Virginia Woolf's creation of the main character in the novel Orlando relies on a certain amount of "pun" in order to maintain his androgynous nature . But what is androgyny according to Woolf? To what extent does this diversity occur? When talking about distinct genres in any form of literature, certain specific expressions and even attributes are usually reserved for one genre or the other. It is precisely by mixing these words that Woolf manages to create a real air of androgyny - here, word play is not a simple stylistic attribute, but a tool as necessary as grammar or sentence structure because it is the only thing that is capable of defining intersexuality the way Woolf wishes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay According to Woolf, Orlando was born and raised as a boy, "...there can be no doubt about it." However, later, in this first segment of the novel, he is described in a rather peculiar way; Orlando is described as having "eyes like drenched violets...[and] shapely legs." This is clearly a violation of the code of rigid gender roles! Well, from this sentence you would think we are describing a woman, not a man. In Western culture, shapely legs and beautiful eyes are specifically reserved for people who identify as women, and assuming one has spent any time here in the West, it's obvious that the number of people who could use these characteristics to identify while identifying as male are very few. This could then simply be seen as a piece of obvious foreshadowing of the morning Orlando wakes up as a woman; at the same time, it is part of Virginia Woolf's expression of her homosexual and emotional feelings towards Vita Sackville-West, as this book has been generally recognized as a free biography of Sackville-West's life in which Sackville-West is represented by Orlando. “Through the power of her pen, Woolf overturned the centuries-old Kentish law that prevented Vita from inheriting Knole [her ancestral home]. In the pages of [Woolf] Orlando, Vita Sackville-West owned Knole in a way she never could in reality (DeSalvo, 205). This sentence shows how Virginia Woolf specifically incorporated Vita's life and story into Orlando and the character of Orlando. Normal behaviors, such as the surprise of waking up as a member of the opposite sex, are avoided here; there is a surprising lack of emotion that puts Orlando directly at odds with normative patterns of behavior. Again and again it will create these situations where normal behavior is almost fought; for example, when Nick Greene leaves Orlando and writes a scathing pamphlet about him, causing Orlando such pain that he "handed the document to him on the end of a pair of pliers"; asked him to drop him off in the filthiest heart of the filthiest dump on the estate” (Woolf), Orlando continues to pay him a quarterly pension. This goes against all common sense, because who would continue to support someone who wrote such a thing? Virginia Woolf formed many of her strongest sexual and emotional connections with women during her life, and this is evident in many of her works, including Orlando. , who was introduced to her longtime lover, Sackville-West. According to Sackville-West's son, Nigel Nicholson, the book was "the longest and most charming love letter in literature (Smith, 60). » It has also been called a fairy tale à la clef; AA book that is a roman à clef is a "novel with a key", or a book that is a depiction of real events, but is hidden behind a layer of metaphor or mislabeling. Fairy tales can often be seen as magical fiction – a reality that, subject to certain tolerances, otherwise acts realistically. We see from these two genres that a fairytale that is a key is a way of hiding the truth behind the story. This story, as previously mentioned, is a rough account of the life of Vita Sackville-West, who was very close to Woolf - hence the roman key element; it also takes place in a fantasy world where men can become women and live for an abnormal amount of time - hence the fairy tale aspect. Additionally, fairy tales usually tell us stories so that we learn a lesson - classic tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella all contain multiple moralistic lessons, some not intended for children as we have been conditioned to believe. this time. Likewise, Orlando has a moral embedded in its rich narrative. The main fairy tale message that Orlando has to convey to us is about individuality. The character of Orlando is certainly an individual, who does not conform to most of the practices of the time. This fairy tale nature of the story also allows for lots of creative puns, which advance both the story and the theme of alternative sexuality. Some examples of this pun can be found in the following paragraph. So far, I have referred to the term "pun" several times, but have yet to provide a concrete example. If one were forced to choose a singular example to judge all other cases of so-called "puns" in Orlando, it would be this: "Then Orlando stood there watching while the man twirled his pen between his fingers, on one side and the other. " path; and looked and thought; then, very quickly, he wrote half a dozen lines and looked up. Whereupon Orlando, overcome with timidity, rushed forward and reached the banquet hall just in time to kneel and, bowing his head in confusion, to offer a bowl of rose water to the great queen herself. (Woolf). This is an example of Orlando acting and fulfilling the gender role of a woman. Here are several points worth emphasizing: Orlando "looks" at a man, "looking" is not generally a term applied to one man looking at another; Orlando also fulfills a role of servitude, feminine in nature when he is "overwhelmed with shyness" and "kneels and bows his head in confusion." The previous two quotes are not ones we would associate with the traditional prototypical man – a man does not generally act in a way that places himself “below” another person. Thus, Orlando begins to see herself as a woman, and Woolf makes this clear to us through her choice of wording. “Orlando looked himself up and down in a long mirror, without showing any signs of trouble, and went, presumably, to his bath. We can take advantage of this pause in the story to make certain assertions. Orlando had become a woman, that’s undeniable. But in all other respects Orlando remained exactly as it had been. The change of sex, although it changed their future, did not change their identity” (Woolf). Here's another quote, from the middle of chapter three from Orlando, that shows our protagonist's strong sense of identity and individuality. Obviously, an overnight and uninvited sex change would upset most people, but Orlando shows us such a sense of identity through his calm and regularity of actions that we cannot:.