SOURCE: “Mansfield's ‘The Fly,’” in The Explicator, Vol. 14, No. 2, November, 1955, item 10.

In the following essay, Assad argues that the central meaning of “The Fly” is clearly expressed in the line from the story that reads,“we cling to our last pleasures as the tree clings to its last leaves.”

Various interpretations enrich our reading of Katherine Mansfield's masterful short story. Robert Wooster Stallman's interpretation of the fly as symbolizing and not symbolizing the Boss is ingenious and engaging (EXP., April, 1945, III, 49); Willis D. Jacobs' biographical interpretation of the fly as Katherine Mansfield struggling and succumbing to tuberculosis increases the pathos of the story (EXP., Feb., 1947, V, 32); Thomas A. Bledsoe's interpretation of the fly episode as dramatizing the theme “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport” sets us upon the basic level of a philosophy of life itself (EXP., May...