boss has
complete control. The fly's death, like the death of
the boss's son, confirms the faulty nature of the
boss's guiding principles. Consequently, the boss is
first distressed, and then his fright causes him to
"forget" the incident.

The boss does not usually permit himself to think
about his son's death because it destroys the
principle that governs his own life, namely, that
those who are strong enough can overcome any
adversity, even the possibility of death. His torture
of the fly is an experiment which, on a symbolic
level, re-creates his son's life and death of your
circumstances over which he has complete
control. When the fly’s death confirms the
destruction of the principle that is crucial to his
own life, the boss finds that, once again, both this
knowledge and his emotional response to it are
so frightening that he must immediately forget
them.
Psychological Realism
Mansfield creates a limited but effective form of
psychological realism with a narrative perspective
that uses a third-person narrator who makes the
boss the center of consciousness.
 This technique enables the reader to enter the
boss's mind and gain access to whatever thoughts
and feelings he permits himself without forcing the
author to sacrifice the object objective the
descriptions that the boss would not use.

How the characters handle death:
Mr. Woodifield mourns the loss of his son
and proceeds to live as meaningful a life as
his poor health will permit.
 In contrast, once the boss's son dies, the
boss lives on only as a mechanical being.
Health, financial success, and remaining
family mean nothing to him. His son was an
extension of himself, and that death killed
his own interest in life.

Why doesn’t the boss have a proper
name?
The constant use of the boss's title, rather than his name,
reveals who the boss is and how he functions in
interpersonal relationships.
 The need always to be "boss" reveals his fear of
weakness in himself and his inability to tolerate it in
others.
 The boss's behaviour, consistent with his title, reflects his
overwhelming need to control himself and others,
including his response to Woodifield in the opening
scene, the nature of his thoughts about his son and his
son's death, and his treatment of the fly and the closing
scene.

Why does the boss keep the photo
of his son?
The boss may keep this photo on his desk, even if he
doesn't like it, because it makes a good public impression.
The boss can appear to be proud to have had a son who
gave his life for his country and, thus, died a heroic death.
This is consistent with the boss's interest in redecorating
his office and his absolute control over his emotions in
public. Maintaining appearances is very likely second only
to maintaining control, and, in fact, is a way of exercising
control.
 The photograph of the boy also reminds the boss that his
own life no longer has a purpose, since his soul interest
was to pass on his business to his son, and his son is
dead.

Why doesn’t the boss use his son’s
name?
Calling his son "the boy" creates an emotional
distance from him, almost as if he is not the boss's
son.
 Distance relieves the pain.
 Memories of his son call forth memories of his
death. His son's death reminds him that, just as he
had no control over his son's death, he will have
no control over his own death, and with him,
control is the most important factor in life.

Why hasn't the boss seen his son's
grave?

The boss has the financial ability but not the
motivation to see the grave. His decision
reflects a form of denial, his inability to deal
with the reality of his son's death and the
effect of that loss on his life. His son's death
is a reminder of his inability to control
mortality, including his own.
Why can't the boss cry?
With time, the boss has been able to bury his
emotions in an area of his psyche where he can
no longer feel them. However, although he cannot
summon them, they still exist, and they erupt
when the fly dies.
 Part of anyone's reaction to anything is a
response to the questions: "How does this affect
my life?” and “ What will happen to me?" The
boss's tears reflected his response to these
questions.
 The death of his son, who was an extension of
himself, was an excruciatingly personal loss. That
death also devastated the principle by which the
boss lived, that strength overcomes all adversity.

Why does the boss torture the fly to
death?

The experience provides an acceptable
outlet for great anger and frustration: anger
at his son's death and, consequently, the loss
of his own dreams, and frustration at his
own inability to control what was most
important to him in his life (his son's life).
His method of killing the fly enables him to
examine the process of life and death under
circumstances that he controls.
Why does the boss torture the fly
to death? (cont.)
The boss admires the fly's heroic efforts and is not
consciously aware that his challenges are torturing it
to death. However, when it dies, he feels terrible
because he subconsciously realizes that his treatment
of the fly has reproduced the pattern of his son's life
and death and of his own, as well.
 The boss has constructed his life on the principle
that those who are strong enough can overcome any
adversity, even death. The fly's death reinforces the
message of his son's death, that no one can control
important aspects of life.
