Character of the Boss- The Fly: C.U. English Honours Part-II Notes

Give an estimate of the character of the Boss in Katherine Mansfield short story ‘The Fly’.

Katherine Mansfield’s short story is a classic short story as it belongs to a class in itself. This short story is taken from the collection ‘Dove’s Nest’ and inspired by her dear brother Leslie’s death, it is indeed one of her finest short stories. “The Fly” is the story of person haunted for six years by the death of his son. It is the deception of anguish. Mansfield’s technique in her stories was to make her characters how their thoughts by a kind of mental soliloquy, ‘fluttering, gossipy, breathless with questions and answers’. Moreover like Lawrence she creates an intense atmosphere through suggestive details.

The character of the Boss in the story The Fly is represented through a dialogue, monologue and symbolism. These are the three clear cut sections in the story. The first introduction to boss is to his outside appearance. The second ventures into his mind. The third presents a thoroughly complex character that one has to think over.

The Boss is introduced through a conversion with his friend Woodifield. Woodifield is old, retired, physically weak, and financially not very well off. Boss is presented through the method of contrast. The Boss is stout, rosy, healthy, although five year senior to him, but still going strong and in control of affairs. He has a comfortable office with new carpet, new furniture, electric heating and with all the physical comforts that would give him ‘solid satisfaction’.

The Boss in this story represents the irony of human life. Irony consists in the difference between appearance and reality. The existence of boss is a sort of caricature or parody of the actual reality. In fact his life is a deception with himself. The Boss has been dreaming of building up an empire for his son so that he could step into his shoes. But he is a victim of what Aristotle called “perepetia” or reversal of situation. He hoped that his son would replace him as his successor. But it changed with news of his son being killed in the battlefield. Mr. Woddifield had accepted his son’s death and could talk about it freely. While the boss, before the exit of the Woodifield from his chambers, is for an instance of a tragic father who has been trying hard to forget the bitter memory through material pre-occupation. That is why he is found to be quite complacent, confident and at ease with himself.


The tragedy of the boss’s life is of course a generalization of human existence. It gives an extra dimension to his character i.e. his realization of the futility and fragility of human endeavour. He has been endeavouring for the last six years to forget the memory of his dead son. But a casual remark by Woodifield brings him back to reality. What he has been successful so far has been destroyed by the whims of a moment. The boss surrenders to the inevitability of human fate. He develops a kind of pessimism and nihilism.

The Fly episode projects the Boss as the Caprious God who kills small fly not for sport but for negative pleasure. From this point onwards the Boss starts paralleling the plight of the fly with that of his son. Perhaps his son too had struggled like that on the battlefield.  But the killing of the Fly by the boss is a kind of self killing. The Boss negates possibilities and promises of new life. It is very simplistic to describe the boss as a tragic figure. He minimizes the tragic greatness by resulting to uncontrollable despair and depression. 

The final impression of boss character that emerges at the end of the story is that of insignificance, helplessness and denial of life. The boss thus has the streak of Dostoyevsky’s resignation of death.

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