Sample Rhetorical Analysis 1

Sample Summer Rhetorical Analysis

Power of Death Over Life

In reading “The Death of a Moth” it is easy to just go along with the story but a closer look allows one to see how Virginia Woolf connected with the reader. In the first sentence the reader relates to the feelings of the writer. The author includes the reader by using the word “us”. This use of wording makes the reader imagine that they have felt the emotional sense they feel on autumn nights and understand it, whether they have actually experienced it or not. The observation of the surroundings, of the moth, the day, and the farm establish a context in which the reader is put into the particular scenario with the author. Therefore, one is able to feel where Woolf is coming from.

            Woolf uses the appeal of ethos when describing the pity felt towards the moth. The moth is pathetic, being enthralled in happiness with only being able to do so little, yet she connects the creature to something more significant. The sympathy felt is mixed with warmth;
“What he could do he did…. He was little or nothing but life.” There was so much life given to the moth, only to have it be used as a moth, but the energy described gives off a pure feeling to the audience. Woolf manipulates two things, one tangible (the moth) and the other abstract (life), the simple way of incorporating both touches a greater portion of the audience. Realists as well as people who have a more conceptual mind can understand the pureness that is felt from her writing.

            Details aside from the moth emphasize the energy it contains. While the moth is dancing, Woolf describes the liveliness of the rooks, the horses, and the fields. Conversely, as the moth starts to approach death, she uses the surroundings to give the atmosphere the same omniscience. The dying moth is accompanied by the quiet and stillness of the grounds. To engage the reader in the feelings towards death, the figurative use of the power of the world being opposed to the moth is used to represent death. This different outlook on death provokes the reader, as does the question of morals that Woolf portrays. The question arises twice within her essay, would she help the moth or not? She states that there is no chance against death, but still the effort she makes in lifting up her pencil with the aim of helping the moth, leads the reader to believe that there actually might be a way to fight the future. As the writer, Woolf has the power of making an opinion and then changing it. The beginning of the essay delves upon the pathetic use of life, but the end talks about the power of death. And if death is so powerful then life can’t be pathetic, it’s a miracle to live for only a small portion of time if death really is stronger. The appeals an author uses can only funnel the audience a certain way and can lead them to different conclusions whether the readers like to look for moral lessons, read between the lines or follow what is written word for word. Woolf didn’t seem to be writing to one particular type of person.  There are a few paths for a reader to take, making the interpretation open to the individual reader’s style.