Reading Katherine Mansfield’s short story, ‘The Fly’ (1922) | English

Starter quiz

In 'Literary perspectives from the First World War', the texts you read are written from different perspectives. Match the perspectives to their definitions.
- first person perspective
  
  ⇔
  
  writing about yourself using pronouns like "I", "me", "mine" and "we" ✓
- second person perspective
  
  ⇔
  
  a narrator talks directly to a reader using pronouns like "you" ✓
- third person perspective
  
  ⇔
  
  a narrator tells the story but isn't in it; uses "he", "she", "they" ✓
Here is one of the first lines of 'The Fly' by Katherine Mansfield. "His talk was over; it was time for him to be off." What perspective is the short story written in?
- first person
- second person
- third person ✓
All of these words are important to Katherine Mansfield's short story 'The Fly'. Match each word to their definition.
- universal
  
  ⇔
  
  applicable to all people regardless of circumstance ✓
- experimental
  
  ⇔
  
  new, innovative, untested ✓
- theme
  
  ⇔
  
  an important idea in a text ✓
- short story
  
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  a story that is often designed to be read in one sitting ✓
Inferring is an important skill when reading any text. What does it mean to infer?
- to explain the definitions of individual words
- to offer an argument about a particular text
- to identify certain methods a writer has used
- to make an informed guess ✓
- to read a summary of a text
Telegrams feature in much of the literature about World War One (Literary perspectives from the First World War). Why were telegrams dreaded by those on the home front?
- they were public so anyone could read them
- you had to pay to collect them from the post office
- they were always written in code and needed to be deciphered
- they were shorter than letters
- they often brought news of casualty or death ✓
In Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly', one of the characters is described as a "broken man". What language technique is being used?
- simile
- metaphor ✓
- alliteration
- verb choice
- onomatopoeia

Exit quiz

Starting with the first, put these plot points about Katherine Mansfield's short story, 'The Fly' in chronological order.
- 1
  
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  The boss enjoys Woodifield admiring his office.
- 2
  
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  The office is described as including a photo of a young man, the boss's son.
- 3
  
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  Woodifield tells the boss his girls saw the boss's son's grave in Belgium.
- 4
  
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  The boss reflects on the loss of his son.
- 5
  
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  The boss sees a fly covered in ink recover itself; he drops ink on it again.
- 6
  
  ⇔
  
  After the boss drops ink on it the third time, the fly dies.
- 7
  
  ⇔
  
  The boss can't remember what he was thinking before the incident with the fly.
Katherine Mansfield wrote 'The Fly'. What is true of Katherine Mansfield?
- She was British.
- She was a nurse during World War One.
- Her brother died during World War One. ✓
- She was part of the modernist movement. ✓
- 'The Fly' is her only short story.
What is true of the boss in Katherine Mansfield's short story, 'The Fly'?
- He envies Mr. Woodifield.
- He visits his son's grave in Belgium.
- He despairs about a future without his son. ✓
- He has retired.
- He kills the fly on purpose.
What is true of Mr. Woodifield in Katherine Mansfield's short story, 'The Fly'?
- He works in the city.
- He is older than the boss.
- He tries to upset the boss.
- He lost his son in the war. ✓
- He admires the boss. ✓
In Katherine Mansfield's short story, 'The Fly', we are told that, for the boss, "______ itself had come to have no other meaning" since the loss of his son.
- 'life' ✓
In Katherine Mansfield's story, 'The Fly', Mr. Woodifield tells the boss about seeing his son's grave. Mansfield writes "Only a ______ in his eyelids showed that he heard.
- 'quiver' ✓

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Lesson Details

Key learning points

Mansfield (1888-1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic.
Mansfield was part of the modernist movement: she rejected traditional ideas about what literature should look like.
‘The Fly’ presents two men, both of whom lost their sons in World War One.
‘The Fly’ (1922) was perhaps inspired by her own experiences of loss in World War One: her brother was killed in 1915.

Common misconception

Mr. Woodifield intentionally tries to upset the boss.

Mr. Woodifield seems unaware that he has upset the boss, and his cruelty in mentioning his son's grave in Belgium is thoughtless rather than deliberately cruel.

Keywords

Modernism - a literary movement in which writers rejected traditional ideas about what poetry and other forms of literature should look like
Universal - applicable to all people regardless of circumstance
Experimental - new, innovative, untested
Theme - an important idea in a text, often this idea is universal, for example, love
Nihilism - the idea that life is meaningless