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Year 9

Reading Katherine Mansfield’s short story, ‘The Fly’ (1922)

I can explain what happens in Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Fly’ including exploring some of its major themes.

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Year 9

Reading Katherine Mansfield’s short story, ‘The Fly’ (1922)

I can explain what happens in Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Fly’ including exploring some of its major themes.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Mansfield (1888-1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic.
  2. Mansfield was part of the modernist movement: she rejected traditional ideas about what literature should look like.
  3. ‘The Fly’ presents two men, both of whom lost their sons in World War One.
  4. ‘The Fly’ (1922) was perhaps inspired by her own experiences of loss in World War One: her brother was killed in 1915.

Keywords

  • Modernism - a literary movement in which writers rejected traditional ideas about what poetry and other forms of literature should look like

  • Universal - applicable to all people regardless of circumstance

  • Experimental - new, innovative, untested

  • Theme - an important idea in a text, often this idea is universal, for example, love

  • Nihilism - the idea that life is meaningless

Common misconception

Mr. Woodifield intentionally tries to upset the boss.

Mr. Woodifield seems unaware that he has upset the boss, and his cruelty in mentioning his son's grave in Belgium is thoughtless rather than deliberately cruel.


To help you plan your year 9 english lesson on: Reading Katherine Mansfield’s short story, ‘The Fly’ (1922), download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Consider how you want to read 'The Fly' with your class. What questions do you want to ask to check for understanding, how will you move between readers and what words will your pupils need quick definitions for?
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Teacher tip
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Equipment

You will need a copy of Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly' which can be found in the additional materials.

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Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
supervision-level

Supervision

Adult supervision required

copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
In 'Literary perspectives from the First World War', the texts you read are written from different perspectives. Match the perspectives to their definitions.
Correct Answer:first person perspective,writing about yourself using pronouns like "I", "me", "mine" and "we"
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writing about yourself using pronouns like "I", "me", "mine" and "we"

Correct Answer:second person perspective,a narrator talks directly to a reader using pronouns like "you"
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a narrator talks directly to a reader using pronouns like "you"

Correct Answer:third person perspective,a narrator tells the story but isn't in it; uses "he", "she", "they"
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a narrator tells the story but isn't in it; uses "he", "she", "they"

Q2.
Here is one of the first lines of 'The Fly' by Katherine Mansfield. "His talk was over; it was time for him to be off." What perspective is the short story written in?
first person
second person
Correct answer: third person
Q3.
All of these words are important to Katherine Mansfield's short story 'The Fly'. Match each word to their definition.
Correct Answer:universal,applicable to all people regardless of circumstance
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applicable to all people regardless of circumstance

Correct Answer:experimental,new, innovative, untested
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new, innovative, untested

Correct Answer:theme,an important idea in a text
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an important idea in a text

Correct Answer:short story,a story that is often designed to be read in one sitting
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a story that is often designed to be read in one sitting

Q4.
Inferring is an important skill when reading any text. What does it mean to infer?
to explain the definitions of individual words
to offer an argument about a particular text
to identify certain methods a writer has used
Correct answer: to make an informed guess
to read a summary of a text
Q5.
Telegrams feature in much of the literature about World War One (Literary perspectives from the First World War). Why were telegrams dreaded by those on the home front?
they were public so anyone could read them
you had to pay to collect them from the post office
they were always written in code and needed to be deciphered
they were shorter than letters
Correct answer: they often brought news of casualty or death
Q6.
In Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly', one of the characters is described as a "broken man". What language technique is being used?
simile
Correct answer: metaphor
alliteration
verb choice
onomatopoeia

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Starting with the first, put these plot points about Katherine Mansfield's short story, 'The Fly' in chronological order.
1 - The boss enjoys Woodifield admiring his office.
2 - The office is described as including a photo of a young man, the boss's son.
3 - Woodifield tells the boss his girls saw the boss's son's grave in Belgium.
4 - The boss reflects on the loss of his son.
5 - The boss sees a fly covered in ink recover itself; he drops ink on it again.
6 - After the boss drops ink on it the third time, the fly dies.
7 - The boss can't remember what he was thinking before the incident with the fly.
Q2.
Katherine Mansfield wrote 'The Fly'. What is true of Katherine Mansfield?
She was British.
She was a nurse during World War One.
Correct answer: Her brother died during World War One.
Correct answer: She was part of the modernist movement.
'The Fly' is her only short story.
Q3.
What is true of the boss in Katherine Mansfield's short story, 'The Fly'?
He envies Mr. Woodifield.
He visits his son's grave in Belgium.
Correct answer: He despairs about a future without his son.
He has retired.
He kills the fly on purpose.
Q4.
What is true of Mr. Woodifield in Katherine Mansfield's short story, 'The Fly'?
He works in the city.
He is older than the boss.
He tries to upset the boss.
Correct answer: He lost his son in the war.
Correct answer: He admires the boss.
Q5.
In Katherine Mansfield's short story, 'The Fly', we are told that, for the boss, " itself had come to have no other meaning" since the loss of his son.
Correct Answer: life
Q6.
In Katherine Mansfield's story, 'The Fly', Mr. Woodifield tells the boss about seeing his son's grave. Mansfield writes "Only a in his eyelids showed that he heard.
Correct Answer: quiver

Additional material

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