A READER RESPONSE TO KEW GARDEN OF VIRGINIA WOOLF

Virginia Woolf has never failed to let my mind spin every time I read her work.

Her story, Kew Gardens made me think just like the other stories of her that I had read

the only difference is; this story gave me the drive to read it at least five times in a row

just to understand it.

“Kew Gardens” just like her other stories, focuses in the consciousness of the

characters, revealing the essence and nature of life. The situation is simple but

somewhat complicated to understand for it is composed of other sub stories. The

characters didn’t have direct interaction with each other but every character is very

potent in the story as a whole since they embody different symbolisms.

Literally, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which is also referred to as Kew

Gardens is a very wide garden is found in Southwest London, England. Just like in the

story, Kew Gardens served with different purpose. In the story, there are four groups of

people who passed by the gardens each of them has different stories. Each has his/her

own symbolism of the gardens. For Simon, it reminds him of his past love for Lily- the

girl she didn’t marry. For the old man, who might have health problems, the gardens

served as a sedative. While the women and the couples who are also characters in the

story are not as prominent as the other characters, still without them the story wouldn’t

be the same. As they say, the sum of its parts is greater than the whole.

While the visitors pass through the garden, a snail was also on its journey across

the flower bed at which the four people in the story stop. This snail tried to go over the

pebbles, the flowers and the clump of soil. On the note, this snail might represent each

of the characters’ struggles in life. Also, their visit to the gardens serves as a break from

the outside world.

Going to the historical context makes it easier to understand the story. Before

the story’s publication, the world was dominated by the demands of industrial economy.

With this, the Kew has served different roles for the society. Initially, the story’s garden

seems to promise therapy to the passers but towards the end, instead of becoming a

place for peace, the gardens becomes “so hot that even the thrush chose to hop like a

mechanical bird, in the shadow of the flowers”

As the people went off the garden, the narrator connects the garden to the

machinery of the urban world outside of it. The voices of the children no longer interrupt

the silence but are drowned by the “motor omnibuses…turning their wheels and

changing their gears; like a vast nest of Chinese boxes all wrought steel turning

ceaselessly one with another.” These lines might refer to the time when everyone was

so terrified of the war-World War 1.

In connection with the war or the post war effects rather, is the presence of the

seemingly mad old man in the story. Every war brings trauma. The man here is

searching for “the spirits of the dead” whom he hears “rolling between the hills like

thunder”

“Women. Widows. Women in black!” words coming from the seemingly crazy

man which I think still points out to the effect of war. Many died because of the war,

leaving women grieving due to the lost of their husbands. Also, it connotes the idea of

women being too dependent of males.

Kew Garden then is not just a simple space for any reason in England but a

place full of meaning and historical value. Each perception differs in every person. Just

like in life, some people might have gone through the same journey but nobody does

the same. It depends on how we perceive things that makes a person different from the

others.

Flowers too are present in the Kew Gardens which were described by Woolf as

“heart-shaped”, “tongue-shaped”, “Throat”, “flesh”. Maybe, the flowers can be equated

to humans and the garden as our world. And the voices- our thoughts which make us

unique from another.