The Fly

 

The Fly as a short story:

Katherine Mansfield’s short story The Fly, taken from her volume the ‘’Dove’s nest’’ is a masterpiece in the realm of short stories. This is a short story and has the theme of a father’s deep sorrow for the death of his only son on the French front. It also illustrates symbolically the helplessness of man at the hand of fate. The art of style, art
of characterization and its brevity proves it as a short story.

Katherine Mansfield’s short story The Fly is a successful short story. It is rich in psychological interest. It comes closer to the modern novel of the stream of consciousness technique which is an extreme form of the psychological novel

In the stream of consciousness technique, a novel is delicate, and subtle. Study of human mind is attempted.

In the story, the Boss is the main character who feels helpless of his life.He is a big businessman with enormous wealth and enjoys power and affluence. He is old now but quite strong and healthy. He had a son for whom he worked hard and built a business empire. His son grew up to be a well-built man and received proper education. He wished and hoped that his son would step in his shoes and become a great businessman. All of his hopes centred round his son. But his son joined the army and was killed in action on the front.

Mr. Woodifield is the friend of the Boss who is one of the central characters of this short story. He is younger in age than the Boss but had to retire from service prematurely owing to a stroke that made him physically feeble of his normal duty. His wife and daughters keep him confined in the house except on Tuesday. On that day he is allowed to move out and meet friends. Although his wife & daughters think that on Tuesday, he proves himself a perfect nuisance.

On Tuesday, Mr.Woodifield came in the house of Boss. He was received warmly. He sat on a comfortable arm chair in the furnished office chair of Boss. He forgot his purpose of his visit. The Boss offered him a costly vintage drink. Then he remembered his purpose and told him that his daughters had gone to Belgium. There they saw the grave of Reggie, his son and that of the Boss’s son. He also reported that the graves were well kept with flowers round. After listening it he tried to weep but he could not.

At that very moment, the boss noticed that a fly had fallen in to his big inkpot. He picked it up and placed it on a blotting paper. The fly cleaned its body of ink and was about to fly again. Suddenly the Boss had an idea to test the power of endurance of this little insect. He put a drop of ink for the 3 times. The fly was in a trouble but it survived. When the last drop of ink is dropped on it, it could bear no more. It collapsed. Then it died. The death of the fly hurt him so much. The whole episode signified his own situation which he had to face after the death of his son.