Kew Gardens

Study Guide by Course Hero

ABOUT THE TITLE

What's Inside "Kew Gardens" is the name of the location where the short
story is set. The story dips into the thoughts of various patrons
as they pass through the gardens in London.
j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1

d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1

a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 2 d In Context

h Characters .................................................................................................. 4

k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 6 Literary Modernism

c Plot Analysis ............................................................................................... 7 Although modernism truly took hold after World War I
(1914–18), the movement began in the late 19th century. Early
g Quotes ......................................................................................................... 13
modernism also coincided with—and was heavily influenced
l Symbols ...................................................................................................... 14 by—advancements in technology and science as well as
breakthroughs in psychology and philosophy. Inspired by all
m Themes ........................................................................................................ 15 these new ideas, artists, writers, musicians, and architects
experimented with form and structure. Characterized by a
departure from traditional forms and ideas in favor of
experimental structures, such as nonlinear, nonnarrative, and
j Book Basics fragmented stories and art, literary modernism was a response
to the rigidity of Victorian values and expectations. Painters
AUTHOR such as Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) shunned
Virginia Woolf realism in favor of the fragmented perspectives of cubism.
Some composers, including Russian-born Igor Stravinsky
YEAR PUBLISHED (1882–1971), experimented similarly with tonality.
1919
Writers Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), James Joyce (1882–1941),
GENRE D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930), and T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) are
Fiction among the big literary names attached to the literary
modernism movement and are noted for their pioneering use
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR
of modernism's tones and forms. Woolf was one of the first to
"Kew Gardens" is narrated in the third person from the point of
utilize stream-of-consciousness narration in many of her
view of an unnamed, omniscient narrator. The narration jumps
stories, a technique that conveys a character's fragmented,
from unrelated person to person as they pass through Kew
unfiltered thoughts. Woolf also became known for her complex
Gardens.
portrayal of the interplay between memory and reality—how
TENSE one's past affects one's present. In all of her works, Woolf
"Kew Gardens" is narrated in the past tense. experiments with narration and style, allowing her to explore
Kew Gardens Study Guide
the blend of past and present through her characters'
emotions, memories, and impressions.
In "Kew Gardens," modernism is evidenced by the unusual
structure, which lacks a traditional plot and includes
fragmented scenes and dialogue. Woolf hints at advancements
in technology and science with her imagery of ceaselessly
churning wheels and the never-ending drone of omnibuses. In
very short scenes, Woolf manages to convey complex
psychologies, such as women struggling with gender
expectations and an old man seemingly dealing with shell
shock (post-traumatic stress disorder) and horrific wartime
grief.
Impressionism in Writing
Impressionism is a highly personal form of writing. An
impressionist author presents events, moods, scenes, and
characters as they appear from a particular vantage point at a
specific moment in time. The details might not be exact, but
that isn't the purpose of the writing. Instead, the author tries to
convey the impact of the subject on the observer, who
describes it from their point of view. Feelings and impressions
are more important than concrete details.
The term impressionism is borrowed from a style of painting
that evolved in the late 19th century. Its practitioners, such as
French painters Claude Monet (1840–1926), Edgar Degas
(1834–1917), and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), departed
from the more realistic approach of their predecessors. To
these artists it was more important to capture the impressions
an object made on them—the effect or impact it had on how
they felt—than the exact appearance of the object itself.
Writers built on this idea. They believed that the personal
moods, attitudes, and perceptions of the author or the
character were just as important as descriptive details.
In "Kew Gardens" Woolf honors both literary and painting
impressionism. In the opening and closing scenes, Woolf's
descriptions conjure images of a physical painting. She
describes the flower bed at a distance, the "hundred stalks
spreading into heart-shaped or tongue-shaped leaves," before
zooming closer as if walking closer to a painting on the wall.
She describes the colors of the flower petals—"red, blue or
yellow ... voluminous enough to be stirred by the summer
breeze"—and then a single water droplet on a single petal: "A
raindrop ... expanded with such intensity ... that one expected
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Author Biography 2
[it] to burst and disappear." Through her unusual, fractured
dialogue—consider the clipped conversation of the two old
women, for example—and her emphasis on the inner thoughts
of characters such as Simon and Trissie, Woolf establishes
"Kew Gardens" as a prime example of literary impressionism.
Kew Gardens and "Kew
Gardens"
Kew Gardens is a real botanical garden in southwest London,
England. The gardens began at Kew Park, a private estate
inherited by Henry Capel, Baron Capel of Tewkesbury
(1638–96) in 1659. Subsequent aristocrats, including Princess
Augusta (1719–72) and her son, King George III (1738–1820),
enriched the private garden, which was merged with additional
lands before it was eventually adopted as a public botanical
garden in 1840. Currently, Kew Gardens is a 121-hectare
(roughly 300 acres) public garden and United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
World Heritage Site.
When Woolf wrote her story "Kew Gardens," she could view
the gardens from the top floor of her London home, Hogarth
House in Richmond. She published the first edition of her story
through Hogarth Press, which she ran with her husband,
Leonard Woolf (1880–1969). Woolf's sister, the painter
Vanessa Bell (1879–1961), illustrated the first edition. The story
was originally published in pamphlet format, including two of
Bell's wooden dye cuts and a colorfully marbled cardboard
cover. Subsequent editions included further illustrations by
Bell, including borders around the printed words and illustrated
scenes framing each page.
a Author Biography
Early Life and Education
Virginia Woolf, christened Adeline Virginia Stephen, was born
January 25, 1882. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904),
was a prominent historian, author, and mountaineer. Her
mother, Julia Prinsep Stephen (1846–95), was also a published
author in her field of self-taught expertise: nursing. Woolf's
Kew Gardens Study Guide
childhood home was a bustling place that included her three
biological siblings and four half-siblings. While their brothers
went to school, Virginia and her sisters were educated at
home. Woolf's writing career had an early start—at age nine
she began writing Hyde Park Gate News, a newspaper
chronicling family events. Publication of the cheeky articles
stopped upon her mother's death in 1895, an event that sent
Woolf into her first of many depressions. She had her first
mental breakdown three months after her mother's death. Her
father's death in 1904 triggered another major mental
breakdown.
After Woolf recovered, she and her three biological siblings
moved into their own house in the Bloomsbury section of
London, where they continued their studies and honed their art
and writing. The residence became a magnet for radical artists,
writers, and thinkers, including the British novelist E.M. Forster
(1879–1970) and the British economist John Maynard Keynes
(1883–1946). The Bloomsbury Group, as they dubbed
themselves, questioned ideas commonly accepted by society
in search of what is good and true. Woolf herself questioned
popular literature of the era with her first novel, Melymbrosia,
which aimed to explore aspects of life omitted from traditional
Victorian novels. It was finally rewritten and published in 1915
as The Voyage Out.
Marriage and Writing Success
Woolf married the British writer Leonard Woolf (1880–1969) in
1912. Five years later, the pair established a home-based
publishing house called Hogarth Press, named after their
home, Hogarth House, which was located in Richmond, a
suburb of London. From the house, there was a view of
London's Kew Gardens. A major goal of their endeavor was to
publish experimental, modernist works that would typically not
be picked up by commercial publishers. Together they
published their own writings, including Woolf's "Kew Gardens"
(1919), as well as works by the British author Katherine
Mansfield (1888–1923), American English author T.S. Eliot
(1888–1965), and the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis,
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939).
In between bouts of manic depression, Woolf continued writing
literary reviews, novels, and essays. Among the most famous
are Jacob's Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the
Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928), and A Room of One's Own
(1929). Her 1931 novel The Waves, also very popular, is
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Author Biography 3
considered to be Woolf's most experimental piece of writing. In
her diary, Woolf described the novel as a "play-poem." It
employs a stream-of-consciousness narrative (free flow of
uninterrupted thought) told entirely in soliloquies. Other major
works that followed The Waves were her essay Three Guineas
(1938) and the novel Between the Acts (1941).
By 1940 Woolf was spiraling deeper into depression. During
this time World War II (1939–45) was raging, and fear grew all
over Europe of German occupation. On the night of September
7, 1940, the Germans began bombing London. The event would
become a raid lasting until May of 1941, historically known as
the Blitz (1940–41). As a result of the bombings, the Woolfs'
home at Mecklenburg Square, where they had moved from
Tavistock in 1939, was destroyed. Woolf and her husband
Leonard, who was Jewish, had a death pact and had saved
enough gas for asphyxiating themselves in their car should the
Nazis win. In the case she was caught alone, Woolf also carried
morphine. All the while, Woolf drafted what would be her last
novel, Between the Acts, published after her death in 1941.
Death and Legacy
Woolf's literary success did little to suppress the depression
she had struggled with her entire life. Fearing another mental
breakdown, Woolf committed suicide by drowning on March
28, 1941. In her suicide note, a farewell letter to Leonard, Woolf
affirms her love for him and emphasizes that she decided to
die because she recognized that she would not recover from
another breakdown. Woolf's ashes were scattered beneath a
pair of elm trees on the couple's property at Monk's House in
Rodmell, East Sussex. A stone was also placed, engraved with
the last lines of The Waves: "Against you I will fling myself,
unvanquished and unyielding, O Death! The waves broke on
the shore."
Woolf's novels are important works of modernist literature.
Hogarth Press has continued operation, existing as an imprint
of The Crown Publishing Group. Woolf's essays exude a
powerful voice for political and social justice. Moreover, Woolf
is considered the foremother of second-wave feminism, the
resurgence of activism on behalf of women's issues in the
1960s and 1970s. Her dedication to the improvement of
women's lives, particularly their education; her concern for the
working class; and her fierce anti-war and anti-patriarchal
activism inspired the late-century feminist activism that
continued and expanded the demands for women's rights.
Kew Gardens Study Guide Characters 4

Central to contemporary feminism are Woolf's major nonfiction

polemics (harsh criticisms), A Room of One's Own (1929) and
Three Guineas (1938).

h Characters

The snail
The narrator returns repeatedly from their observations of
people to comment on the snail's struggle to move through the
dirt of the flower bed. The snail painstakingly considers how to
maneuver around a leaf and ultimately decides to go under it.
The snail reflects the slow pace of Virginia Woolf's storytelling
in "Kew Gardens."

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Kew Gardens Study Guide Characters 5

Character Map

Eleanor
Romantic woman and
mother; remembers a kiss
Spouses

The young man Simon

Awkward, Thoughtful man;
inexperienced youth haunted by memories
Passes by

Passes by

Passes by
Lovers Former
flame

The snail
Ordinary garden snail;
Passes by
overcomes a hurdle

Lily
Trissie
Irritated, impatient
Excited young woman
young lady

Passes by
Passes by

The old man William

Shell-shocked veteran Caregiver Patient young man

Main Character

Other Major Character

Minor Character

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Kew Gardens Study Guide
Full Character List
Character Description
Serving as a narrative touchstone
throughout the story, the snail crawls
laboriously through the garden while
The snail
people pass through at a leisurely pace
on a hot summer day. The snail is
referred to as both "it" and "he."
Caroline is the daughter of Eleanor and
Caroline
Simon.
Eleanor is married to Simon. While
walking through Kew Gardens with her
Eleanor
family, Eleanor remembers being kissed
on the back of the neck as a young girl.
The friend of the ponderous woman is
very talkative. She keeps talking long
Friend
after the ponderous woman is no longer
listening.
Hubert Hubert is the son of Eleanor and Simon.
Lily is the woman Simon might have
Lily married 15 years earlier, but she
rejected him.
The old man suffers from post-​traumatic
stress disorder. It affects him both
The old man physically, with jerky movements, and
mentally. He believes he has a
connection to the spiritual world.
The The ponderous woman is an elderly
ponderous woman from the lower middle class,
woman visiting the gardens with a friend.
Simon is married to Eleanor but
preoccupied with thoughts of Lily, the
Simon
woman he might have married if she had
accepted his proposal 15 years earlier.
Trissie is a young woman on a date at
the gardens. She's filled with memories
Trissie and longs to look at the flowers but
allows herself to be drawn across the
lawn to tea.
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Plot Summary 6
William is the younger man charged with
caring for the old man. He treats the
William man with professional patience, listens
to his stories, and prevents him from
making a scene in the gardens.
When the old man sees the woman in
black in the distance, he tries to rush to
Woman in
her, but his companion, William, diverts
black
the old man by drawing his attention to a
flower.
The young man is on a date with Trissie.
The young
At the gardens, he's awkward and
man
nervous, eager to sit down to tea.
k Plot Summary
The Gardens
"Kew Gardens" opens with an intricate description of a flower
bed in Kew Gardens at the Royal Botanical Gardens near
London. The unnamed narrator describes a bouquet of a
hundred red, blue, and yellow flowers stirring in the summer
breeze. The narrator notes how the sunlight passes through
the flowers, swaying "one over the other, staining an inch of
the brown earth beneath with a spot of the most intricate
color." The colorful lights reflect onto the shell of a snail and
water droplets, filling them with "such intensity of red, blue and
yellow" that the narrator expects them to "burst and
disappear." When the breeze blows again, the color flashes
into the eyes of the patrons visiting the garden that July day.
Visitors straggle past the flower bed with the same "curiously
irregular movement" as butterflies zigzagging between the
blooms.
The Married Couple
The first couple the narrator singles out from the moving
crowd is a married couple named Simon and Eleanor, visiting
the gardens with their children, Caroline and Hubert. Simon
walks in front of his wife, thinking about how he visited the
gardens 15 years earlier with Lily, the woman he originally
intended to marry. He remembers desperately proposing
Kew Gardens Study Guide
marriage, unable to take his eyes off the silver buckle on Lily's
shoe, which "moved impatiently." He compares his love to a
dragonfly, unable to find anywhere to settle. Now, he feels
content that Lily rejected him, or else he wouldn't have Eleanor
and the children. He asks Eleanor whether she's upset that
he's thinking about Lily. Eleanor says she doesn't mind and
compares one's past to "ghosts lying under the trees." Eleanor
herself recalls being kissed on the back of her neck by "an old
gray-haired woman" while Eleanor was painting water lilies as a
child. She calls it "the mother of all my kisses all my life." As the
family disappears into the trees and shade, the narrator
focuses on a snail in the flower bed's soil. The snail "labor[s]
over the crumbs of loose earth" as it attempts to crawl straight
forward, a method that differs from the "high stepping angular
green insect" that trembles and leaps in another direction.
The Two Men
Two men converse in the garden. The younger man wears an
expression of "unnatural calm." The older man walks with an
unnatural, jerky gait. He talks to himself incessantly, smiling
occasionally and continuing a conversation with himself. The
old man rambles about spirits that, according to him, tell him
about their experiences in Heaven. He tells the younger man,
William, that because of the war, "the spirit matter is rolling
between the hills like thunder." The old man talks animatedly
about the machine he is designing for a widow to summon a
spirit. Seeing a woman in black in the distance, the old man
rushes toward her, but William gently stops him by diverting his
attention to a flower. The old man bends his ear to the flower
and begins talking to it about the forests of Uruguay.
The Two Women
Two women "of the lower middle class" watch the old man at a
distance, wondering whether his strange behaviors are simple
eccentricities or signs of a "disordered brain." After a while, the
women return to their "complicated dialogue," which lists the
names of people and groceries: "sugar, flour, kippers, greens, /
sugar, sugar, sugar." The ponderous woman stops listening to
her friend's prattling and stares at the flowers, seeing them as
if for the first time. Then she suggests they find a seat to have
their tea. Meanwhile, the snail considers how to crawl past a
large leaf in its path. Finally, he decides to creep beneath it. As
he sticks his head under the leaf, a young couple comes into
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Plot Analysis 7
view.
The Young Couple
The young man says he's glad it isn't Friday and they don't
have to pay the garden's sixpence entry fee. The young
woman, Trissie, comments that sixpence isn't very much
money and the gardens would be worth it. The couple stands
together, pressing Trissie's parasol into the soft earth, the
young man's hand lying atop hers. In that moment, the narrator
notes that the young couple is "inexperienced" and "awkward."
As Trissie talks, the young man feels something loom up
"behind her words, and [stand] vast and solid behind them." He
feels the shilling coin in his pocket, reassuring himself that it's
real, and then pulls Trissie away to buy some tea. Trissie allows
herself to be "drawn on down the grass path, trailing her
parasol" behind her. As she walks, she remembers "orchids
and cranes among wild flowers, a Chinese pagoda and a
crimson crested bird," but the young man pulls her on.
Late Afternoon
It grows so hot in the afternoon sun that the flower bed is
enveloped in "layer after layer of green blue vapor." To the
narrator, it feels as if "all gross and heavy bodies [have] sunk
down in the heat" to lie motionless and "huddled upon the
ground." The voices of the garden visitors rise like "flames
lolling from the thick waxen bodies of candles." All around the
garden, sounds of "motor omnibuses ... turning their wheels
and changing their gear" drown out the "voices ... Wordless
voices." The narrator compares the scene to Chinese nesting
boxes with the voices of the visitors, the mechanical city
sounds, and the "myriads of flowers flash[ing] their colors into
the air."
c Plot Analysis
Form and Shape
From the story's opening lines, the inspiration of impressionist
painting can be seen in Virginia Woolf's intricate details of the
gardens. The narrator describes the flower bed from a
Kew Gardens Study Guide
distance as if observing it in a painting: "There rose perhaps a
hundred stalks spreading into heart-shaped or tongue-shaped
leaves." Then, as if walking closer to inspect the painting, the
perspective zooms in to describe the petals stirring in the
summer breeze: "When they moved, the red, blue and yellow
lights passed one over the other." Then the narration moves
even closer still to describe the colors in a single water droplet
clinging to a single petal, which "expanded with such intensity
... one expected them to burst and disappear." This zooming
effect happens in each scene involving the four couples
walking past the flower bed. The reader sees each pair from a
distance and then zooms closer and closer to their inner
thoughts and intimacies. The reader learns of the secret
longings of the married couple, the mental distress of the old
man and his companion, the contemplations of the ponderous
woman, and the anxieties of the young couple. At a distance,
each visitor to the garden appears nondescript, but through
the narrator's gaze, they become remarkable, just like the
flowers in the flower bed. Woolf elevates the simple snail in
much the same way. A completely ordinary snail completing
the ordinary task of crawling through dirt becomes remarkable
by zooming in and studying the creature's struggle around the
leaf.
"Kew Gardens" was originally published as a pamphlet, and
Woolf appears to mirror this format in her story. She includes
four pairs of people: a married pair, two men, two women, and
a young pair on a date. The "outer" two, couples one and four,
mirror each other. They are both romantic male/female
couples. The first is married with children and seemingly
unhappy. The fourth is young and on an awkward early date.
The "inner" two couples, couples two and three, also mirror and
contrast each other. Both are platonic and same-sex. Couple
two, two men, inhabit the same space but don't communicate.
The same dynamic exists for couple three, two women who
stop listening to each other as one loses herself in thought.
Within each scene, Woolf contrasts gender binaries (Trissie
and her suitor), romantic and platonic relationships, homo- and
heterosexual longing (Eleanor and Simon), sanity and madness
(William and his charge), and multiple other interpretations of
the different ways relationships stack into the "vast nest of
Chinese boxes" that amount to finding patterns amid life's
chaos. By elevating small moments of life ceaselessly "turning
[its] wheels and changing [its] gears," Woolf reaches her aim
of showing her characters to be voices crying "aloud ... the
petals of myriads of flowers flash[ing] their colors into the air."
By the end of the story, Woolf likens the associations between
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Plot Analysis 8
human beings to the fleeting, beautiful flowers arranged for a
time in a garden.
Interruption and the War
"Kew Gardens" doesn't have a traditional plot structure. There
is no cause-and-effect progression of events. Instead, scenes
are tied loosely together through the setting. Each scene lasts
only a few moments, not even an entire conversation, before
the narration is interrupted and perspective changes. The
behavior of the insects mirrors this constant interruption—the
butterflies that "zig-zag" in flight "from bed to bed" and the
green insect that steps off "rapidly and strangely in the
opposite direction." Like the flittering butterflies, each
character's thoughts zigzag in and out of the present moment,
interrupting reality. Simon and Eleanor, for example, mentally
leave the present moment to reflect on the "ghosts" of their
pasts. The old man's reality is interrupted by the wartime
trauma that is "rolling between the hills" of his mind "like
thunder." The interruption also manifests physically in his jerky,
abrupt movements. The romance of Trissie and the young
man's date is interrupted by intruding gender expectations in
which the young man feels a strong desire to show authority
while Trissie allows herself to be pulled away to the tearoom
despite wanting to explore the gardens. The conversation
between the old women is interrupted by the old man's odd
behaviors and also by the ponderous woman's inner thoughts
as she ceases to "even to pretend to listen to what the other
woman [is] saying." Interruption also manifests in their
conversation, which lacks complete sentences or ideas: "My
Bert, Sis, Bill, Grandad, the old man, sugar."
Beneath the surface of the tranquil garden scene is the
backdrop of World War I, which is only referenced directly
once. "With this war," the old man says, "the spirit matter is
rolling between the hills like thunder." War is an interruption of
normal life just as thunder is an interruption of silence.
Suddenly, families are fractured, wives become widows, and
even tiny details like shopping lists must change in
accommodation. The old women list sugar—an ingredient that
would have been rationed during the war—five times in their
scene, reminding the reader of its scarcity. At the end of the
story, the peaceful garden scene is interrupted with "the drone
of the aeroplane," further conjuring wartime images. From
above, the visitors look like "gross and heavy bodies ... sunk
down in the heat." The description sounds very much like
Kew Gardens Study Guide Plot Analysis 9

corpses "motionless and ... huddled upon the ground." do you mean by 'it'?" the young man asks. "O, anything—I
mean—you know what I mean."

Disconnect and Silence

Thematically, all four couples are tied together through their
utter lack of communication. Simon and Eleanor can barely
communicate because of the physical distance between
them—Simon "kept this distance ... purposely ... for he wished
to go on with his thoughts"—and because Eleanor is distracted
by taking care of the children, "turning her head now and then
to see that the children were not too far behind." Individually,
each character of the couple thinks about private passions
that do not include their spouse. Simon thinks of Lily, the
woman he might have married, and Eleanor thinks of the gray-
haired woman who gave her "the mother of all my kisses all my
life." When they try to connect, they cannot. Simon's comment
about Lily offends Eleanor, forcing Simon to ask, "Why are you
silent? Do you mind my thinking of the past?" Feigning
contentment, or perhaps passive-aggressively, Eleanor
answers, "Why should I mind?" The married couple speaks to
each other without clarity, using questions rather than
statements, leaving emotion and intent up to interpretation.

The two men in the following scene are completely

disconnected. William remains entirely silent while the old man
talks "almost incessantly." The men have no shared
communication or experiences. They inhabit alternate
realities—even the present moment is fractured. William points
to a flower, for example, and the old man thinks it is a
communication portal. It is worth noting that the old man
obsesses over communication—widows being able to
communicate with the souls of their dead husbands, which
itself is a form of disconnect—while William spends the entire
scene not communicating. He listens to the old man's
ramblings with "an expression of ... unnatural calm." Sometimes
he opens his lips as if to answer "after a long pause and
sometimes [does] not open them at all."

Literary critic Hana Leaper divides the silences in "Kew

Gardens" into three categories: 1) the unsaid: fully formed
thoughts that are suppressed; 2) the unspoken: thoughts that
have not yet been fully formed; and 3) the unsayable: thoughts
for which there are no words. Before each of these silences,
characters misunderstand, interrupt, or ignore each other, such
as when Simon asks his wife, "Well, why are you silent?"; when
William considers the old man "after a long pause"; and when
the young couple struggles to reach common ground: "What

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Kew Gardens Study Guide Plot Analysis 10

Plot Diagram

Climax

7
Falling Action
6
Rising Action
5 8

4
9
3
Resolution
2
1

Introduction

7. The snail decides to go under the leaf.

Introduction

1. Flowers' reflections light up the flower bed floor.

Falling Action

8. Two lovers pause to talk.

Rising Action

2. A family of four walks by.

Resolution
3. The snail crawls toward its goal.
9. The scene zooms out, and the garden is seen from far away.
4. The snail reaches a leaf.

5. Two men walk by.

6. Two women walk by.

Climax

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Kew Gardens Study Guide Plot Analysis 11

Timeline of Events

One afternoon

Light strikes the flower bed, and the flower petals' colors
reflect on a snail shell and dew drops.

Soon after

Simon and Eleanor pass by and discuss the memories of

lost love that haunt each.

Immediately following

A green insect attempts to pass in front of the snail but

darts away in a different direction.

Seconds later

The snail pauses, needing to decide whether to go under

or over a crackly leaf in its path.

A moment later

William listens patiently and then distracts the old man

from rushing up to the woman in black.

Right after

The ponderous woman and her friend walk by engaged

in a "complicated dialogue."

A short while later

After considering every possible way to reach its goal,

the snail decides to go under the leaf.

A short while later

The young man and Trissie pause by the flower bed to

talk and then leave to have some tea.

A little later

Butterflies dance in the air, light reflects off the

greenhouse, and an airplane is heard.

Immediately following

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Kew Gardens Study Guide Plot Analysis 12

The garden's colors seem to flash in the green-blue

atmosphere while people's voices waver by.

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Kew Gardens Study Guide Quotes 13

The snail is the only creature living entirely in the moment. It

g Quotes focuses on the task in front of it, nothing else, unlike the rest of
the insects that flit here and there.

"These men and women straggled

past ... with a curiously irregular "With this war, the spirit matter is
movement." rolling between the hills like
thunder."
— Narrator

— The old man

The narrator describes the garden visitors in the same way
they describe the insects, flitting around without direction. This
This quote is the story's only reference to World War I. This line
description contrasts sharply with the snail that crawls forward
reminds readers of the young men whose lives were
determinedly.
interrupted by death and who now live as memories, or ghosts,
like the rest of the characters' happy memories.

"The man kept this distance ...

purposely ... for he wished to go on "Sugar, flour, kippers, greens, /
with his thoughts." sugar, sugar, sugar."

— Narrator — Friend

The disconnection between Simon and his wife, Eleanor, The old women mention sugar five times in their short
manifests in their thoughts, their conversation, and the physical conversation. Sugar was rationed during the war, and its
distance between them. repetition here reminds readers of its importance in normal
domestic life.

"Doesn't one always think of the

"[She] ceased even to pretend to
past, in a garden?"
listen to what the other woman
— Eleanor was saying."

This line highlights how each character inhabits two — Narrator

realities—the present moment in the garden and their isolated,
individual pasts—simultaneously.
"It appeared to have a definite goal
Looking at the flowers, the ponderous woman becomes
completely disconnected from her friend. She inhabits her own
reality—a moment where she's completely alone, seeing the
world for the first time, like a sleeper waking from a dream.

in front of it."

— Narrator
"O—anything—I mean—you know

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Kew Gardens Study Guide
what I mean."
— Trissie
Trissie's stuttering response to the young man's question
highlights how disconnected the young couple's
communication is. Because they're so young and
inexperienced, they aren't even sure what they want to say to
each other.
"[She let] herself be drawn on
down the grass path ... forgetting
her tea."
— Narrator
Trissie allows herself to be pulled from her private thoughts
and desires. She doesn't really care about drinking tea, but she
follows gender expectations and allows her date to take the
lead.
"Like a vast nest of Chinese boxes
... turning ceaselessly one within
another."
— Narrator
This closing image reminds readers that time is always pushing
forward. Although it feels busy and bustling, chaos silences
and isolates the individuals who must shout over the din with
"wordless voices."
l Symbols
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Symbols 14
The Snail
The snail symbolizes isolation in a busy world. Throughout the
story, the narrator pulls the reader's attention to the snail
crawling determinedly through the dirt. It has a mission—to get
from here to there—and isn't stopped by the large brown leaf
or the other insects buzzing around. In the same way, life plods
forward for each person. Each person has their own obstacles
to traverse, like the snail with the leaf. Although someone may
be surrounded by others, as the "high stepping angular green
insect" walks near the snail, life's journey is ultimately an
insular, isolated event. This symbolism becomes clearer when
discussed in relation to the lack of communication between all
four couples that stop near the flower bed. Despite having
companions in the garden, like the snail, each of the visitors is
isolated, lost in their own world.
Trissie's Parasol and the Young
Man's Coin
Trissie's parasol and the young man's coin are symbols of male
dominance in a patriarchal society. On the surface, they
represent gender roles: the parasol is a pretty accessory that
protects Trissie, the "fairer sex," and her youthful beauty from
the harsh sun. The coin is a physical symbol of the young
man's power. He touches it again and again, convincing himself
that it—the coin and the new power of commanding a woman's
attention—is real: he would pay for the tea with "a real two
shilling piece ... it was real, all real, he assured himself." At first,
the couple converses in awkward equality, inexperience
leaving both characters unsure of what to do or say. This
equality is represented by both their hands pushing the parasol
into the soft earth, "his hand rest[ing] on the top of hers."
Toward the end of their scene, when the young man
remembers the power symbolized in his coin, he's eager to
show his dominance. He pulls the parasol "out of the earth with
a jerk and [is] impatient to find ... where one had tea."
Kew Gardens Study Guide Themes 15

feels a barrier between them, representing their disconnect.

m Themes This feeling intensifies when, at the end of the story, Trissie
wants to look at the flowers but allows the young man to pull
her across the yard to drink tea. The snail crawling through the

Isolation and Memory dirt adds another depth to the theme of isolation. Its presence
reminds readers that despite the other beings that flit in and
out of one's life, each person is on their journey alone.

Each of the characters introduced in "Kew Gardens" struggles

to connect with the other characters in their scene, giving the
entire story an overwhelming feeling of isolation. The first Effects of War
couple, Eleanor and Simon, are introduced by pointing out the
distance between them. Simon walks "six inches in front of"
Eleanor because he wishes "to go on with his thoughts."
Virginia Woolf took great interest in the effects of war on
Despite being at the gardens with his wife, he's thinking about
soldiers, particularly shell shock, a term coined after World War
another woman, a woman he might have married. Eleanor, on
I to describe the effects of wartime trauma. By the end of
the other hand, is reminded of "the mother of all [the] kisses all
World War I, the British Army had dealt with over 80,000 cases
[her] life," which did not come from her husband. Rather, it
of shell shock in its returning soldiers. Shell shock presents
came from an older woman, suggesting lesbian eroticism that
differently in each soldier, but common symptoms include
would have certainly been isolating for Eleanor's character.
fatigue, anxiety, tremors, and confusion. For the old man in the
The disharmony between the married couple amplifies in the
story, his apparent shell shock presents as a "curiously uneven
awkward exchange in which Simon admits to thinking about
and shaky method of walking, jerking ... forward and throwing
another woman, clearly offending his wife. Eleanor comments
up his head abruptly." The old man is also confused. He thinks
that a person's memories are like "ghosts lying under the trees"
he can speak with the souls of dead soldiers. He obsesses
of the garden. Her comment highlights the isolation of memory:
over the nation's many widows or women in black, and he
everyone dwells on the past and misses what once made them
speaks to a flower about the forests of Uruguay. Rather than
happy.
showing the man pity, the people around him are embarrassed
by his behavior. The two women are "frankly fascinated by any
The rest of the story's characters are equally isolated. The old
signs of eccentricity betokening a disordered brain" and
man is lost in the unnamed ailment (seemingly shell shock) that
scrutinize the man's behaviors. Similarly, William treats the old
affects his lucidity. Lost in his own reality, the old man believes
man with "unnatural calm," yet he never speaks to or touches
he can commune with the spirits of dead soldiers. His
him. These interactions reflect society's view of mental health
caretaker, William, is completely isolated because he can't
in the early 19th century, when sympathy for suffering
have a meaningful conversation with his charge. Instead, he
returning soldiers was rare. This harsh treatment further
passes the days with a look of professional patience. Similarly,
fractured families and heightened a growing sense of isolation.
the two older women are lost in their own thoughts, repeating a
list of names and an apparent grocery list as they walk through While the conversation between the two men—or arguably the
the gardens. Although they momentarily connect over their ramblings of the old man—focus on the spiritual or
concern about the old man's unpredictable behavior, they don't psychological effects of war, the chatter between the two
talk about it. In fact, the ponderous woman becomes so women highlights the economic and domestic effects. On the
distracted by her own thoughts that she ceases "even to surface, the woman merely gossip: "He says, I says, she says, I
pretend to listen to what the other woman" is saying. says." Given the story's setting and the old man's reference to
"this war," however, their conversation hints at social
Finally, the young couple struggles to connect on their date.
commentary. Their repetitive listing of sugar, for example,
They disagree about whether the gardens are worth a
reminds readers of its scarcity. During the war, sugar was
sixpence, and what the word it even means. As they talk, the
rationed, making it seemingly as precious in the women's minds
young man feels something looming up "behind [Trissie's]
as their friends and relatives: "My Bert, Sis, Bill, Grandad, the
words" to stand "vast and solid behind them." He physically

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Kew Gardens Study Guide Themes 16

old man, sugar." Their apparent grocery list mentions sugar nothing but their families and food. One woman looks at the
multiple times—"sugar, flour, kippers, greens, / sugar, sugar, flowers with the same clarity as a "sleeper waking from a
sugar"—reinforcing its importance in the women's lives. Woolf heavy sleep," suggesting a dull, domestic life.
removes all context and logic from the women's conversation,
reducing the words to literary chaos. The "complicated
dialogue" makes little sense to the reader, and arguably to the
women themselves, one of whom Woolf describes "as a
sleeper waking from a heavy sleep." The repeated evocation of
sugar hints at its necessity for negating that chaos and
creating calm through domestic duties. The jerky conversation,
meaningless to the reader, mirrors the "irresolute and
pointless" jerky movements of the shell-shocked man, further
underscoring the effects of communication breakdown and
isolation after the war.

Role of Women

None of the women in Woolf's "Kew Gardens" are particularly

happy. Eleanor lags behind her husband, Simon, the only
parent minding their two children: "turning her head now and
then to see that the children were not too far behind." Although
her silence suggests offense at Simon's admission to thinking
about another woman, Eleanor claims not to mind his
wandering mind because "doesn't one always think of the past,
in a garden"? Their scene is brief. Yet, the interaction between
Simon and Eleanor leaves readers with the suspicion that
Eleanor is dutiful to her husband yet unloved, relegated to walk
behind him with the children rather than at his side.
Additionally, Eleanor recalls the shuddering eroticism she felt
after being kissed by an older woman, which suggests a hidden
longing that might be present in her character. The unhappy
dynamic is mirrored in the relationship between Trissie and her
young suitor. Although there are no children to take care of,
the young man feels eager to show his dominance in the
relationship. He decides it's time for tea, which he will pay for,
and pulls Trissie along without questioning her desire: "Come
along, Trissie; it's time we had our tea." Trissie's curiosity
piques in the gardens, and she forgets about the tea, "wishing
to go down there and then down there" to explore, yet she
allows herself to be "drawn on down the grass path." Trissie,
perhaps like Eleanor, suppresses her thoughts and emotions to
meet society's gender expectations and to appease her man.
The two old women further highlight early 20th-century gender
roles. The women, identified by their domestic roles, discuss

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