Orlando by Virginia Woolf

¶ … Orlando: A Biography, Virginia Woolf urges her readers to reconsider traditionally accepted constructions of sexuality and gender. Woolf achieves this through a biographical narrative of a man who experiences the true meaning of masculinity and femininity only after he is transformed into a woman. In addition, Woolf succeeds in debunking socially constructed definitions of sexuality and gender by virtue of situating the action in the novel over a period of 400 years.

By doing so, Woolf asserts a universal law of Nature, namely, that essential human nature has always been androgynous, or comprising of both masculine and feminine traits. In fact, Woolf's very introduction of Orlando, more than hints of his feminine traits. Orlando's biographer begins by stating "there could be no doubt of his sex," (p. 13) yet goes on to "admit that he had eyes like drenched violets."(p.

15) Significantly, Orlando's biographer also emphasizes on Orlando's marked love of Nature, thereby implying that the man had a great yearning to be true to himself and one with Nature. Orlando's leanings, however, appear to emotionally disturb him because, as the biographer points out, "Nature and letters seem to have a natural antipathy." (p. 17) Since the term "letters" can be construed as encompassing upbringing, education, and social conditioning, it can be clearly inferred that the biographer was commenting on the difference between social thinking and natural laws.

Thus, Orlando's state of conflicted emotions are hardly surprising given the dichotomy between his feminine yearnings and his attempts to live up to Elizabethan society's views on masculinity. Orlando's feminine yearnings or traits also assert themselves in his sexual attractions. For, undeniably, he is always attracted to and, in turn, attracts women with decidedly masculine traits. Indeed, the biographer's descriptions of the Queen, Sasha, and the Archduchess Harriet make the women's masculine characteristics highly evident.

It is also significant that Orlando experiences conflict whenever he doubts the sex of his target. He is ready to "tear his hair with vexation" that Sasha seemed to be a person of his own sex, making "all embraces out of the question." (p. 37) Similarly, he is disturbed when the Archduchess finally reveals that she is an Archduke (p. 179), an act that takes place only after Orlando has been transformed into a woman.

Thus, it is evident that Woolf constructed the storyline to highlight the effect of social conditioning on an otherwise natural principle of men and women being at once both masculine and feminine, and being able to appreciate both. Woolf also demonstrates the effect of socially conditioning through depicting Orlando's slow and arduous journey from a person totally immersed in social constructs of sexuality and gender to a person who finally learns to reconcile the masculine and feminine parts of his being. The journey, however, is not an easy one.

For Orlando goes through many stages from.