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There is beauty in the ordinary.
Woolf’s short story presents ordinary events of life assembled into a visual spectacle, cast as both beautiful and intriguing. Little at all—from the traits of the characters to the garden setting, from the events in the characters’ lives to their conversations—is truly extraordinary. The brief snippets of life Woolf describes begin with detailed views of an ordinary flowerbed filled with a variety of colorful and beautiful flowers that cast their colors on the scene. Conversations are overheard in a fragmented form, as they often are in public settings, yet they reveal a great deal about the beauty of the lives of the speakers. Simon reminisces about a former love, and Eleanor reveals that she, too, dwells on a past in which she painted the garden scene. Yet neither resents the loss of the past or the fact that each dwell upon it. The eccentric old man imagines that he can talk with the dead, yet the young man accompanying him offers no judgment on either his behavior or beliefs; beauty even underlies the old man’s motivations, as he longs to help widows. The two women talk of common life, family and everyday concerns, yet express no sense of conflict. Even Trissie and her partner, in the middle of conflict, wander on to grab their cup of tea, at the cost of his only coin. Woolf’s personification of the snail suggests a certain beauty in its ordinariness; its actions reflect traits of intellect and purpose as it moves slowly through the garden. All of the images, glimpses of lives, and details suggest that there is beauty in the ordinary, if one knows how to observe the world and the people who inhabit it.
Connection to nature unravels hidden secrets.
As Woolf’s story unfolds and reveals the characters wandering along the garden path, glimpses into the hidden truths of their lives emerge. The setting itself, including the natural elements of the garden, prompts them to reveal these secrets, triggering memories or inspiring fantasies that bring secrets to light. Simon, for example, reveals his past with Lily to Eleanor. He spent time with Lily in the same garden, and his reflections are inspired by the same sights, including the butterflies that abound. The same can be said of Eleanor, who too is reminded of her cherished memory in the garden. The eccentric elderly man, in contrast, views a flower and breaks into speech showing his madness, “talking about the forests of Uruguay which he had visited hundreds of years ago in company with the most beautiful young woman in Europe,” having been reminded of “the wax petals of tropical roses, nightingales, sea beaches, mermaids, and women drowned at sea.” And Trissie, reflecting on the beauty of the garden, discovers that her unnamed partner may not see the same beauty or value it as she does. The natural setting, Woolf seems to suggest, shows that there is something about nature that compels people to shed their façades and reveal the truth about themselves.
Moments that seem insignificant can reveal a lot.
Sometimes little moments that might go unnoticed reveal far more than might be expected. Woolf captures this point beautifully in her story. Moments that seem to hint at otherwise mundane lives and events are selected for the significance that underlies them. For example, when the old man is introduced, he appears to be eccentric and obsessed. However, his eccentricity reveals several facts: His concerns are for the widows and are associated with the devastations of World War I; his remarks teeter between apparent madness and remarkable significance. His thinking also reveals a certain ingenuity and passion about his project, as he recaps the components of a machine with which widows might communicate with the war dead. The same point surfaces in the conversation between Trissie and her partner. They seem to be conversing about nothing, about luck, the meaning of “it,” and the fact that it is “time we had our tea.” Yet Woolf’s descriptions reveal the significance of the mundane. Pauses are long, and the words are spoken in toneless, monotonous voices. Despite their brevity and apparent insignificance, these utterances carry a weighty meaning. The conversation cannot be sustained, and Woolf’s descriptions reveal the significance underlying the words; the relationship may be in trouble or has yet to form.
