Kew gardens by virginia woold - Essay Example

Impressionism considers the commonplace, and the snail in Kew Gardens is any day commonplace; so are the leaves and the pebbles, flowers and butterflies. Both the movements advocate powerful exercises in bold bright colours. Kew Gardens records strong intermittent flashes of colours by way of its beautiful images. Impressionistic works perceive movement as an immediate result of human experience. Woolf was keen on exploring the theme of movement in the natural and human world; especially in the human psyche.

The inspired art work manifests this flurry of movements: the falling leaves, flitting butterflies, hesitant snail and the centric human torso that persists as a burrow of all-flowing thoughts, words, voices. The obscured human image in deliberate unfriendly black and brown, which on closer look is an optical illusion image, represents Woolf’s multiple characters and their tunnel of thoughts going berserk at various angles. It brings out the poignant isolation against the backdrop of the ravages of the Great War.

Considering the image to be a female, it signifies the loneliness/widowhood a lot of women had to undergo following the war. If not, the image assumes the psyche of an alienated mind which is so palpably represented by all the characters, especially the senile man, William, Simon and the ponderous maid. The human profile also delineates the theme of introspection. The snail that is prominently depicted in the canvas is not a symbol of lethargy and despair. Rather it reflects a sense of purpose and optimism.

The art work successfully encapsulates this idea by catching its profile in mid air, looking up and deciding. The display of reflections in natural light is a downright characteristic portrayed well in that-era work. The art work has successfully captured the shimmer of reflected light in hues of the red, blue and yellow petals that stud the corner crust of the canvas. Post-impressionistic genre believed in retaining the basic shapes and geometrical patterns as shown by the art work. There are heart- and tongue-shaped leaves, and the pebbles, butterflies, snail are depicted in clean sharp strokes.

THE SHORT STORY Linear narrative takes a back foot in Virginia Woolf’s writing and she generously employs stream of consciousness and interior monologue to build up her story. Kew Gardens is set against the backdrop of an estranged world produced by the war and industrialisation. The reader has to plumb for the social context in which Woolf chose Kew Gardens. The garden was beautified by successive directors to reveal a Victorian glory. However, the war dealt a severe blow where the garden space was cultivated to cater to the food shortage.

Its image was affected and modernist writers like Woolf couldn’t help sourcing this fractured view in their writing. Woolf offers us a splendid ironical treatment by choosing the setting of Kew Gardens-a place where people come for respite and recuperation. She emphasises geometrical patterns and deflected light. Thus the garden becomes an ironic symbol where human drama is rejected and the manufactured natural space becomes a walking ground for alienation and restive existence. The companionship of each pair is ironic too.

They’re with each other but actually walk the ground alone. The old man may be the conventional spectacle of senility but we find that one in each pair at varying points of time