An Analysis of Orlando A Biography - Essay Example

An Analysis of Orlando: A Biography Orlando: A Biography written by Virginia Woolf, which was probably not her most famous work, was however a thorough study of the characteristics and commonalities of gender during the long four hundred years that the novel traces through. In it Woolf examines the various biases with respect to both masculine as well as feminine types, in a subtle manner that clearly expresses her strong feministic views on the prejudices that existed right from the days of Queen Elizabeth the First to the end of World War I. Interestingly Orlando, the leading figure of the novel, by choosing not to grow old during the three centuries time span of the storyline and most importantly changing gender from male to female, is depicted in such a manner as to provoke the reader’s thought by sincerely analyzing all aspects of the two sexes’ behavioral attributes. Although Woolf’s work of Orlando is a passionate depiction based on the life of her friend and lover Vita Sackville-West as it was originally intended to be, the novel gives us a far more illustrative view of the world concerning gender specifics, sexuality and human nature as it had been during the second half of the previous millennium. According to Wikipedia, the novel can be read as a ‘roman à clef’ which is a work of literature describing real life, behind a façade of fiction and where the main character is usually a famous personality, or in some cases, the author. Woolf has used immense material from the writings of Vita as a basis for her own novel. Even though the main character here is based on the life of Vita, using the overtones of fiction and the liberties made available through fantasy, Woolf was able to construct a well documented biography of Vita, without subjecting herself to criticism or controversy. Themes such as homosexuality have been subtly brought into the picture by fictionalizing the real life character as a male who transforms into a female later on. This show the ingeniousness of Virginia Woolf, as most other works of English fiction directly approaching the subject of homosexuality had been banned during her years. Therefore even though she has titled her work as a biography, the novel has been classified as fiction, and this shows how Woolf had intended to cross the boundaries set between fiction and non-fiction with Orlando, “so the novel is not only about trans-gender, but also trans-genre, so to speak.” (Wikipedia) The book offers us considerable insight into the study and comparison between the male and female mind, as Woolf had deemed to subject her main character to in the various roles he/she plays, but it is the other aspects of life that automatically creep in while performing the subject analysis that make this a profound work of literature. Take for example her anatomy of time with respect to the human mind (starting from page 47) in which it is stated that the simplicity of time as shown on the clock cannot be compared to the complex structure of time as thought of in the mind. But this discrepancy is sorted out by the biographer, who is also the narrator in the novel, when it is stated that ‘time spent thinking becomes inordinately long, and time spent doing becomes inordinately short.’ The significance of time is apparent throughout the book, either when Orlando is pursuing a particular situation or person, in some cases hastily pouring out the emotions of his heart into a romantic escapade or in another trying to force the demons of jealousy and vengeance out of his mind, or spending time elaborately walking across the many winding hallways and chambers of his ancient home, that which was built by his ancestors lying dead in the crypt of the Chapel. Again it is the significance of time being called for, when Orlando proclaims the immortality of words over the ‘dust and ashes of the deeds of his ancestors’ because what lies of them now is but a finger or a skull, and not the immortal lustre of name when he would become the first poet among a race of campaigners, of whom he questions: “But of all that killing and campaigning, that drinking and love-making, that spending and hunting and riding and eating, what remained?” (39) These lines also show the narrator’s (Woolf’s) view on killing and wars in general, where nothing substantial is ever achieved unlike the life of thought which a writer lives, and which is made immortal by the works published. This subject has been carried into later pages as well, when after Orlando’s gender transformation and the narrator deals with a problem of continuing the biography with a feminine attitude, it is stated that ‘without blood there is no life.’ What is meant by the passage is that material for writing becomes scarce when thought is more prevalent than life; with battles, bloodshed and violence being the common content of history during that time, this would be an ideal subject for a biography. There is also an element of gender bias being brought in by such a view, that women are unable to be a subject in biographies of those times, simply for the fact that bloodshed and the like are the sport of men, as found in the study of history of the nineteenth century. Orlando being a woman at that point is asked to substitute ‘love’ as a suitable theme, for women of the Victorian era are supposed to be subservient or dependent on the lives’ of their male counterparts and hence, the only sort of relationships existing would range from ‘pure love with an innocence to erotic sexuality in all its wildness.’ This is quite clear from the line ‘giving over the pretence of thinking and writing and begin at least to think of a gamekeeper’ (175) which is a reference to the sensational novel Lady Chatterleys Lover by D.H. Lawrence published in the very same year as Orlando, in which a lady of noble descent trapped in a failing marriage, is involved in a fiery and passionate affair with a gamekeeper. This secondary attitude towards women is made a point of sarcasm in several passages after Orlando’s transformation into a woman. When in deference to the spirit of the age, Orlando composes a few lines to the ever continuing work “The Oak Tree” and abruptly stops, obeying ‘some power reading over her shoulder’ when she writes the words ‘Egyptian girls,’ it is because of the spirit of the age, questioning the necessity of words, passing by deeming approval simply because Orlando ‘has a husband at the Cape.’ The sarcasm intended is because Orlando only just got married to Shelmerdine, thereby granting her the privilege to write the said words. This being the ‘happy position’ that Orlando was in, she need not fight against the spirit of the age and yet use her position to state what she felt was right. She had ordered it to be as such, and this allowed her to write keeping with her age and yet remaining herself. Woolf’s style of a continuous outpour of thoughts and emotions gives the reading a powerful feel. Woolf intended her work to be a critique of biographies when she writes that the only fit subject for a biographer or novelist is life itself, and in the pages following Orlando’s transformation the biographer hits a dead end when the subject resorts to a life of contemplation that offers no further scope for elaboration. There is also an irony in the context of the spirit of the age because in the Victorian era it was mostly men who wrote as well as formed the subject of biographies, while women did mostly poetical as well fictional works. Also the fact that nineteenth century ‘life’ was mostly about emotions and struggles, goes against the contemplative stand taken by Orlando, and this is where the part of ‘killing a wasp’ is stated as being more of a biographical material than merely ‘sitting in a chair and thinking.’ Woolf being a peace lover, which is evident from the fact that she committed suicide in a bout of depression at the start of World War II , probably meant ‘killing a wasp the merest trifle compared with killing a man,’ to be ironical in a manner of speaking. The narrator remains convinced that Orlando, now being a woman, would stop playing the part of a writer and thinker and finally do what all women as supposed to do; that being involved in the affairs of love and men is what women of that age are expected to pay attention to. But it is also mentioned that even though the transformation turned out well in a physical sense, the mannerisms and emotional capacity of Orlando as a woman did not match completely with the traditional lady like behavior seen then. From the narration, it can be inferred that the general thoughts of women pertain to men and what little they write would be notes to the men they think of. Since it is given that Orlando did neither of these, Woolf probably meant this as sarcasm, in the way women are generally thought to be. As seen in Chapter 4, several instances of Orlando’s behavior like kindness, fidelity and generosity do not agree with the female characteristics (as stated by male novelists) of pursuit of love and dependence on men. This therefore does not enable the narrator or biographer to pursue the element of love as a suitable theme for Orlando’s biography. This is how Woolf so brilliantly manages to bring two opposite themes such as killing and love together in a single context of unsuitable situations for a biography, even though these being the most common during her time. Orlando’s plight is clear when no matter what is being written is but subject to the examination of the spirit of the age, and with the necessity for finishing the manuscript forces her to fix her attention outside the window for some sort of initiative or inspiration that would bring ideas, thoughts and words to her mind. The narrator states that ‘if the subject of the biography will neither love nor kill, he or she is no better than a corpse,’ by which it is implied that Orlando’s work has reached a point where further developments have ceased to arrive, and maybe also in a sarcastic tone explains the fate of women in general, who are treated as inferior to men as being no better than corpses. Woolf’s method of writing is natural and timeless, and the stream-of-consciousness mode of dwelling on thoughts makes for an interesting read which captivates the mind with picturesque scenes. The idle chatter of the mind is stated as is, and it shows clearly how Orlando is desperate for any new inspiration than can help to contribute to her long standing work that awaits completion, even though the possibility of its having already ended was stated earlier. For this very reason the servant wearing a green baize apron, crossing the courtyard is presumed to have an affair with one of the maids, even though no visible proof is available. It is during periods of such vagueness that life is thought about in a deeper sense, and this is probably what the narrator intends to show through the words “Life, it sings, or croons rather, like a kettle on a hob. Life, life, what art thou?” (176) The imagery that the words translate into, bring out a depth in the meaning signified, such as the ‘kettle on a hob’ implying the problematic situations in life which forces us to think beneath the surface for hidden truths. The earlier mentioned opinion of the authorities, those who are worth consulting that is, of the only suitable subject for a biography being life, is again brought forward in subsequent passages where the meaning of life is searched for among birds and bees, insects and animals. The element of irony is beautifully blended into the passages, especially when a starling is being asked what life is all about, when he is perched on a dustbin picking at sticks and filth. Again the labour of a grasshopper in carrying a straw back to its home in the hollow, reminds us of the struggles in life. Orlando had many struggles with life, down through the ages and through many situations, once with his manifold passions cast away by the Russian Princess who abandoned him to a seven day trance from which he awoke to find in himself a writer, and another instance when after being made a Duke, mysterious circumstances again threw him into a seven day slumber from which he awoke as a woman. Yet the narrator, towards the end of the passage in search of the meaning of life, also declares helplessness and leaves the question as is, with all the passions and struggles being an intrinsic and inexplicable part of it. Orlando: A Biography may not be the magnum opus of Virginia Woolf, and it is definitely not cited among the famous biographies in English literature, but it holds a place of its own among the many literary masterpieces that the Queen’s language had to offer us. This is mainly because of the beautiful manner in which Woolf has used prose, as well as poetry, to approach several subjects such as gender bias, feminism, modernism and pacifism along with her sharp skills with the instruments of sarcasm and irony serving her well in making this a sincere critique of biographies presented during the nineteenth century. Orlando has come a long way from being simply “the longest and most charming love-letter in literature” (as described by Nigel Nicolson, son of Vita Sackville-West) to a profound work that has influenced countless writers till today. Selected Bibliography Lavender, Prof. Catherine. Essays from History 182(Women’s History and Feminist Theory). 1997, College of Staten Island Library. Wikipedia. Articles on Orlando: A Biography, Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West. 2009. Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. 2008, Vintage Classics. Read More