“The Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf and “The Death of a Moth” by Annie Dillard are two personal essays on the same subject, but very different. Virginia Woolf was a pessimistic woman, very serious and admired the simplicity of life, while Annie Dillard is an independent woman, curious about life and who finds it humorous. Life and death are perceived differently by these two authors; Woolf believes that death trumps life and Dillard believes that death is not the final stage of the cycle of life. It is clearly shown in Virginia Woolf's essay that she was struggling between life and death during this time. Woolf makes us feel the death of a specific butterfly, which leaves readers respecting the power of death. In Woolf's essay, the butterfly was trying to get through the window screen, but couldn't because the window was closed. This insignificant creature has created a battle with itself, struggling to fly through the glass and start a new life. In Woolf's eyes, the butterfly did not let the glass separate itself from its purpose, to manipulate its life. Virginia Woolf felt “a strange feeling of pity for him” and tried to help the butterfly. But Woolf withdraws because helping her would take away the most important part of the butterfly's life; the beauty of his struggle towards success. Annie Dillard's "The Death of a Moth" was not based on a particular moth; it was generally oriented towards loss and gain in life; receive benefits even after death. Dillard compares human life to animal life; perhaps she saw herself as the moth in the glowing fire. Ironically, when she caught moths flying into a candle, Dillard was reading James Ullman's The Day on Fire, which inspired her to write again. Each moth has flown to the middle of paper......and continues to burn, continuing its life's work and purpose a little longer. It seems like Dillard is trying to express that no matter how lonely an insect or person is, everything has light and it doesn't necessarily end in death. Since life and death are two things that can be approached in different ways; both authors chose a similar story. But the plot of each creature's death was explored differently; Woolf pointed out that death is inevitable because death is much more powerful than life and Dillard says that death is beautiful because we create a lasting impression after we die. Woolf and Dillard clearly and specifically described the life and death of a moth, which is usually simple and unimportant to a human. Despite the similar theme, tone and style, each author skillfully contributed different thoughts on the unstoppable power of death..