Discussion Topic
The significance of the unnamed boss in Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Fly."
Summary:
The unnamed boss in Katherine Mansfield's "The Fly" represents the struggle with grief and the passage of time. His attempts to control the fly's fate mirror his own efforts to manage his sorrow over his son's death, ultimately highlighting the futility of such attempts and the inevitability of forgetting. The boss's character underscores themes of powerlessness and the human condition.
What is the significance of the character being called "the boss" in "The Fly"?
The visitor, Mr. Woodfield, and the narrator of the story both refer to the owner of the business as the "boss." This indicates how fully and deeply he is identified with his role in life. He has lived and breathed to be the boss.
But, as we find out in a way that twists our hearts, the title has, ironically, become meaningless to the boss. He built his business for one purpose: to leave it to his son. But his only son was killed in World War I. As the narrator tells us:
Ever since his birth the boss had worked at building up this business for him; it had no other meaning if it was not for the boy. Life itself had come to have no other meaning.
The boss is identified by a title that once gave his life all its meaning but now has lost all meaning...
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to him. By calling him the boss, Mansfield emphasizes that he is nothing now but the empty shell of a man.
The impersonal title also suggests he is an Everyman, and that, given the heavy casualties in World War I, throughout England there are many "bosses" like him, living meaningless, anguished lives, feeling like the fly hopelessly drowned in ink while being told to keep their spirits up and to keep on trying.
What is the significance of the boss being unnamed in "The Fly"?
"The Fly" is the story of a man, known only as "the boss," who has been utterly devastated by the death of his son. The boss's son was killed in World War I. When he first found out about his son's death, via a telegram, the boss was left "a broken man, with his life in ruins." In other words, the boss was, understandably, completely devastated and felt as if his world had come crashing down around him.
"The Fly" is set six years after the boss's son's death, and the boss feels guilty because he can no longer shed a tear when he thinks of his son. When he first learned of his son's death, the boss would regularly be "overcome by such grief that nothing short of a violent fit of weeping could relieve him." Now, however, six years later, he is unable to feel the same degree of grief. He feels ashamed that "no tears [come]" when he looks at a photograph of his dead son. The implication is that the boss has been drained of all emotion. He is no longer the person he used to be. This is why he is only known as "the boss" in the story. This title suggests that there is no sense of self left. He is defined now only as the boss of a company. He is no longer a father and thus no longer the person he used to be, that person having been defined in large part by his role as a father.
The idea that the boss has been reduced to a title since the death of his son is emphasized at the end of the text. At the end of the story, the boss decides to torture a fly caught in an ink pot. He tortures this fly in order to try and feel something again. The death of his son has left him completely numb.
Why is the boss unnamed in Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Fly"?
The Fly was written in 1922, shortly after World War One. In the story, the boss is unnamed, yet we are apprised of his character through his interactions with Mr. Woodifield. We know that he is quite proud of the way his office has been recently refurbished. We also know that he sympathizes with the old man's hen-pecked existence. The boss appears to be a kind man; he happily shares a glass of whiskey with Mr. Woodifield and indulges him in conversation.
However, when the subject of his son's grave comes up, the boss is visibly affected. He stiffens at the mention of Reggie's grave, which is near that of his own son's in Belgium. After Mr. Woodifield leaves, the boss sequesters himself in his office. We are then given a clear indication of why Mr Woodifield's words had shaken the boss so much: he had never fully recovered from the grief of losing his only son.
As a proud father, all his hopes and dreams had centered on his only son carrying on his business; to this end, the boss had worked and sacrificed unceasingly. His son had been his pride and joy, and his premature demise had grieved him beyond endurance. The experience of the boss mirrors that of so many fathers and mothers who had to grieve the loss of sons during World War One. This is one conceivable reason the boss is never named. He represents the millions of parents whose own sons were senselessly cut down in the prime of their lives, on the battlefields of Europe.
Before the war, these sons, like the boss' own son, had been preparing to go to college, to start their own businesses, to learn a trade, or to inherit a business. They were supposed to live normal and productive lives. The war changed everything; millions of young men died on the fields of battle, and the hopes of their families died with them.
World War One Casualty and Death Table.
Lost forever, the sons of World War One quickly became part of an amorphous throng of fallen soldiers, mourned by legions of parents. Mansfield's unnamed protagonist is thus a composite representation of an army of bereaved parents.