How Do Mr. Woodifield And The Boss Mourn Their Sons’ Deaths Differently?

The Boss And Mr.Woodifield Mourn Their Sons' Death Differently

Let Us Analyse The Characters Of The Boss and Mr. Woodifield



The Fly opens in the cosy office-chamber of the Boss. Mr. Woodifield has come to visit the Boss, his old friend. As their conversations start, Mansfield, throiugh her deft use of parallelism and contrast, shows us how the two characters are so similar in their experiences, yet so different in their reaction to their experiences.

Many are the similarities between the Boss and Woodifield. Both of them have arrived in the twilight of their lives. While Woodifield has already suffered a stroke, the boss who is five years older to him is still going strong and is at the helm of his business. Both of them faced the painful experience of losing their sons in actions in Belgian front and now their sons lay buried in the same cemetery. Above all, Woodifield and the Boss are good friends- so much so that every Tuesday Woodifield comes out of the strict strict supervision of his wife and daughters only to visit the boss.

Thus, superficially, the Boss and Woodifield appear quite similar to each other. However, the dissimilarities between them are not so insignificant, rather the differences outshine their similarities. These differences are shown poignantly by the writer by her masterstrokes full of hints and suggestions...

Woodifield is five years junior to the Boss, yet he has become senile. He has arrived in his ‘second childhood’ - “he peered out of the great leather arm-chair by his friend, the boss’s desk as a baby peers out of its pram”. Mr Woodifield now spends his days under the petticoat government. He is brushed and dressed to go out not unlike a child. Physicaly, the boss is exact opposite of the boss who is still much agile. The Boss’s entrpreneur skills have not diminished. While Woodifield is not allowed to touch whisky at home, the Boss owns vintage whiskey. Every sugggestive use of words clearly brings out the contrast. Naturally enough their mutual relationship is one of envy and admiration mixed with pity and kindness. Mr Woodifield admires the Boss’s ability in affairs and speaks in praise for his comfortable chamber when the boss is most pleased to see himself in his rolling chair admired by his old friend. His friendly exhortation to disregard women’s opinion regarding drinking is also a gesture of genuine feeling for him and his concerns are highly expressive as he ponders that Mr Woddifield is already in his last pins.

Mr Woodifield has become amnesiac. He initially fails to remember what he wanted to tell the boss. And when he finally remembers, we see how senility desensitizes man. He starts telling the boss about his daughters’ visit the grave of the son of the old man at Belgium. Senility and the passage of time have sucked all the sadness out of the old man’s heart. Instead of having an emotionally heavy mind, he describes how beautifully the graves are kept. He even talks about the petty incident of the hotel charging more. The boss, however, is altogether different from Woodifield. From the very beginning how he struggles emotionally in the aftermath of his son’s death. While he boasted about his chamber and the assets he has, he deliberately avoid drawing Woodifield’s attention to the photograph of his son. And now when Woodifield mentions about his son, the Boss can only speak in monosyllables. The very reference to Belgium and the graveyard opens before his eyes, the vision of his son in spotless uniform laid to final rest. He says he did not have time to visit the grave. After the mention of his son, the boss becomes inattentive- not a single word of Woodifield thereafter enters his ears. Everything thus shows the bopss as keenly sensitive and old age cannot dull hs feelings, memory and sense of right and wrong.

At the end part of the story when Woodifiled leaves, we see the boss all alone in a brooding meditative mood. He must search for a meaning of life after his son’s death and this he does while experimenting with the fly to know whether struggle to survive pays at all. That search is for meaning is futile and the boss has a blankness before him to encounter. No longer we hear the firm heavy steps over the red carpet, rather it shuffles and he plums down on the chair trying to remember what he has been thinking before. Does this picture not remind us of Mr. Woodifield with beads of sweat on his forehead desperately trying to remember what he has cherished all morning to tell his friend?

Sculpture of Katherine Mansfield In Germany

In Loving Memory Of S.B sir, Vivekananda College, Kolkata

-- Marifur Rahaman                         

https://facebook.com/rahaman123

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https://rahamanwrites.blogspot.com/2019/12/content-writing-tips.html

Sources:

Notes of Sir Shubhashish Bhattacharya, Professor, Vivekananda College  

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