Application Of The Psychological Literary Criticism Theory To “The Fly” By Katherine Mansfield
The psychological literary criticism theory views a text as an expression of the personality, state of mind, feelings and desires of its authors. This could be applied to the short story, “The Fly” because the elements of the story contribute greatly to what this theory states. From the protagonist, the boss, having the loss of his son mess with his mind and feelings, trying to find ways to cope with the death by taking it out on a fly, and then ultimately overcoming the grief, and learning to deal with the decease and moving on in life and not letting it stop and interfere with the person the boss is. The psychological literary criticism theory could further correlate to the author, Katherine Mansfield’s life behind her writing pieces.
The short story, “The Fly” starts off with Mr. Woodifield, who recently had a stroke, and it only allowed out of the house one day of the week, Tuesdays. Mr. Woodifield comes to the boss’s business to share a cigar with the boss. Mr Woodifield begins to explain that he visited his sons grave where he also saw the bosses son buried there. This leads to the boss to reminisce about the loss of his son who passed away more than 6 years ago. This eventually creates the boss to continue grieving even more, until he came across his sons photograph. “At that moment, the boss noticed that a fly had fallen into his broad inkpot, and was trying feebly but desperately to clamber out again.” the boss began to torture the fly with ink, watches it struggle to survive, and continues the cycle until the fly can no longer deal with it and dies due to the great amount of ink/poison within it. In the end, the boss comes to realization that he cannot continue his whole life grieving over the loss of his son which unfortunately he cannot change.
It is very clear in the short story, “The Fly” that the boss who is unnamed, is grieving the loss of his son. The son passed away 6 years ago, and the boss is reminded of his death when Mr. Woodifield mentions that he saw his grave at the cemetery where Woodifields son was laying. This point exactly proves that the boss was holding in the death of his son in, and trying to keep calm and move on with it, but was triggered when it was brought up to him. In this way, the boss lacks self awareness by the loss of his son. This short story suggests many elements about the author and compares the author's life to her own writing piece. Evidently, this proves that the author is grieving the loss of someone or something. In fact, Katherine Mansfield had a miscarriage from attempting to life a suitcase down from a shelf and fumbled the suitcase and dropped it on herself. The loss of her child before birth could compare to the boss and the loss of his son. This makes the readers believe that she had dealt with the loss of her baby and related it to the short story that she was writing.
It is feasible that there are conscious and unconscious motives seen and demonstrated within the characters and author of the short story, “The Fly.” There are many psychological theories present accounted for within characters in the short story, “The Fly.” The protagonist confirms in the story, in many ways that he is suffering great grief from his son's death. One of the theories could be obsessive compulsive. In relation, the protagonist appears to come off having a hard time grieving and in a way, selfish because he believes that he is the only one who has lost a loved one and in the grieving process. This makes complete sense because Katherine Mansfield had same-sex partner as well as two previous marriages which relates to the sexual repression psychological theory. This theory expresses that it is a state in which a person is prevented from expressing their own sexuality. Which, Katherine Mansfield had a tough time getting across her love for her partner, Maata Mahupuku, and a hard time for people to accept it for who she was. In the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds, it was not common for people of the same sex to love each other and was typically prohibited from surrounding individuals and the society.
In conclusion, in the short story, “The Fly,” the boss’s perception and actions towards the fly, show great analogy and connection to the sons death. With the boss grieving and using the fly as a symbol to his life and how he lives it with the loss of his son. “The Fly,” also displays and contributes greatly to the psychological literary criticism theory by giving evidence from the short story and comparing it to the author, Katherine Mansfield's life behind writing.
