30 pages • 1 hour read
Virginia WoolfKew Gardens
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1919A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
The First Pair: Simon and Eleanor
Simon and Eleanor are married with children named Caroline and Hubert. In the garden, Simon’s contemplation of his failed marriage proposal to a girl named Lily represents the theme of Moments of Being. He does not regret this outcome but finds the clarity of his memory remarkable. The prominence of the dragonfly and Lily’s shoe buckle in Simon’s memory demonstrates the significance of the moment to his younger self. Still, he is content. Lily did not accept his proposal, as Simon reflects, “happily not, or I shouldn‘t be walking here with Eleanor and the children” (85). The openness with which Simon shares his remembrance of Lily with Eleanor further indicates his satisfaction with his marriage and family.
Eleanor also demonstrates simultaneous nostalgia and emotional maturity. When Simon asks her if he thinks about the past, she says, “Aren‘t they one‘s past, all that remains of it, those men and women, those ghosts lying under the trees […] one‘s happiness, one‘s reality?” (86). Like Simon, Eleanor does not resent her present life. However, she recognizes the influence of a person’s experiences on their current self. She also relives a moment of being in her memory of an old woman’s kiss. Although not romantic, the moment remains vivid and meaningful: “[I]t was so precious—the kiss of an old grey-haired woman with a wart on her nose, the mother of all my kisses all my life” (86-87). While Simon and Eleanor are initially physically and mentally distant, they reconverge through their common appreciation of the past’s resonance with the present. As the family passes the flowerbed and exits the story, they are unified, “now walking four abreast” (87).
The Second Pair: The Two Men
The older man, while unnamed, is the more thoroughly characterized of the two men. His movement is “shaky,” and he jerks his head about like “an impatient carriage horse tired of waiting outside a house” (88-89). He talks “incessantly” about widows contacting dead spirits in the aftermath of World War I. He also mentions Uruguay “hundreds of years ago” (90), suggesting that he may have been a world traveler in his younger years. This may also be a subtle nod to England’s colonial history. Although Uruguay was never officially a British colony, England was heavily involved in the country’s industrialization in the 19th century, making it entirely possible that the older man worked there. While the old man’s ramblings may be grounded in some truth, his behavior is decidedly erratic. His background is ambiguous, but his grasp on reality is clearly tenuous. His references to the war and spirits, and pursuit of the woman in the purple-black dress suggests that he may have lost a loved one. The old man is the vestige of a former era, a remnant of the 19th century. His role as an outsider suggests that traditional ways of living are becoming outmoded in the 20th century.
The younger of the two men, named William, displays calm and patience as he Interacts with the older man. These characteristics, alongside his intervention in the older man’s pursuit of the woman with the purple-black dress, suggest that William is a caregiver or relative. William seems to be watching over and escorting the older man rather than simply enjoying their walk.
The Third Pair: The Two Women
The third pair consists of two unnamed elderly women, “one stout and ponderous, the other rosy cheeked and nimble” (91). Woolf also identifies them as “lower middle class” (91). While the rest of London is more strictly divided by social class, Kew Gardens serves as an area where people from different strata of society may converge. The resentment of class division is illustrated in the women’s satisfaction with seeing a “well-to-do” gentleman behave inappropriately (91).
The conversation of the women is depicted as shallow and repetitive. However, the ponderous woman illustrates the unexpected nature of Moments of Being as she breaks off from gossiping to silently contemplate the flowers’ colors and shapes. The brief transcendental moment demonstrates how moments of being can occur on seemingly unremarkable occasions.
The Fourth Pair: The Young Couple
The young couple consists of a young woman, Trissie, and her unnamed male companion. They are introduced through dialogue between them regarding the price of tickets to Kew Gardens. This suggests that, along with the two women, the young couple is of a lower social status. When their hands brush while setting up the parasol, the couple is overwhelmed with affectionate feelings. They think of their conversation as “words with short wings for their heavy body of meaning” (94). The meaning they fail to express with speech is innately communicated in the gesture.
Despite this moment of connection, the couple also demonstrates Interpersonal Conflict. The young man imagines taking Trissie for tea and paying for it with “a real two shilling piece” (95). The idea of providing for his girlfriend enthralls the young man as he views buying tea as a symbol of maturity and status. Fixated on the idea, “he pull[s] the parasol out of the earth with a jerk and [is] impatient to find the place where one had tea with other people, like other people” (95). The young man’s focus on “other people” emphasizes his desire to fit into wealthy society. While Trissie wants to appreciate the surrounding beauty, she is pulled away by her insistent male companion, and their moment of connection is broken.
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By Virginia Woolf
