The Manifestation of Life

The first half of the essay is characterized primarily by the speaker's fascination with the physical manifestation of life. The essay begins with an analysis of the difference between moths that appear during the day and those that appear at night. While a seemingly strange argument to make, this introduction actually allows the speaker to attach emotional significance to the natural world. She says about day-moths: "they do not excite that pleasant sense of dark autumn nights and ivy-blossom which the commonest yellow-underwing asleep in the shadow of the curtain never fails to rouse in us" (1). Here, the speaker intimates that the life of the natural world has the ability to stir particular emotions in people, but specifically declares that day-moths do not possess this power that their nighttime counterparts have. This assessment is ironic because, for the rest of the essay, the speaker will...