Orlando
OrlandoIn the novel Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, gender plays a complex and important role. However, what makes this role so important is the way Woolf stresses the absolute unimportance of gender. In the three major sexually based relationships of the story in which Orlando participates there is some question as to the gender of the other participant. Orlando, him/herself has issues concerning to what gender he/she actually belongs. Despite the fact that he/she physically changes gender, emotionally and psychologically he/she continues to feel the same. All of these issues in the novel help to portray the theme that gender can be altered psychologically without any physical change, or vice versa in that physical change does not necessarily equate with psychological change. In Orlando’s case, these changes make him/her become a more complex person and consequently a more interesting and enlightened writer. Being either physically male or female actually allows him/her to explore different aspects and views in his/her writing.
Orlando’s first mentioned, and most complex, sexual interest is the Russian princess, Sasha. Even at this early stage in the novel there is some talk about the affect clothes have on determining the gender of a person. As Orlando describes Sasha he cannot determine her sex; describing her as being “a figure, which, whether boy’s or woman’s, for the loose tunic and trousers of the Russian fashion served to disguise the sex” (Orlando, 37). However, his desire for Sasha precedes his knowledge of her gender in that even when he believes that the figure is actually that of a boy, he continues to desire him/her, despite the fact that “all embraces were out of the question” (Orlando, 38).
The most complex part of the desire that Orlando has for Sasha is seen later in the novel after Orlando has changed into a woman. Orlando finds that despite her physical change, she is still very much psychologically a heterosexual man in that she feels desire for another woman. “Though she herself was a woman, it was still a woman she loved; and if the consciousness of being the same sex had any effect at all, it was to quicken and deepen those feelings which she had had as a man” (Orlando, 161). This is the most prominent and stark depiction of Sapphic love seen in the novel until this point. Although Orlando is now herself a woman, the fact she still has feelings for Sasha adds yet another dimension to the novel. Before this it was always man loving woman and woman loving man, but saying that a woman loves another woman seems to almost de-naturalize the typical heterosexual view of gender. This is a way of showing that the love or desire of another person can completely transcend gender. By defying the binary logic that “opposites attract” in a sexual relationship, Woolf makes gender seem almost inconsequential in relationships. The way that Orlando says that the effect of her sex change was only to “deepen those feelings which she had had as a man” (Orlando, 161) implies that she is actually knowledgeable of both sexes. The concept that one can choose, simply picking the sex towards which one is oriented, is another argument that makes gender seem unimportant.
This same theme of sexual orientation transcending gender is seen with the Archduke/Duchess, but is somewhat different in that in the Duke/Duchess is purposely trying to portray a woman at first. The Duke’s relationship towards Orlando was somewhat like the relationship of Orlando to Sasha. He had “fallen hopelessly in love”(Orlando, 179) with Orlando and had not cared at all that Orlando was in fact a man at that point. He had dressed as a woman in order that he might be closer to Orlando. This is another example of something as minute and insignificant as the clothes a person wears determining their gender. The point that arbitrary matters like clothes could change a person’s entire gender is laughable. Woolf adds to this humor by her portrayal of the Archduke/duchess as such an awkward person, “flopping about among the chairs…. waddling ungracefully across the galleries” (Orlando, 118). This humorous image of the Archduke/duchess is linked in the mind of the reader to the absurdity of the thought that someone’s entire sexual category could be changed by something as subjective as clothing.
A very important part of the relationship between Orlando and the Archduke is that both feel that they must “play” the parts of man and woman. Neither is totally immersed in their own physical sex, but rather rely on themselves to mentally determine their sex, as well as their sexual orientation. They are actually somewhat physically “trapped” by their gender, but are “released” in a sense by their own psychological views about gender. “In short, they acted the parts of man and woman for ten minutes with great vigor and then fell into natural discourse” (Orlando, 179). The fact that they feel that it is anything but natural to behave as their own sex leads the reader to question how much the physical sex of a person matters when that person has to actually try to behave as though they are that gender. The affair between the Archduke/duchess and Orlando does not continue for very long though because Orlando feels that he is not her destiny. Woolf is very playful in her attitude towards the Archduke, but this makes her point that gender is unimportant in relationships no less potent.
It is important that after Orlando returns from Constantinople and has actually physically changed sexes that no one seems to care or hardly notice at all. While this is obviously exaggerated and overly idealistic, it serves Woolf’s purpose by showing the insignificance of gender. Woolf’s attitude here is very playful as in the scene where Mrs. Grimsditch greets Orlando for the first time since her return and calls her “Milord! Milady! Milord! Milady! Milord!” (Orlando, 169). Obviously this problem of not knowing how to address Orlando would be a difficult one, but it would in truth be the least of the concerns of someone who had just fallen asleep and awoken a woman. Another significant place in the novel when Orlando’s gender should be in question is when she gives birth. This act would be considered one that would prove her to obviously be a woman, but it too is simply grazed over as an unimportant matter in Orlando’s life. The way Woolf trivializes what seems to be a major sex change seems to portray how minor something like the physical side of gender actually is.
The incident that Orlando has with the prostitutes is one of the most important occurrences in the novel when looking at Orlando’s gender because in it Orlando’s discontent with her gender becomes obvious, but her gratification in the company of those of her own gender is discovered as well. She wears some of the clothing “she had worn as a young man of fashion” (Orlando, 215), goes out to Leicester Square and picks up a prostitute. This deception disturbs her to the point that she takes off all of the clothing that was the disguise and “admitted herself a woman” (Orlando, 217). This is important because it is the first time that it is made completely clear to the reader that Orlando is actually dissatisfied with her gender. She is not dissatisfied because she feels it changes her in any way, but because of the society of those times being a woman was a hindrance to which Orlando had never had to become accustomed. This scene is also significant because of the way in which the women truly enjoy each other’s company. The comments made by the men in this scene such as “when they lack the stimulus of the other sex, women can find nothing to say to each other” (Orlando, 219) or “women are incapable of any feeling of affection for their own sex and hold each other in the greatest aversion”(Orlando, 220) were probably somewhat common thoughts for the men of that time period and can even be carried into modern day. These thoughts are not necessarily limited to those of men either, in that women have stereotypes as well of what men do when there are no women around. Although many critics have described this book as being feminist and in many aspects it certainly is, it can also be described as being masculinist or androgynous because of the way it limits sexuality completely to what the person is feeling at that moment and not to the make up of their entire person.
The affair between Orlando and her husband Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, Esquire is a pivotal point in the novel. They both can hardly believe that the other one is of the opposite sex because they feel the similarities so strongly between them. “”You’re a woman, Shel!” she cried. “You’re a man, Orlando!” he cried.” (Orlando, 252). Again, there is the insinuation that men and women are actually not different at all, but only separated by physical differences. It is during their affair that Orlando receives the announcement from one of her lawsuits declaring that she is “indisputably, and beyond the shadow of a doubt Female” (Orlando, 255). This is a humorous portrayal by Woolf of how Orlando actually has her gender determined legally for her by society. The fact that this physical fact has to actually be proven legally is humorous in and of itself, but that she still seems to struggle with what her psychological gender is only makes this line more important. Of course, she is physically a woman, but mentally she seems to be androgynous. Orlando’s gender seems to be very deliberately constructed to appear as though she is a complete woman, but despite how well she plays the role of being a woman it is questionable as to whether or not this role is hers psychologically.
A major aspect of this novel is Orlando’s writing. It’s important that gender does not seem to affect her writing. The only difference between Orlando’s writing as a male versus that as a female is the desire, or lack there of, for fame and publication. As a male author Orlando wants /nothing more than to have his name known and his works published. “He would give every penny he has …to write one little book and become famous”(Orlando, 75). This desire changes though when Orlando becomes a woman she requests only to have her privacy and secrecy to write. “What has praise and fame to do with poetry?”(Orlando, 325). However these details are somewhat minor and do not actually affect the writing in any way. “”I will write,” she had said, “what I enjoy writing.”"(Orlando, 175) This means that writing, or at least Orlando’s, is another issue that transcends the gender of the author. In fact, the poetry about the oak tree that she begins as a man and continues as a woman is truly what he/she considers his/her best work. It could even be said that Orlando’s androgyny has actually enlightened her/him in his/her writings.
Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando captures the very essence of gender in that the novel actually trivializes it. The character of Orlando proves several times throughout the novel that it is a person who makes their gender, not the gender who makes a person. In other words, gender is completely psychological rather than physical. Woolf seems to be saying that whether it is concerning relationships with others or sexual orientation, gender amounts to nothing more than a physical attribute that needs to be dismissed in order for Art to begin.