Motif in The Fly

The story ends with a final, ironic reference to memory. Just as Woodifield had forgotten what he had intended to tell the boss about their sons’ graves in Belgium, the boss has now forgotten about the death of his son, which he had been thinking about moments earlier.

Memory is a motif in the story; a motif is an idea, image, or other element that recurs throughout the text and has symbolic significance in developing a theme or central idea in the story.