A Study Of The Image Of Moth In Virginia Woolf’s Novels

Moth is a central image in Virginia Woolf’s essay The Death of the Moth. Since its publication, critics and scholars have done much to study the significance and meaning of the image moth in this essay. However, I have found that moth is also a recurring image in her novels and plays an important role in them. Especially after I read her biographies and diaries, I have noticed moth’s life can be taken as a metaphor of her life. Besides, there is hardly any research on the image of the moth in her novels. Therefore, in this thesis I decide to explore the meaning and significance of the moth in her novels with reference to her career and life by adopting psychoanalytical approach, with an aim to reveal its working in her novels.The thesis is composed of six parts, including introduction, four chapters and conclusion. The introduction includes the reviews of Woolf’s studies focusing on the moth, as well as the argument, research method and the significance of this thesis. Chapter One explains the connection of the “moth” and Virginia Woolf’s own life, argues that Woolf’s life is like that of a moth, going through the birth, the suffering of self bonding, the pain of cocoon-break, and the death. Chapter Two deals with the image of the moth in her novel The Voyage Out and points out that the image represents a kind of exploring spirit. Chapter Three mainly discusses the image of the moth in Jacob’s Room, and show that the moth functions as an emotional bridge between the novel and writer. Chapter Four focuses on the moth in her The Waves and tries to explain that the moth symbolizes pain and joy. In the conclusion, I summarize the views I have discussed in the above chapters with an emphasis that the moth is a dispensable element in Woolf writing her novels and in our understanding her novels.