The Death of the Moth Is A Lesson In Morality

"But, as I stretched out a pencil, meaning to help him to right himself, it came over me that the failure and awkwardness were the approach of death. I laid the pencil down again."

To me, this was the most profound part of  the piece. Like any candy however, its sweet is neatly wrapped away. 
The pencil is one that is wrapped the most in shrouds. Woolf was given the opportunity to leave her role of observer for one of participant;for one of savior. But she ultimately refused. After realizing the Moth could not "raise himself", Woolf took an object--one most likely the Moth could not identify--that surely could achieve the act of raising the moth. But she refused the aid. She refused the attempt. She exercised her privilege of inaction to satisfy her morbid fascination with life and death. To this end, she was perfectly willing to sacrifice a Moth's life, a life not hers to sacrifice, to entertain her sadism. 

The language of the pencil is intriguing. Introduced as she "stretched out a pencil" and set aside in acceptance when she "laid the pencil down again". Why again? The laying down of the pencil is to accept the eventual fate in lieu of giving up on the present tribulations of the life form. By emphasizing the fact that the pencil had been laid down multiple times thus far, it emphasizes the fact that she has consciously and deliberately made the decision to destroy the physical connection between her life and the waning life of the Moth

But who is Woolf to decide the merits of waning life? What decree had bestowed upon her the right to participate in the game of fates? 

The Moth is the Oppressed my friends. It is me and you, and Woolf is you and me. The lords of our society whose realms are not of our realms first enter our realms through conscious observance. Our financial, emotional and physical realities are entertained by our lords. Then dismissed. We will eventually die they might think. Won't we? Why expend precious energy on those beneath us?

Why stretch out a pencil only to lay it back down again?