Gender Neutrality and Politics

As one wades through the vast world of literature, an encounter with some familiar names will be inevitable. One of the names that one will hardly miss, regardless if one is a devout reader or not, is British writer and renowned literary critic Virginia Woolf. Some might have even heard of her through the play written by Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which was also adopted into film. This can be a daunting prospect for many. Regardless, Woolf is widely considered by many a literary pundit as one of the most important and influential modernist writers of the 20th century. A pioneer of the stream-of-consciousness literary device and a major voice of feminist criticism, her narrative approach has greatly influenced the landscape of modern writing. Interestingly, when she was just in her mid-twenties, she resolved to re-form the novel.

A handful of equally revered writers have also stated that their works were influenced by Woolf. Among them are Margaret Atwood, Michael Cunningham, and even Nobel Laureates in Literature Toni Morrison and Gabriel García Márquez. Her legacy lives on through these writers and her timeless works, many of which are considered must-reads. Her works transcended time and are lauded as literary classics. Her works are also the subject of several literary studies across the world. However, her oeuvre is not limited to novels for which she is widely recognized. Her extensive body of work also includes essays, biographies, short stories, and even diaries and notebooks. For all her contributions to shaping literature, it is without a doubt that Woolf is one of the titans of literature.

Among Woolf’s most recognized works is Orlando: A Biography. Originally published in 1928, the novel charted the fortunes of the titular Orlando. Orlando was born to a noble family in 16th-century England. As a young boy, he dreamed of adventures around the world, akin to the adventures his father and grandfather had during their heydays. He wanders into the woods and writes poetry. One day, after falling asleep, he was awakened by trumpets signaling the arrival of Queen Elizabeth I. Upon laying her eyes on Orlando, the Queen was impressed by Orlando’s youth. Two years later, Orlando was invited by the Queen to her court where he became her page. Orlando immediately became the Queen’s favorite. However, he fell from her graces after the Queen saw him kissing a girl.

“Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither. We know not what comes next, or what follows after. Thus, the most ordinary movement in the world, such as sitting down at a table and pulling the inkstand towards one, may agitate a thousand odd, disconnected fragments, now bright, now dim, hanging and bobbing and dipping and flaunting, like the underlinen of a family of fourteen on a line in a gale of wind.“

~ Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography

Disgraced, Orlando spent his time with the commoners in the shabby sections of London. He frequented pubs and got involved with different young women. Growing tired of this lifestyle, Orlando headed back to the Court headed now by King James I; Queen Elizabeth I had already passed away. Nothing had changed as Orlando still found himself involved with different women, most of whom were affluent and good-looking. Among them was Lady Margaret – or Euphrosyne, as she is known “in his sonnets” – a young woman of high birth. But life had its pleasant surprises. Following the winter of the Great Frost, the River Thames froze. King James then turned the frozen into a carnival scene, the Frost Fair. During the fair, a figure skater that passed by him caught his attention. He was unsure if the skater was a man or a woman.

Orlando soon learned about the skater’s identity; she was Sasha, a Muscovite princess. A fluent French speaker, Orlando was the only one who was able to converse with the princess. They soon fall in love and even make plans to elope. However, on the day they were supposed to run away, she failed to show up. Just as the Thames is about to thaw after the long winter, Orlando uncovers Sasha’s betrayal. This act of betrayal from a woman he loved absolutely crushed Orlando’s spirits. Following Sasha’s departure to her homeland, Orlando descended into a spell of depression. Orlando was not able to remember the events of the past six months. He soon recovers and attempts a career as a poet. He resumed working on the poem, The Oak Tree, a work he abandoned years before.

The novel was bereft of a robust plot as the story was preoccupied with the main character’s growth and development. Woolf engaged the readers by writing about Orlando’s trials and tribulations. One of his big victories was his return to writing. Even though his return to writing was for therapy, it formed in him a conviction to pursue a life of writing. To help him with his new resolve, he befriended and enlisted the help of Nicholas Greene, “a very famous writer“. Orlando invited Greene to his home. It proved to be an unwise decision as the two men did not share the same views. It was not what Orlando expected. Further, Greene was less interested in Orlando’s work than in talking about himself.

Yet another act of betrayal prompted Orlando to realign his energies elsewhere, first, by refurbishing his enormous abode, and second, by asking King Charles II for an ambassadorship to Constantinople. Orlando was able to fulfill his duties as ambassador with great admiration. Because of his valuable contributions to the Kingdom, King Charles awarded Orlando a Dukedom. However, following Orlando’s Dukedom, riots and civil unrest seized the city. Foreigners were killed but Orlando managed to escape execution because he fell asleep and appeared as though he was dead. When he finally woke up weeks later, an unexpected transformation had taken place. This transformation also transformed the landscape of the story.

“Anyone moderately familiar with the rigours of composition will not need to be told the story in detail; how he wrote and it seemed good; read and it seemed vile; corrected and tore up; cut out; put in; was in ecstasy; in despair; had his good nights and bad mornings; snatched at ideas and lost them; saw his book plain before him and it vanished; acted people’s parts as he ate; mouthed them as he walked; now cried; now laughed; vacillated between this style and that; now preferred the heroic and pompous; next the plain and simple; now the vales of Tempe; then the fields of Kent or Cornwall; and could not decide whether he was the divinest genius or the greatest fool in the world.”

~ Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography

Orlando: A Biography was, at its heart, a novel about transformation., particularly that of Orlando. The most palpable transformation occurred following his seven-day slumber. In the throes of the night of violence that swept Constantinople, Orlando woke up mysteriously transformed into a woman. Orlando’s story also spanned several centuries. When the novel ends, Orlando is a 36-year-old woman who gets out of her car on “the twelfth stroke of midnight, Thursday, the eleventh of October, Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-eight.” In a way, the story defies conventions of time and gender. As the novel leapfrogs across periods, it captures the transformation taking place across England and the world. English society has modernized.

Orlando also saw the rise of new inventions such as the steam engine, electricity, and the automobile, all of which transformed the landscape of mankind. The transformation of the world was drastic. Change, after all, is the only thing constant. Orlando’s story also noted the changing landscape of gender norms. However, in yet another act of nonconformance, Orlando, despite his transformation and the transformations around him, remained consistent. His views on love and his dream of becoming a poet were unchanged. Their physical transformation has not altered their identity. Woolf subtly underscored how one’s identity and values, despite societal and even physical changes, remain the same.

Further, in the novel, Woolf evocatively and extensively examined how gender roles and expectations stem out of societal expectations rather than from one’s biological makeup. The discourse on gender neutrality is central to the novel. After all, the novel was inspired by the family history of Vita Sackville-West, a fellow novelist and established poet. Sackville-West was also Woolf’s close friend and lover. She also published Woolf’s books through Hogarth Press. Both Woolf and Sackville-West were members of the Bloomsbury Group, an elite group of writers and artists who openly questioned traditional definitions of gender and sexuality. The fluidity of Orlando’s gender is a nod to this. Further, it dismantles gender stereotypes.

“But Time, unfortunately, though it makes animals and vegetables bloom and fade with amazing punctuality, has no such simple effect upon the mind of man. The mind of man, moreover, works with equal strangeness upon the body of time. An hour, once it lodges in the queer element of the human spirit, may be stretched to fifty or a hundred times its clock length; on the other hand, an hour may be accurately represented on the timepiece of the mind by one second.”

~ Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography

As the novel explores societal transformation, it inevitably examines societal expectations. These expectations weighed heavily on Orlando. As Orlando traversed time, they learned how to adapt to their environment. They were cognizant that fitting in is tantamount to survival. It is important in gaining societal acceptance. However, the stringent conformance to society’s expectations can be oppressive and can take a toll on the individual, as vividly captured by Orlando’s experience. This is particularly true for women who, over time, have to conform to lofty standards set by society, in particular, men. They are expected “to be obedient, chaste, scented, and exquisitely appareled.” Orlando eventually grows to an independent mind that refuses to conform to society’s expectations.

Orlando: A Biography is also a novel about literature and writing. It challenges the conventions of storytelling. It pushes the boundaries of the imagination through the eponymous character’s mysterious transformation. Time was also fluid. In its innovativeness, the book defies literary traditions and even transcends definitions of literary genres. Woolf, after all, was a modernist. Further, the book purports to be a biography but is also a critique of the genre. Biographical works have failed to capture the essence of their subjects; Orlando’s story was narrated by a fictional biographer. The heavy reliance on another person’s memories, which can be subjective and unreliable, undermines the genre. It also creates a distance between the reader and the subject.

Innovative and experimental, Orlando: A Biography is a multifaceted and multilayered story that examines a plethora of subjects such as societal expectations, history, time, sex, and transformation. Its most seminal discourse, however, revolves around the neutrality and fluidity of gender and its interplay with identity. Gender, as portrayed by Woolf, is shaped by society and not by biology. It is this societal expectation that restricts one’s independence. But if these norms are to be dismantled, one can live freely as one wants to be, sans pretensions and according to one’s nature. In a way, the novel was a love letter but was also a scathing examination of society’s traditional views of gender and storytelling. By defying writing norms, Virginia Woolf gifted the world with a timeless and thought-provoking story in Orlando: A Biography.

“For it was this mixture in her of man and woman, one being uppermost and then the other, that often gave her conduct an unexpected turn. The curious of her own sex would argue how, for example, if Orlando was a woman, did she never take more than ten minutes to dress? And were not her clothes chosen rather at random, and sometimes worn rather shabby? And then they would say, still, she has none of the formality of a man, or a man’s love of power.”

~ Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography
Book Specs

Author: Virginia Woolf
Publisher: Vintage Books
Publishing Date: 2004 (1928)
No. of Pages: 215
Genre: Historical

Synopsis

As his tale begins, Orlando is a passionate young nobleman whose days are spent in rowdy revelry, filled with the colourful delights of Queen Elizabeth’s court. By the close, he will have transformed into a modern woman and three centuries will have passed. Orlando is Woolf’s most extraordinary creation, and through him we see an intimate portrait of history in the making.

About the Author

Check out the Author Bio of Virginia Woolf, one of the most revered names in British, if not world literature, here.