How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
After looking at it [the flower] for a moment in some confusion the old man bent his ear to it and seemed to answer a voice speaking from it, for he began talking about the forests of Uruguay which he had visited hundreds of years ago in company with the most beautiful young woman in Europe. (14)
The relationship between man and nature is pretty extreme here. The old dude is literally having a conversation with a flower—and this isn't Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Ok, maybe he is pretty crazy after all. This incident also illustrates more broadly the relationship the characters of the story seem to hold with the natural world. Aren't they all listening and speaking to nature in their own ways?
Quote #5
The ponderous woman looked through the pattern of falling words at the flowers standing cool, firm, and upright in the earth, with a curious expression. She saw them as a sleeper waking from a heavy sleep sees a brass candlestick reflecting the light in an unfamiliar way, and closes his eyes and opens them, and seeing the brass candlestick again, finally starts broad awake and stares at the candlestick with all his powers. (18)
The flowers have such a powerful relationship with humans that here they seem to cast a spell on the woman. How does this description compare with the previous one of the old man and the flower? Why does nature have such a strong hold over her and what does this reveal about man's relation to the natural world, at least in "Kew Gardens"?
Quote #6
They were both in the prime of youth, or even in that season which precedes the prime of youth, the season before the smooth pink folds of the flower have burst their gummy case, when the wings of the butterfly, though fully grown, are motionless in the sun. (19)
Man's relationship to nature is so central here that Woolf explains the extreme youth of the young couple in terms of the natural world—in terms of flower folds and butterfly wings. This isn't the first time we've seen humans compared to some aspect of nature. What is the significance of this running theme? Woolf seems to be suggesting that we're all small parts of the same big thing: Mother Nature.