Kew Gardens

Since “Kew Gardens” lacks extensive dialogue or characterization, imagery serves as the story’s major storytelling tool. Woolf uses imagery to establish the garden’s lush foliage and wildlife through precise details such as “tongue-shaped leaves” or “[a stem] rough with gold dust” (83). Descriptions such as these make the story tactile and tangible.

Woolf uses imagery in conjunction with stream-of-consciousness narration. In certain instances, this imagery connotes a character’s subjective point of view. For example, When Trissie wishes to stay longer in the garden, she thinks of “orchids and cranes among wild flowers, a Chinese pagoda and a crimson crested bird” (96). The specificity of the imagery expresses Trissie’s desire.

Vivid description is maintained through the different narrative perspectives of the story, such as the refraction of floral colors, the snail’s miniature adventure, and the final shift to a bird’s-eye view. Woolf depicts the layers of Kew Gardens: the human world, the small-scale world of the snail, and the holistic view of the garden from the sky. This imagery expresses the longitudinal diversity of a single environment.

Woolf frequently uses similes and metaphors to construct her imagery. Similes, in particular, are used to develop the theme of The Connection Between Humanity and Nature. For example, in an early passage, garden attendees’ movements are compared to “white and blue butterflies who crossed the turf in zig-zag flights from bed to bed” (84). The comparison establishes the similarities between humans and wildlife.

At the end of the story, Woolf uses another simile to compare humanity with modern technology rather than nature: “like a vast nest of Chinese boxes all of wrought steel turning ceaselessly one within another the city murmured” (97-98). This comparison suggests that humanity has moved on from natural ways of living to technologically dependent ones.

Metaphor is used when the ponderous woman pauses to appreciate the flowers. In this moment of enlightenment and discovery, she is described as “a sleeper waking from a heavy sleep” (92). The experience of the “sleeper” parallels that of the ponderous woman, who is figuratively woken from a moment of non-being into being by the beauty of the natural world. This example of metaphor furthers the theme of The Connection Between Humanity and Nature by showing the intimate connection between the woman and the flowers.

While the story uses third-person narration, the omniscient narrator taps into the interior lives of characters through a stream of consciousness. The story uses stream-of-consciousness narration to relate the thoughts, memories, and desires of its characters.

Stream-of-consciousness narration supplements the story’s setting. Since the story remains in one location, it gives the feeling of overhearing conversations while sitting on a park bench. The narration briefly fixates on one person’s consciousness before smoothly moving on to the next. By employing this narrative style, Woolf—like other Modernist writers—attempts to replicate the experience of moment-to-moment thinking.

“Kew Gardens” not only taps into the consciousness of the characters but also the garden itself. This is most readily displayed in the snail and the flowers. The last lines of the story also shift perspective to that of the sky. These unique approaches to stream-of-consciousness narration show Woolf representing a collective consciousness, an unspoken reality with which all humans are connected.