a fly on the dead

[Durkin, Andrew R.]

I think that there is also a fly present at the scene of Andrei Bolkonskii's death in War and Peace.  In any case, a fly as a metaphor/metonym of approaching death may have been a nineteenth-century commonplace.   Cf. Emily Dickinson's "I heard a fly buzz when I died."  
 
ARDurkin

 
________________________________

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on behalf of Evelina Mendelevich
Sent: Tue 6/19/2007 7:14 PM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] a fly on the dead



Dear Seelangers,
I had something of a deja vu when I read the following description of
Dignam's corpse in Joyce's Ulysses:
"His face got all grey instead of being red like it was and there was a fly
walking over it up to his eye."

At first I was convinced I have seen a similar description of death in
Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich, but I was wrong. As I am struggling to
recollect were I have seen this fly-Chekhov? Turgenev?-I seem to remember
that the episode I have in mind involves a husband dealing with a wife's
death. of course, I might be wrong again.

Any information (the title of the story/author) will be appreciated.

Thank you in advance,
Evelina Mendelevich

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