Kew Gardens- The Relationship Between Humans and Nature

Virginia Woolf’s Kew Gardens is encompassed in nature and how it intertwines with human life, whether we know it or not. She begins her short story by describing an “oval shaped flower-bed” but then something else comes into the picture, humans (83). Eleanor and Simon had a “curiously irregular movement not unlike that of the white and blue butterflies” (84). This man and woman, with their children, become the focus, but are still able to be a part of the natural scene around them. What I noticed about their story is that while the humans become the focus, nature is still present, as if one cannot exist without the other. We as humans need nature to add balance, peace, and a sort of freedom to our lives.

It is interesting how Simon flashes back to his first love, a woman he wanted to marry, and thinks their fate depended on a dragonfly. At first I thought it rather strange that Simon, after being married to Eleanor, and having kids, is reflecting on this moment with his wife. But then I realized that we are all stuck on the past, and as sad as it is to say, it’s only human to dwell on something that can never be. And maybe the dragonfly symbolizes the hand that nature has in human life. Even though humans like to believe that we control our own destiny, it’s not always the case. And the old man who chases after the lady in black, he seemed to be searching for someone who has long since been gone from his life. At the same time, Woolf parallels the lives of different humans and the snail. The snail is always present, with his “stained red, blue and yellow” shell and is always trying to reach his goal (84). His view of the world is smaller and practically invisible to a mere passerby but he still goes about his daily life the same way the humans in Woolf’s story do.

I think Woolf is trying to show the relationship between humans and nature through her short story. But she does so in a way that is a little odd at times. I think her take home message is that we, as humans, need to pay attention to the beautiful creation of nature because it plays a larger role in our lives than we know (or maybe some of us are aware). Through the colors Woolf so vividly uses to describe both nature and human life, she paints a picture of pink, green, blue, red, and yellow, all meshing together in the end to form one single world.