When the phoenix bursts into flames at the end of the story in front of a paying audience, the fire represents the moral consequences of several types of bad behavior: capitalist greed, imperialist exploitation, and thirst for violent spectacle. Throughout the story, Mr. Poldero tries to exploit the phoenix for profit, caring only for the money he can earn from the bird and not at all for its wellbeing. By the story’s end, he has tortured the bird to hasten the end of its life when it will burst into flames and be reborn from the ashes. Poldero sells tickets to this spectacle, seating an audience and a film crew so that he can maximize his profits. But in the end, the phoenix’s flames are uncontrollable and they kill both Poldero and his audience. Since the phoenix burst into flames as a result of Poldero’s quest for money, the inferno at the end of the story can be seen as a moral consequence for greed. Poldero tried to profit off of the phoenix through gruesome means (torturing the bird and selling tickets to its death), but his greedy actions wound up destroying him.
Likewise, the mass death at the end of the story can also be seen as a consequence for the audience’s thirst for a violent spectacle. After all, each person in attendance eagerly purchased tickets to the phoenix’s death, but few if any of them cared to witness the phoenix’s quietly dignified life. That they’re only interested in witnessing violence comes with a consequence: “some thousand” audience members die in the blaze. And this fire is also a commentary on the British Empire’s incessant colonization of foreign lands, as the phoenix is only in London in the first place because Lord Strawberry traveled to “Arabia,” captured the phoenix, and brought it back to Britain, mirroring the flow of rare and valuable resources from British colonies to the mainland. When the phoenix bursts into flames killing its British tormentor (Poldero), this can be seen as an analog for violent revolution of oppressed colonies once they reach a breaking point.
The Flames Quotes in The Phoenix
“PANSY. Phoenix phoenixissima formossisima arabiana. This rare and fabulous bird is UNIQUE. The World’s Old Bachelor. Has no mate and doesn’t want one. When old, sets fire to itself and emerges miraculously reborn. Specially imported from the East.”
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“Suppose,” continued Mr. Poldero, “we could somehow get him alight? We’d advertise it beforehand, of course, work up interest. Then we’d have a new bird, and a bird with some romance about it, a bird with a life story. We could sell a bird like that.”
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It was not easy to age the phoenix. Its allowance of food was halved, and halved again, but though it grew thinner its eyes were undimmed and its plumage glossy as ever.
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The flames streamed upwards, leaped out on every side. In a minute or two everything was burned to ashes, and some thousand people, including Mr. Poldero, perished in the blaze.
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The Flames Symbol Timeline in The Phoenix
