Feminism in the Work of Virginia Woolf 20

Masaryk University Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

English Language and Literature

Regina Blatová

Orlando: Feminism in the work of Virginia Woolf Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. 2018

Bibliografický záznam Blatová, Regina. Feminism in the work of Virginia Woolf: bakalářská práce. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2018. 60 s. Vedoucí bakalářské práce Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D.

Bibliography Blatová, Regina. Feminism in the work of Virginia Woolf: bachelor thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2018. 60 pages. The supervisor of the bachelor thesis Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D.

Anotace Tato práce se zabývá tématem feminismu v díle Virginie Woolf. Teoretická část práce se zaměřuje na biografii Virginie Woolf, její literární činnost a historii feminismu s důrazem na období tzv. první vlny feminismu. Analytická část se ve svém úvodu věnuje postoji Virginie Woolf k feministickému hnutí a představuje její eseje zabývající se feministickou tematikou, jmenovitě “A Room of One Own’s” a “Three Guineas”. Stěžejní

část analýzy tvoří výklad románu Orlando z pohledu feminismu, zahrnující témata jako androgynie, genderové role a ženský oděv. V rámci jednotlivých kapitol je na dějové linii románu vysvětlen pohled Virginie Woolf na tehdejší roli ženy ve společnosti a kritiku společenských konvencí. Práce zkoumá, jak se v průběhu historie vyvíjela pozice žen ve Velké Británii a jak společenské konvence ovlivnily životy žen.

Abstract This thesis deals with a topic of feminism in the works of Virginia Woolf.

The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on the biography of Virginia Woolf, her literary work, and the history of feminism with emphasis on the period of the so-called First-wave feminism. The analytic part introduces Woolf’s attitude towards feminist movement and presents her essays dealing with feminist topics, namely “A Room of One´s Own” and “Three Guineas”. The principal part of the analysis consists of the interpretation of the novel Orlando from the feministic point of view, including themes such as androgyny, gender roles, and female clothes. Within each chapter, Virginia Woolf's view of the woman's role in society and criticism of social conventions is explained in the narrative line of the novel. The thesis explores how the position of women in British society developed throughout the history, and how social conventions influenced women’s lives.

Klíčová slova Virginia Woolf, Orlando, feminismus, genderové role, androgynie

Keywords Virginia Woolf, Orlando, feminism, gender roles, androgyny

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Regina Blatová

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. for his kind support, valuable advice and time dedicated to my work. I would also like to thank my mother for her help throughout all my studies.

Contents 1. Introduction ...... 7 2. Biography ...... 9 2.1. Childhood ...... 9 2.2. Bloomsbury group ...... 10 2.3. Mental instability and death ...... 11 3. Work ...... 12 3.1. Novels ...... 13 3.2. Essays ...... 17 4. Feminism ...... 19 4.1. Early feminism ...... 20 4.2. First-wave feminism ...... 20 4.3. Woman’s suffrage ...... 22 5. The topic of feminism in the work of Virginia Woolf ...... 24 6. Orlando ...... 29 6.1. First chapter ...... 33 6.2. Chapter 2 ...... 35 6.3. Chapter three ...... 38 6.4. Chapter four ...... 42 6.5. Chapter five ...... 48 6.6. Chapter six ...... 51 7. Conclusion ...... 54 8. Bibliography ...... 56

1. Introduction

Virginia Woolf is without any doubt one of the most important female writers in history. Her literary work made a significant contribution to the feminist movement in which Woolf herself took an active part, not only as an author but also as a suffragist.

Although, surprisingly, her attitude towards feminism was not always completely confident

(see chapter 5), her work has remained a popular subject of study until present days.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the work of Virginia Woolf in the context of feminism. For this purpose, Woolf’s novel Orlando is a perfect choice because it does not cover only a particular feminists’ topics of that particular time but also covers a large range of issues throughout history such as the impact of social conventions on female clothes in different time periods.

Orlando is influenced by Woolf’s intimate relationship with Vita Sackville-West.

Although their relationship had not lasted, they had a significant influence on one another’s literary work. Since Sackville-West was not a feminist herself, Woolf might have wanted to convey the importance of feminism to her through the androgynous character of Orlando who struggles to be himself/herself in the world tied up by conventions (Pawlowski, 2003, p. xiv). The personality of Orlando is depicted as the ideal embodiment of androgyny.

Woolf conceived androgynous self as a perfect being consisting of both masculine and feminine traits and therefore erasing the difference between gender roles. Woolf’s criticism of gender roles is interwoven with feminism because the women’s role has always been much more constricted by the social conventions than male’s one.

The first two chapters present Virginia Woolf’s extraordinary life and her literary work. The third chapter briefly introduces the history of feminism. All three chapters are theoretical and they provide basis for the understanding of feminist features in Orlando,

7 which is written in a style of the mock-biographical novel. Mock-biography novels contain biographical elements, which are, however, modified and therefore mix fiction with facts

(see chapter 6). The analytic part deals with the common feministic topics in Woolf’s work, especially her two feministic essays “A Room of One’s Own” and “Three Guineas”, which are often referred to in the analysis of Orlando as they provide an explanation to many parts of the text with feministic context. The core of the thesis examines the novel

Orlando from the feministic point of view.

The novel Orlando is divided and analysed by the individual chapters since the storyline is chronological and oversees the evolution of the world and the main character. This progress is one of the themes in the novel as it reveals the change of conventions in the society over more than three centuries.

Virginia Woolf was an extraordinary person full of contradictions. Being born as a woman in the Victorian era made her becoming a writer more demanding to achieve than it was for her male peers. Luckily, her life spanned over two contradictory eras, which enabled her to contribute with her writing to the raising campaign fighting for women’s rights. However, in her private life, she was fighting her own battle with her mental illness which she eventually lost. Yet her literary legacy has remained relevant also in the present as her novels are being widely read and Orlando lives not only on paper but also in the theatre and film adaptations.

2. Biography

Since Virginia Woolf’s childhood and growing up had an immense impact on her perception of, at the time, strictly masculine society, it is necessary, to begin with her biography for further understanding of her work and her complicated personality.

The following subchapters present Virginia Woolf’s life from her childhood until her death and her participation in the Bloomsbury group which influenced her literary production.

2.1. Childhood

Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen on 25 January 1882 in London into the well-off educated family (Goldman, 2006, p. 3). She was one of eight children, four of them were from her parents’ previous marriages. Her father, Leslie Stephen, was a

Victorian author, editor, critic and former deacon at Cambridge University. Amongst his friends were many famous writers, who dropped by their house frequently. Virginia’s mother, Julia was a beautiful and nursing person whose death deeply affected and haunted

Virginia throughout all her life (Bloom, 2005). It was also the first time Woolf experienced her first breakdown. To the topic of her other breakdowns and mental disorder is dedicated the chapter 2.3.

Despite the family’s intellectual orientation, Woolf and her sister were educated at home while her brothers were attending the best English schools. Virginia realized that if she was born as a boy, she would have the same opportunity as her brothers, but in the English rigid society was the masculine and feminine roles strictly separated (Whitworth, 2005).

2.2. Bloomsbury group

After the deaths of Woolf’s parents, she and her siblings moved to the bohemian neighbourhood called Bloomsbury (Mills, 2004). Here, they established the Bloomsbury group, which was an intellectual group consisted of educated writers, artists and intellectuals, who shared the same unconventional ideas, which at the time seemed beyond radical. They supported gay rights, women in arts, pacifism, and freed sexuality.

They rejected the Victorian conservatism and replaced it with the more liberal approach

(Brooks, 2012). Woolf, as well as other members of Bloomsbury group, grew up in the prudish Victorian households got in the new home a sense of freedom from the old patriarchy (Bloom, 2005). The same applied to the literature: When Woolf read her father’s published work, she found it written by masculine, and traditional mind.

That was something Woolf wanted to reject and replaced by more subtle and imaginative approach (Goldman, 2006).

At the same time, Woolf’s political awareness started to grow, and she began to participate in the feminist movements, such as Suffragettes, which was a women’s organisation demanding the right of women to vote (“Woman suffrage”, 2018). The support of her belief in women’s equal rights became a common theme in her writing

(Mills, 2004).

Virginia Woolf married one of the members of the Bloomsbury group, Leonard

Woolf, who was a writer himself. Leonard Woolf was trying to help her to recover from her mental illness. He also supported her in her writing and her feminist point of view

(Bloom, 2005).

2.3. Mental instability and death

Virginia Woolf admitted to suffering from depression, and she questioned her own sanity throughout most of her life. She underwent medical treatments, however, without any great results. She experienced her first mental breakdown at the age of thirteen after the death of her mother (López, 1999). Lehman (as cited in Mills, 2004) mentioned that

Woolf later wrote, “Her death was the greatest disaster that could happen.” (p. 26).

The missing place in the centre of the family was transferred to her older half-sister Stella, who, however, died only two years later. It was another devastating loss. The death of Woolf’s relatives and friends had a desolating effect on her. Lately, she also lost her father and brother and many of her friends – it made her believe that she was meant to live a life of tragedy (Bloom, c2015).

Woolf’s mental condition was also negatively affected by her two half-brothers who sexually abused her. This dreadful behaviour arguably influenced Woolf’s sexuality.

It had an impact on her marriage, which, although happy was absent of the physical love and it probably also affected her sexual attraction which was primarily oriented toward women (Barrett & Cramer, c1997; Mills, 2004). Her most well-known relationship with a woman was the one she had with writer Vita Sackville-West (their relationship is discussed in chapter 6.). Woolf kept quiet about the violation she experienced for most of her life since such a topic was a taboo at that time. She did not begin to write about it until the end of her life. It was a type of the therapy for her which helped her to battle her depressions (Reid, 2007).

Woolf, as a pacifist, was severely affected by the World War II and by Battle of Britain fought over her head. It worsened her mental condition even more and led her

11 to attempt the suicide by walking into the River Ouse with the pockets full of the stones

(Rollyson, c2001).

3. Work

Virginia Woolf, as well as other members of Bloomsbury group, was a modernist and she rejected the conventional techniques of Nineteenth-Century style as realism and naturalism which was characterised by excessive descriptions of the details (Kocianová,

2013). Instead, Woolf used poetic and symbolic language, and she let the readers take a look inside the heads of her characters (Deniz, 2013). Modernism questioned the rigid social conventions and was not afraid to open many social themes, which were taboo in the Victorian era, including sexuality and feminism (Rollyson, c2001).

Modernist literature is a genre of fiction writing born around the time of World War I.

It was created as a response to realistic novels, which were by modernist authors regarded as stale. There are many literal devices which define modernism as a genre: the unusual usage of non-linear time, a language with multiple meaning, experimentation with form, use of irony, symbolism, allusion, and narration through fragmented, internalised, or combined viewpoints, usually from the first-person perspective.

The modernist themes are considered to be inspired by the shock caused by the brutality of

World Wars, and therefore they question the nature of society and reality (Lauren C, 2017;

Mills, 2004).

3.1. Novels

Virginia Woolf is best known as a novelist. The main themes of her novels are, besides the others: time, society, isolation, gender roles, and feminism. This chapter will focus mainly on the feministic topic, which was presented in all her nine novels.

Her first novel called The Voyage Out was published in 1915. It is the story of a trip across the ocean of a young female pianist. The water symbolizes progression from innocence to experience, and from life to death (Rollyson, c2001). The voyage also suggests desired journey from the past to future, where women hopefully extricate from the submissive position and become the equal partners to men, which is not possible in the patriarchal system. According to Fernald (2006), the novel illustrates Woolf’s

“antipatriarchal feminist vision” (p. 55) through her criticism of marriage and the oppressive paternal figure (Gay, 2006, Whitworth, 2005).

The second novel Night and Day, published in 1919. The main female character of Katharine is dedicated to Virginia Woolf’s sister Vanessa and is partly modelled on her. As the name of the novel suggests, the story is about disjointed way of life – the one which we dream about and the real one. The themes of the novels are the traditional gender stereotypes and the escape from the conventional world, which is illustrated on the character of Katharine. She is interested in mathematics and astronomy, but she devotes to the activities only in the night because such rational activities were considered as

“unwomanly” (Goldman, 2006). The topic of the feminist movement is personified in another female character – Mary Datchet, who chose to work and is involved in the feministic campaign as a suffragette (the topic of suffragette will be discussed in chapter 4.3.). Woolf pictures Mary as an ideal of independence woman, who is “engaged” to her work rather than to a man (Whitworth, 2005).

The third novel published in 1922 is called Jacob’s Room and centres around the life of a young man named Jacob and his development from the childhood to maturity.

Through the misogynist character of Jacob, Woolf criticizes patriarchal system which enforces women to play a marginal role. For example, women were excluded from places which were accessible mostly to men, such as universities (Goldman, 2006; Hassan &

Rashid, 2008). In the book, Woolf used the narrative method of “stream of consciousness” for the first time (Rollyson, c2001). “The Stream of Consciousness” is a literary technique which was developed by Modernist writers. It was a way how to escape from the linear structure of the novel and focus on the characters themselves rather than on telling a story.

It depicts their inner thoughts and feelings and thus makes the readers understand the characters intimately (Mills, 2004).

Mrs Dalloway (1925) is one of the best-known Virginia Woolf’s books. It is an experimental novel, which tells the story of one day in the life of fifty-two years old woman, the wife of a Member of Parliament, who prepares for the party held in that evening. Through opposite female characters, Woolf points out the oppressive role of women in the society. In the novel appears the themes of marriage, war, and the pursuit of happiness (Gay, 2006; Rollynson, c2001). Woolf criticizes the concept of marriage, which makes women often unhappy because it is based on economic reasons rather than on love, which leads to the women’s dependence on their husbands. In the novel, the only women who truly keep their autonomy and independence are the unmarried one (Álvarez,

2017). The novel also argues against the violence practised by a patriarchal society and puts in contrast the feminine power, which could preserve the civilization, while the masculine one destroys it. (Singh, 2015).

Woolf’s next novel, To the Lighthouse (1927), is considered one of the most typical of her style, using the experimental structure of time or the stream of consciousness (Mills,

2004). The plot itself is very simple – it is about an expedition to a lighthouse, which is postponed and completed a decade later. The main focus is on the protagonists and their mutual relationship and communication (Rollyson, c2001). The novel is autobiographical and illustrates Woolf’s relationship with both her parents and her overcoming of their influence by taking control of her own. Two main female characters, that portray Woolf and her mother, illustrate the different views on the marriage and approach to life between a traditional Victorian woman who accepts the patriarchal family values and a modern woman who seeks independence. (Frizzelle, 2015; Gay, 2006).

Orlando: A Biography (1928) was compared to Woolf’s others, more serious novels an amusing escapade. The tone of this fictional historical biography is supposed to be satiric – half humorous, and half serious (Goldman, 2006). The book spans over three centuries in the life of the main protagonist, a young nobleman in Elizabeth’s England named Orlando, who changes his sex in the middle of the novel. However, even after his transformation into a woman, Orlando still possesses the same characteristic qualities as he used to have as a man: “Orlando was most man or woman, it is difficult to say”

(p. 93). Woolf asserts that there are nothing like typical masculine or feminine characteristics. She depicts Orlando as an androgynous character and raises a question

Why the society perceives particular characteristics as exclusively males’ or females’ when people are a mixture of both. Woolf assumes that it is a result of a conventional society and its norms which people follow, and thereby they give up on their natural behaviour. For example, men are not supposed to express their emotions publicly, and women cannot swear. The transformation of Orlando suggests that a body is only our

15 external appearance which does not project our inner self. This deconstruction of the classical concept of gender creates a feministic undertone, which will be examined further in this thesis (Rognstad, 2012; Whitworth, 2005).

In 1931 Woolf created her next masterpiece titled The Waves. The novel tells the story of six people, three men, and three women, from their childhood till middle age

(Mills, 2004). The novel focuses on the individuality of the particular characters and criticizes the division of gender roles and masculine hierarchy. Similarly like in Orlando, Woolf points out the inequality of the gender, which begins in the childhood: while boys are taught at school to be leaders, the girls learn how to be good housekeepers.

Moreover, they are also banned from the possibility to enter the university. Woolf suggests that women suffer from an enslaved position created by the patriarchal order (Goldman,

2006; Mraz, 2009; Rollynson, c2001).

The Years, published in 1937, was the last novel published during Virginia Woolf’s life. Although she struggled with its writing, the book was an immediate success.

The story is about middle-class family during a fifty-year period. The novel is largely autobiographical as the characters demonstrate many traits of Woolf’s relatives and friends. The novel emphasizes society’s cruelty based on the class, race, and gender

(Mills, 2004). The novel is centred mainly around females’ characters and argues that patriarchal society stops women from obtaining education and profession. Woolf accuses men of waging wars and implies that if women were able to access education and obtain equal rights, they could balance the warlike society with their feminine traits. Woolf discusses the topic of war in her essay “Three Guineas” which she wrote at about the same time. (Proudfit, 1975).

Between the Acts is Woolf’s final novel published in 1941, shortly after her death.

It was affected by Woolf’s fear of upcoming war and fascism. The story takes place in little English village at the time before the Second World War and revolves around the pageant which depicts the history of England. The title of the book has metaphorical meaning: the real life of the characters takes place between the scenes of the act. Woolf illustrates the change of family structure from the typical patriarchal system, where men perceived women as sexual objects, to modern matriarchal one (Lea, Rodney, Rodney, &

Rodney, c2018; Rollynson, c2001).

3.2. Essays

Virginia Woolf wrote both fiction and non-fiction. Her most important nonfiction works are her book-length essays of literary criticism, namely “A Room of One’s Own”

(1929) and “Three Guineas” (1938), which are feminist text calling for the female emancipation (Goldman, 2006). Additionally, they argue against males’ privileges and blame them for negative things, such as a war (Mills, 2004).

“A Room of One’s Own” is based on lectures Woolf delivered to female students on the Cambridge University (Goldman, 2006). The essay mix the criticism with fiction.

For example, the lack of female writers in history is demonstrated on the fictional style:

Woolf asks her readers to imagine that Shakespeare had an equally talented sister Judith, who wanted to be a poet too. However, while her brother went to school or worked in the theatre, she was forbidden such activities and had to stay at home. She was forced by her father to get married at the very young age which she refused and ran away from home and joined the theatre. However, as a woman she was not allowed to act, and later became pregnant with a theatre manager. The unhappy situation led her to commit suicide without ever wrote a word (Estelle B. Freedman, 2002; Mills, 2004). Woolf continues

17 in her argument why is so difficult for women to become a writer: she narrates the real incident she experienced herself when she was denied entering the university library because of her gender. This was not the only division between men and women she detected at the university. During the lunch and dinner times, men were drinking wine, while women had only water because they could not afford wine. Woolf raises the question: “Why was one sex so prosperous and the other so poor?” (p. 22).

She suggests that women’s “intellectual freedom depends upon material things” (p. 90), and since women were denied the right of owning property, they were poor. Consequently, they had no intellectual freedom which would enable them to write. Woolf emphasizes the topic of materialism as one of the basic stones for women’s independence (Goldman,

2006).

“Three Guineas” discusses some of the topics from “A Room of One’s Own” such as the importance of women’s education and economic independence. However, whereas the main topic of “A Room of One’s Own” lie in women and writing, “Three Guineas” deals with the topic of patriarchal politics and social system. Woolf condemned war and fascism because the fascist ideology saw women in traditional positions as mothers and housekeepers as there was a need of increasing natality, which would provide more potential soldiers. Therefore, Woolf saw the fascist state as an oppressive patriarchal system, similar to the Victorian one in which she grew up and which she detested.

In the essay, Woolf presents her pacifist beliefs connected to her feminist’s thoughts as she seeks how to achieve freedom also for women. Both her essays and their main feminist topics are further examined in chapter 5. (De Grand, 1976; Goldman, 2006).

4. Feminism

According to The Oxford companion to philosophy (1995): “The term “feminism” has its origins in the French word féminisme, which was coined by the utopian socialist

Charles Fourier. The first recorded use in English was in the 1890s, when the word was used to indicate support for women's equal legal and political rights with men.” The term feminism slightly differentiates according to different authors, Brunell & Burkett (2017) define the feminism as: “the belief in the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes”. According to Haslanger (2012), “Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms”.

Feminism has changed many aspects of Western society. While public life used to be dominated by men, women were, for most of history, engaged solely to the domestic sphere, and were denied of the same opportunities and rights like men, e.g. education, professions, economic independence or right to vote. Such restrictions on women continue today in some parts of the world, especially in the Third world countries (Brunell &

Burkett, 2017).

Modern feminism is usually divided into three “waves”, depending on the thoughts and goals which wanted to achieve (New World Encyclopedia contributors, 2017).

However, for the analysis of Woolf’s work is important only the early and first-wave feminism because the second-wave emerged after the Second World War – after Woolf’s death (Walters, 2005).

4.1. Early feminism

Before the feminist movement, the position of women was unenviable. They had no formal rights and were seen as inferior to men, largely due to Bible and its image of Eve’s transgression in the Garden of Eden, which blamed for the fall of the human race.

With no economic independence, marriage was one of the very few ways how women could secure themselves and their children. Their rights within marriage were, however, very limited, e.g. all the property belonged to their husbands. Moreover, women did not have rights over their own children, as they legitimately belonged to their fathers (Gamble,

2006). It was not until the 16th century when increasing numbers of women started to speak out for themselves within a religious framework (Walters, 2005). Although this period

(1550-1700) did not bring any legal improvement in the position of women, they were at least enabled to receive education, although only in the form of homeschooling (Gamble, 2006).

4.2. First-wave feminism

Bigger concern about the women’s rights sprung from the Enlightenment in the 18th century – the period of revolutionary political thinking, which praised individual natural rights (Rendall, 1985). The greatest of feminist of this time was Mary

Wollstonecraft who wrote Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), which is considered as one of the foundation stones of Modern Feminism. In her work,

Wollstonecraft emphasized the need to make women rational and she argued for better education of women (Gamble, 2006). She claimed, that failure to educate women and teach them to use their intellect is men’s purposed attempt to keep women in their places, and make them inferior – keeping them uneducated, and insulated from the real world, most women, inevitably, grew up ignorant and lazy. As another problem to change

20 the position of women in domestic roles was the fact, that any women, who tried to act like a human being, i.e., thinking rationally, risked being labelled as “masculine”, which was the fear that ran deep in every woman. (Walters, 2005).

In the middle of 19th century, the situation for married women improved a little thanks to the process of Caroline Norton, who left her violent husband, but discovered the impossibility of claiming her rights over her children and property. What was more, according to the married women’s property laws of the time, all her earnings legally belonged to her husband. The divorce, although complicated for anyone to obtain, was, again, unequal to access for husbands and wives. According to Gamble (2006),

“a husband could sue his wife for divorce on grounds of adultery, whereas a wife had to prove incest or bigamy in addition to adultery” (p. 19). Norton produced pamphlets based on her own case, where she attacked these injustices using the law, made Parliament passed the set of acts, i.e. the Infant Custody Act (1839), Matrimonial Causes Act (1857) and the Married Women’s Property Act (1870), which improved the position of women in these issues, although only partly. The Infant Custody Act permitted women’s custody only on children under seven. It was not until 1873 that mothers obtained custody of children up to the age of sixteen, and not till 1973 that they obtained the same legal authority over their children as men. Although the position of married women improved a little, the growing numbers of single middle-class women (It was about 30% in the UK in

1851) were facing economic hardship as there were few working positions for women and even for those positions, women had limited or no education (Gamble, 2006).

Feminist activity in the United States started slightly earlier than in Great Britain.

American feminism emerged out of the anti-slavery movement. The first feminist activism began with the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and

Lucretia Mott. They initiated the convention after their previous experience from World

Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840, where they were banned from taking part in the debate just for being women. The Seneca Falls Convention called for equal rights, including the right to vote, both for women and for blacks. Demands were presented in a document called the Declaration of Sentiments (Gamble, 2006; Walters, 2005) and as a model they used the Declaration of Independence from 1776, which according to Rendall

(1985): “proclaimed the self-evident truth: 'that all men and women are created equal'” (p.

300). Women in America were enfranchised in 1920, although some states passed reform earlier, independently of the central government (Gamble, 2006)

4.3. Woman’s suffrage

Women, who strove for the right to vote for themselves ware called suffragists.

Surprisingly, they were not opposed only by men, but also by many women. Some of the opponents claimed that women’s interests were already represented by their husbands and it would be therefore inappropriate for them to vote in contrary to their husbands.

Other arguments were that wives’ interests were identical with their husbands, and it would only mean handing a second vote to the man of the household, or that only men fight for their country and therefore only they should own the right to vote. These rejections and mocking by the large part of public caused that suffragists achieved in the long period only small victories. Yet still, there were formed many organizations campaigning for women’s suffrage. The best-known and the most radical one was

Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), formed in the United Kingdom in 1903, which was led by the Pankhurst family. The WSPU started as a peaceful organization by holding mass meetings and organizing mass marching through the streets in the white dresses. However, they gradually shifted towards more militant action and became calling themselves as suffragettes. They were heckling politicians at public meetings, setting fire

22 to letterboxes, smashing shop windows, and eventually even burning stately homes. Many suffragettes were for such violent behaviour imprisoned. Some of the arrested women began protesting in jail by going on hunger strikes. The authorities began to force-feed these suffragettes, which often damaged their health. After being released, they gave evidence of the mistreating experienced in prison which aroused sympathy among the public which often saw them as martyrs. The campaign for the vote was suspended in

1914 by the First World War. At its end, in 1918, the right to vote was given to women over the age of 30, and in 1928 all women were enfranchised on the same terms as men

(Gamble, 2006 Walter, 2005).

5. The topic of feminism in the work of Virginia Woolf

As already mentioned earlier, Virginia Woolf’s work made a significant contribution to the development of feminist thoughts, and her work influenced many female feminist authors like the French writer Simone de Beauvoir (Crum, 2015).

Even though Virginia Woolf is being considered as one of the symbolic figures of the feminist movement, Woolf herself was very critical of the term “feminism”.

She attacked the term in her “A Room of One’s Own”, she saw it carrying a negative connotation which separates men and women. She feared to be labelled as a feminist author as the name was often given to the disliked women, and also because of her insecurity about her writing, which she worried was not good enough, and she feared that others will not take it seriously (Kathmann, 2012; Walter, 2005). Despite Woolf’s aversion to the term, she was aware of the women’s unfair situation and of the fact that women’s importance and skills are often ignored by society. And Although Woolf was never fully comfortable to express openly her political opinion, she herself joined the women’s suffrage movement which fought for women’s right to vote (Habermann,

2012).

In her works, she called for acceptance of different strengths and values of women and men, rather than for equal rights. She believed that women differ from men on the base of their different experiences and characterises rather than biology (Mills, 2004).

As the main goal that woman should obtain, Woolf considered gaining financial security and independence, however, it was very difficult to achieve. Firstly, the denial of the higher education put women in the dependent position from their very childhood. It was something Woolf experienced herself. Not only the impossibility of getting a good education but restriction of speaking up and presenting own intellectual ability,

24 put women in disadvantaged position. Secondly, according to Woolf, the role of a mother stopped women from gaining self-sufficiency because they had to choose between making money or being a mother. She demonstrated it in “A Room of One’s Own” on the character of Mrs Seton, who had thirteen children (Kathmann, 2012): “Making a fortune and bearing thirteen children—no human being could stand it” (p.19).

In the essay, Woolf also writes about the injustice which was committed on women, not long time ago, when they could not even possess or inherit any wealth since it legally belonged to their husbands:

...in the first place, to earn money was impossible for them, and in the second, had it been

possible, the law denied them the right to possess what money they earned. It is only for the

last forty-eight years that Mrs Seton has had a penny of her own. For all the centuries

before that it would have been her husband's property... Every penny I earn, they may have

said, will be taken from me and disposed of according to my husband's wisdom… (p. 20)

It was not until 1919 the Sex Disqualification Removal Act, when new employment opportunities were opened to women. Until then, they worked mostly in the fields of teaching and nursing. However, the act did not include the right of equal pay, so the employers could legally pay women less than men for the same work. Women in Great

Britain had to wait until 1970 (1963 in the United States) when the Equal Pay Act was finally established and guaranteed them the same money as men in the same position

(Kathmann, 2012).

In “A Room of One’s Own”, which is one of the founding text of 20th-century feminist literary criticism in Western literature, Woolf dealt with the topic of female writers (Mills, 2004). She was concerned with the issue of women and fiction, and she raised a question, which later became an object of the research by representatives of the feminist art movement: “why no woman wrote a word of that extraordinary literature

25 when every other man, it seemed, was capable of song or sonnet” (p. 35). She claimed that the reason for that is the absence of the same opportunities for men and women.

She argued that women need basic conditions to develop their intellectual potential and to be able to write, such as leisure time, privacy and economic independence:

“a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (p. 4).

Virginia Woolf believed that establishing a female tradition of writing is important, because women’s contribution to literature is beneficial since it differs from the men’s writing, according to Habib (as cited in Habermann, 2012): “Another main point in her

[Woolf’s] essay is that women possess a particular richness of language, which is more indirect, unconscious and softer than men’s”. (Habermann, 2012; Parsons, 2006). Woolf explained the differences between women’s and men’s writing as:

And since a novel has this correspondence to real life, its values are to some extent those of

real life. But it is obvious that the values of women differ very often from the values which

have been made by the other sex. (p. 62)

She claims that woman’s writing distinguishes from the man’s writing not only because it is simply written by woman, but because it contains woman’s reality and values, which are different than the man’s ones, for example: women will not write about war and killing, but probably will use more emphatic language.

Furthermore, Woolf debated the theory of androgyny, which according to Kathmann

(2012) is: “A mind containing both female and male powers” (p. 39). Woolf assumed that ideal writer has an androgynous mind, which enables him or her to achieve effective artistic expression, she wrote: “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple; one must be woman-manly or man-womanly” (p. 87). And: “Perhaps a mind that is purely masculine cannot create, any more than a mind that is purely feminine, I thought” (p. 82). She created

26 an androgynous character, which projected into the character of the same name in her novel Orlando (Gamble, 2006; Goldman, 2006).

Woolf’s second essay “Three Guineas” discusses further similar issues like “A Room of One’s Own”, however, according to Goldman (2006) it rather: “focuses on the political and social institutions of patriarchy and connects the politics of the rising fascism in Europe with the politics of the personal and domestic sphere at home” (p. 110) – she assumes that women are already fighting some kind of fascism, which Europa faced at that time, but in the domestic sphere: “They [feminists] were fighting the tyranny of the patriarchal state as you are fighting the tyranny of the Fascist state” (p.94). She continued to liken the politics and privacy when she compared female gender with nationhood and rejected the idea of female patriotism “in fact, as a woman, I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.”

(p. 99). Meaning that since women are denied the same privileges and honours as men, such as the right to vote, they have little sentiment to their country (Apter, 1979; Fernald,

2006).

Woolf argues against male privileges and their ongoing suppression of women and blames them for war: “the great majority of your sex are to-day in favour of war” (p. 8).

And she explains that man’s instinct to kill brings him a pleasure: “Here, immediately, are three reasons which lead your sex to fight; war is a profession; a source of happiness and excitement; and it is also an outlet for manly qualities, without which men would deteriorate” (p. 7). Woolf wrote “Three Guineas” (1938) in the shadow of the coming

Second World War, and as a pacifist, she feared it enormously. She was even prepared to commit a suicide if Nazis would approach their house (Kathmann, 2012; Mills, 2004).

With the upcoming war, Woolf completely rejected the word “feminism” as she no longer found it useful:

What more fitting than to destroy an old word, a vicious and corrupt word that has done

much harm in its day and is now obsolete? The word “feminist” is the word indicated. That

word, according to the dictionary, means “one who champions the rights of women.” Since

the only right, the right to earn a living, has been won, the word no longer has a meaning.

And a word without a meaning is a dead word, a corrupt word (p. 93).

The statement reflects her attitude towards the term, which caused many negative criticisms, she did not want to be connected. She perceived the meaning of the term only as juridical, seeking to win same legal rights for women. And thus, after women obtained the right to vote in 1918, she did not find the term useful anymore. However, it does not mean that she did not continue to fight patriarchy, but only outside the feminist movement since she found political activism as foolish (Kathmann, 2012; Mills, 2004).

The topic of feminism occurs in all Woolf’s novels. She often mocks the conservative social conventions, especially Victorian’s ones which affected her life and she saw them as an ominous echo of obsolete history being in a way of progress of the feminist movement. In her novels, Woolf often draws a comparison of Victorian and

“modern” time, like in To the Lighthouse, Between the Acts, Mrs Dalloway, or Orlando. She also interchanges the “typical” male and female traits in order to prove that division of gender roles is senseless and creates female inferiority towards men. It also functions as an interpretation of fluid sexuality since open portrayal of homosexuality was still controversial at that time.

6. Orlando

Orlando (1928) was written at about the same time as “A Room of One's Own” and therefore these two works show many resemblances and many themes which occur in the novel are discussed largely in Virginia Woolf’s essay. In 1927, when Woolf was finishing her novel To the Lighthouse, her mental health worsened. To ease her anxiety, Woolf wanted to write something lighter than her previous books (Mills, 2004).

Woolf (as cited in Pawlowski, 2003) made a note in her diary: “I feel the need of an escapade after these serious poetic experimental books whose form is always so closely considered. I want to kick up my heels and be off” (p. v). It shows that she wanted to have, above all, the fun and not to bother so much about the style or heavy topic.

In her diary, Woolf (as cited in Pawlowski, 2003) also wrote:

Orlando is of course a very quick brilliant book. Yes, but I did not try to explore…Orlando

taught me how to write a direct sentence; taught me continuity & narrative, & how to keep

the realities at bay. But I purposely avoided of course any other difficulty. I never got down

to my depths & made shapes square up… (p. x).

This suggests that Woolf took the writing of Orlando with ease. In her diary, she even admitted that towards the end of the book, she felt bored (Goldman, 2006).

Woolf titled the book as biographic, giving the full name Orlando: A Biography as she used the new style of biography where she blended facts with fiction (Pawlowski, 2003).

She praised such idea in her 1927 essay called The New Biography, where she criticized the Victorian biographical style, represented also by her father, for being concerned only with facts and observance of reality while neglecting the personality’s traits and fantasy, and offered a new approach of biographical style, which combined facts with fantasy

(Pawlowski, 2003; Briggs, c2006). One of the evidence of the mixing reality with fiction are the photographs of Orlando, which are part of the book.

In fact, they portray someone else, e.g. some photographs depict members of Sackville-

West’s family or Vita Sackville-West herself.

Vita Sackville-West, the woman whom the novel portrays, was a well-known lesbian, and she had a romantic affair with Woolf. Woolf met her in 1922 and about three years later, they started a romantic affair. Woolf found Sackville-West and her family history very fascinating and so she decided to write a biographic novel dedicated to her. Sackville-

West’s son Nigel Nicolson, who was a writer himself, described the novel as “the longest and most charming love letter in literature” (Pawlowski, 2003).

Sackville-West herself was already the author of two novels at the time she met

Woolf. Woolf asked Sackville-West for the copy of her recently published book called

Knole and the Sackvilles, where Sackville-West depicted the history of her aristocratic family from the thirteenth to the twentieth century (DeSalvo, 1982). In 1927, Woolf, amazed by the Sackvilles’ history, sent Sackville-West a letter, where she wrote about her plan to portrait Sackvile-West as a character of Orlando, she (as cited in Pawlowski, 2003) wrote her: “But listen; suppose Orlando turns out to be Vita; and it’s all about you and the lusts of your flesh and the lure of your mind? Shall you mind?” (p. v). Sackville-West was excited about Orlando from the very beginning and according to Glendinning (as cited in

Pawlowski, 2003), she replied Woolf back: “My God, Virginia, if ever I was thrilled and terrified it is at the prospect of being projected into the shape of Orlando.”

(p. vi). Although Sackville-West was excited to have a book based on her, she was not always confident about her romantic relationship with Woolf. Earlier, Sackville-West

(as cited in Freedman, c1980) wrote her husband Harold: “I am scared to death of arousing physical feelings in her, because of her madness.” (p. 195). Nonetheless,

Sackville-West felt exciting about Orlando, and wrote Woolf (as cited in Lawrence, 1994):

“You have invented a new form of Narcissism, - I confess -I am in love with Orlando-this is a complication I had not foreseen” (p. 189).

Woolf used a few aspects from Sackville-West’s life to depict some feminist issues, e.g. she used Sackville-West’s enormous family estate Knole in Kent to illustrate women’s unequal rights. Vita Sackville-West loved Knole and not only for its grandeur but also for the emotional value. She was even writing about it in her novels. However, although

Sackville-West was the only child of her parents, she could not inherit the house because as a woman she had no right of inheriting a property. Since her father had no male heir, Knole passed to his brother – Sackville-West’s uncle Charles. (Pawlowski,

2003; Whitworth, 2005) Sackville-West was badly affected by the loss. She admitted that the Knole had much bigger sentimental importance for her than the legal rights, which were to her as a woman denied. (Gay, 2006; Pawlowski, 2003).

Woolf was aware of Sackville-West’s feelings of hurt and so she set the plot of the novel around Orlando’s home, which bears many similarities with Knole.

Nevertheless, it was not the only resemblance of Sackville-West’s life with Orlando.

The story is stretched over three centuries which can also be seen as the time passing a parallel to Sackville-West’s book Knole and the Sackvilles, which takes space in the long period of time. Also, the characters of Orlando imitate people in Sackville-

West’s life, like Sasha, the Russian princes, represents female writer Violet Trefusis, with whom Sackville-West had a love affair, or Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmeried portrayed on Sackville-West’s husband Harold Nicholson (Pawlowski, 2003).

Harold Nicholson, diplomat and author, was homosexual himself and since his marriage with Sackville-West was more of a friendship than a sexual relationship, he did not mind his wife’s extramarital affair with Woolf (Goldman, 2006; Whitworth,

2005). Nicholson was one of the people that Woolf took inspiration from when creating a new biographical form. In her essay “The New Biography”, Woolf reviewed Nicholson’s work and appreciated the way he combines the reality and imagination (Pawlowski, 2003).

Sackville-West was surely an inspiration for Woolf, as much as Woolf for

Sackville-West. They had a positive impact on one another’s life and literary output, according to DeSalvo (1982): “Neither [Woolf and Sackville-West] had ever written so much so well, and neither would ever again reach this peak of accomplishment”

(p. 196). Although Woolf and Sackville-West were very different, they shared the same experience from their childhood which deeply affected them – being the girls, neither one could attend the school and thus they lacked the contact with their peers. Each of them also witnessed the unhappy events in their families. While Woolf was touched by her mother’s death, Sackville-West was affected by the divorce of her parents.

Their shared past was probably the foundation stone of their relationship, which nonetheless ended in 1935. One of the reasons why their love affair finished was their different views on pacifism. Sackville-West criticized Woolf’s essay “Three Guineas”, where war and peace play the main part of (DeSalvo, 1982). Another reason why their relationship cooled off was Sackville-West’s beginning lesbian affair with Mary Margaret

Garman Campbell, a member of Bloomsbury group. Woolf, full of jealousy, sent letter to

Sackville-West, where she threatened her: “If you’ve given yourself to Campbell, I’ll have no more to do with you, and so it shall be written, plainly, for all the world to read in

Orlando” (Gay, 2006; Mahon, 2007). Woolf’s declining interest in Sackville-West noticed even Woolf’s sister Vanessa Bell, who (as cited in Goldman, 2006) wrote that: “[Vita

Sackville-West] has simply become Orlando the wrong way round – I mean turned into a man” (p. 20). However, despite the end of their intimate relationship, they remained friends until Woolf’s death in 1941 (DeSalvo, 1982).

Orlando is divided into six chapters, each represents one time period in history:

Elizabethan era in the Renaissance – late 16th century, Restoration – 17th century,

Enlightenment – 18th century, Romanticism – end of 18th century, Victorian era –

19th century and Edwardian era – the “presence” – beginning of 20th century. Altogether the novel stretches over the period of three centuries. (DeSalvo, 1982; Pawlowski, 2003).

6.1. First chapter

The first chapter begins with the sentence: “HE for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it” (p. 5) to make clear that Orlando is a man. The following image of Orlando slicing the head of a Moor, portrays him, as well as his male ancestors, as a hunter and a man with typical attributes like a fascination with the violence and war. The sentence: “Violence was all” (p. 12) demonstrates men’s fondness for fighting and brutality. However, shortly after, Orlando’s softer side is presented as he writes poetry and shows an interest in nature. Later in the chapter, Orlando turns down his fiancée Favilla for whipping a dog because it is for him, as an animal lover, unacceptable. This reflects the conflict between the expected and natural behaviour. Orlando violates such expectations of how a man should behave because although he was taught to admire violence, he detests it.

Orlando’s character seems to be rather timid and shy which is in contrary with expectation of the man of his position at that time. As mentioned previously, men were educated to be leaders while women were the timid ones whose place were at home.

Orlando stops in front of the room where the servants live and notices a man, who is writing. Despite the curiosity about man’s piece of writing, his shyness does not allow him to approach the man as he seems not to notice Orlando – even though

Orlando is a nobleman and the man is probably only a servant, described as fat and with

33 a dirty appearance. Orlando thinks: “How speak to a man who does not see you?” (p. 9), which might be seen as a parallel to women at that time who were “invisible” and were usually afraid to speak up and share their thoughts, which is presented in the following sentence: “The women were scarcely less bold in their speech and less free in their manners than the birds.” (p. 13). For women was difficult to express themselves due to lack of their education and consequently their missing confidence.

The Elizabethan era in the late 16th century was, as already mentioned, the period when women began to be heard, although, without any bigger improvement. In the first chapter, Woolf rather than men blames the social climate of that time. She raises the question: “It was Orlando’s fault perhaps; yet, after all, are we to blame Orlando?

The age was the Elizabethan; their morals were not ours” and continues: “Thus if Orlando followed the leading of the climate…we can scarcely bring ourselves to blame him.”

(p. 12). The explanation for that is possible to find in “A Room of One’s Own”, where

Woolf writes about the life of women in Elizabethan age and she mentions that: “They had no money evidently, […] they were married whether they liked it or not before they were out of the nursery, at fifteen or sixteen very likely” (pp. 38-39). The social norms of that time did not allow women to express themselves outside the household since their future was determined “at the nursery”. Therefore, Woolf blames the whole society for setting the norms, which others blindly followed.

When Orlando meets the Russian princess, he is enchanted by her figure, although is not, at the first sight, clear, whether she is a man or woman – it is the first time in the novel, when the topic of androgyny occurs as he is immidiately attracted by her:

“extraordinary seductiveness which issued from the whole person” (p. 17) even before he finds that she is a woman. It signalizes that human’s personality is not limited by the gender but can consist of both “feminine” and “masculine” traits.

Orlando experiences true love for the first time in his life, but Princess leaves him without any warning on the same night when “The Great Frost”, that stroke Britain in the Elizabethan era, finally eases up. It symbolizes possible liberation of frozen conventional British society. The ice on the frozen river melts and the river gains its freedom. The free river is metaphor for princess’ opportunity to escape from possible future marriage with Orlando, since women could not decide who they will marry. Woolf used a symbol of water as an escape from the conservative past and patriarchal system also in The Voyage Out. The cracking ice can therefore mean the breaking of conventional thinking of Elizabethan age in terms of women’s right.

6.2. Chapter 2

Orlando meets with Mr Nicholas Greene – “a very famous writer at that time”, to ask him about his opinion of Orlando’s work. However, Greene betrays him by roasting his work in a satiric pamphlet. The stress of the importance of money which is one of the main themes in the essay “A Room of Own’s Own” is mentioned by Greene in

Orlando: “Had I a pension of three hundred pounds a year paid quarterly, I would live for

Glawr [Gloire] alone.” (p. 43) – if women had the right to earn money they would be able to write. The character of Mr Nicholas Greene appears also in “A Room of One’s Own” as an actor-manager, who impregnates and thus ruins the life of Shakespeare’s imaginary sister Judith. Both in the novel and in the essay, Greene represents distasteful person, he is further mentioned in

“A Room of One’s Own” (2000): “Nick Greene, I thought, remembering the story I had made about Shakespeare's sister, said that a woman acting put him in mind of a dog dancing.” (p. 46) – Restoration era, in which the second chapter of Orlando takes a part, brought women a possibility to work as an actress, although, they were often ridiculed

35 for that as the profession was perceived with similar respect as a prostitution (Walters, 2005). Besides that, the Restoration period did not bring any bigger improvement in women’s rights, as is suggested in Orlando: “‘Time passed’…and nothing whatever happened.” (p. 47).

Another topic which occurs in the chapter is a war, which Woolf saw as an evil thing created by men. Orlando ruminates about the death, in a tomb where his ancestors, who killed many people, lie: “But of all that killing and campaigning …, what remained? A skull; a finger.” (p. 39), the topic of war is analysed in depth in “Three Guineas”: “Why fight?—is not an answer of any value. ” (p. 6) Woolf asserts that writing has much bigger value: “a man who had written a book and had it printed, which outshone all the glories of blood and state” (p. 29), and although everybody turns into dust and ashes, the writers create something which, unlike a war, lasts: “this man [English author Sir Thomas Browne] and his words were immortal.”

(p. 39). Woolf holds the view that writing is more difficult than fighting because to create something is always more demanding than to destroy something. However, the wars and destruction are men’s demonstration of their power, which oppresses women. Woolf presents women as ones who create life in opposite to men who destroy it.

The hint of androgyny occurs in this chapter when Orlando detects a strange tall lady on his estate. When she turns up for the third time, they finally talk, and Orlando finds out that she is Archduchess Harriet Griselda, which is a character made after a real person from Vita Sackville-West’s life – Lord Lascelles (Pawlowski, 2003). Lord Lascelles was

Sackville-West’s suitor, Sackville-West (as cited in Curiosa, 2013) wrote about him:

I can’t think how he found the courage to say it, for he is very timid. Lunch was difficult,

but he behaved very well. He has every virtue, but he is not simpatico. He is tall, and not

too ugly, but he has a silly laugh. He will be very rich. He always looks terrified.

All the features can be found in Orlando who describes Archduchess as “a hare whose timidity is overcome by an immense and foolish audacity”, “[she] rising to her full height again, which must have been something over six feet two”, “nervous laughter, so much tee-heeing and haw-hawing that Orlando thought she must have escaped from a lunatic asylum” (p. 55), the Archduchess also talks about Queen and King, who she knows personally, which indicates her connections that signals that she must be rich.

When Orlando invites the Archduchess to his house, he finds out that she is not “simpatico”: “her manners regained the hauteur natural”, and the “difficult lunch” which means uneasy conversation can be found in a sentence: “the talk would have lacked spontaneity.” (p. 56). Orlando is at first overcame by the passion he feels towards the Archduchess, but suddenly, the air seems dark and Orlando realizes that something is odd as he finds out that Archduchess has: “two bodies; one smooth, the other hairy.”

And that when she “turned the other way round; showed herself black, hairy, brutish”

(p. 57) the “hairy” attribute signalizes that the Archduchess might be an Archduke instead, which scares Orlando. After such unpleasant experience, he decides to leave for Constantinople, which is the place to which Sackville-West journeyed as well (Curiosa,

2013). The change of Archduchess could be described as homosexual or transvestite, and her unveiling, which does not happen until they are in the privacy, might suggest the difference between public and private life, which was in the conservative British society huge. Such gap felt especially women, who were dismissed from public life as they could not attend public places like universities. Moreover, they were forbidden speaking in public and consequently they lost their own individuality, which belonged to their husbands. Woolf criticized the separation of public and private spheres as it affected women who lived only in the private spehre, while men could move freely from one to another (Snaith, 2003).

6.3. Chapter three

Orlando, now Ambassador in Constantinople, is enchanted by the Turkish city. As he observes the city from his room, he feels the difference between Constantinople and

London (as cited from Pawlowski, 2003): “buildings [in Constantinople] seem to float above ground defying fixity, is a place where even sexual fluidity is possible”

(p. xix), unlike traditional London where genders and sexuality are strictly defined.

The difference between East and West is noticeable in the whole novel: the promiscuous

Russian princess, transvestite Roumanian Archduchess Harriet Griselda or Orlando himself when he does not change his gender until he is in Constantinople.

Orlando attends many diplomatic ceremonies, but he is bored by them as they all seem fake: the discussed topics are only pretended courtesy, people drink coffee without actual coffee and smoke pipes without tobacco. One day, after a party, a woman of the “peasant class” is seen to climbs to Orlando’s room and to be romantically engaged in his company. The following day, Orlando is found asleep and nobody is able to wake him.

People found a deed of marriage signed by Orland and Rosina Pepita. Pepita was

Sackville-West’s grandmother and a gypsy dancer. Sackville-West admired gypsy culture as she found it much more liberating than the British one (Blair, 2004).

On the seventh day of Orlando’s slumber, three Gods come to him: Truth, Candour, and Honesty, and they cry: “The Truth and nothing but the Truth!” (p. 65) However, the room is entered by another three figures: Lady of Purity, Lady of Chastity, and Lady of

Modesty. These three figures are trying to expel the Truth:

Truth, come not out from your horrid den. Hide deeper, fearful Truth. For you flaunt in the

brutal gaze of the sun things that were better unknown and undone; you unveil the

shameful; the dark you make clear. Hide! Hide! Hide! (p. 66)

This signalises that the Truth wants to reveal something which is according to these three

Ladies scandalous and immoral because qualities like purity, chastity, and modesty are more valuable than “dirty” truth. However, the Ladies are defeated by the Truth and so they decide to leave, they are mumbling:

[For] those who love us; those who honour us, virgins and city men; lawyers and doctors;

those who prohibit; those who deny; those who reverence without knowing why; those who

praise without understanding; the still very numerous (Heaven be praised) tribe of the

respectable; who prefer to see not; desire to know not; love the darkness; those still worship

us, and with reason; for we have given them Wealth, Prosperity, Comfort, Ease. (pp. 66-67)

The Truth won. Orlando wakes up and the trumpets call “Truth! Truth! Truth!”, and Orlando is now a woman. The three Ladies are a symbol of puritan conventions that value modesty over the truth, which when swerves from the deep-rooted norms was considered to be shameless and deviant. Consequently, people who chose to reveal the real self, had to face discomfort and difficulties because the society which norms strictly separated the genders and suppress sexuality, looked on such people as impure and immoral. Woolf saw the people who reject the truth as ignorant individuals living in the darkness.

The third chapter represents the Age of Enlightenment, which brought a little bit of light and freedom into people’s thinking. It is the right time for Orlando’s transformation because at that time women like Mary Wollstonecraft argued for a change of social reforms (as I summarise in chapter 4.2.). The period before Enlightenment called “dark age” was full of social taboos, and therefore, people who refuse such freedom are those who “love the darkness”. It suggests that Orlando had to wait until Enlightenment time because before such a thing would be inadmissible.

When Orlando wakes up, she remembers everything that had happened before she fell asleep, unlike when she had fallen asleep in the first chapter and could not remember anything after the princess had left him. It might signify that what influences us is our surroundings, other people, society, and customs: “Orlando had become a woman—there is no denying it. But in every other respect, Orlando remained precisely as he had been.” (p.

67), meaning that our inner self does not depend on whether we are man or woman, but it is shaped by upbringing, education, and traditions. Woolf suggests that our gender does not define us, but it is the outer world that does. The ones who suffer from it the most are women. It is affirmed in Orlando: “The change of sex, though it altered their future, did nothing whatever to alter their identity.” (p. 67), which means that already by person’s birth is decided about his or her future role in the society on the grounds of the gender.

Orlando could be seen also as a transgender. In fact, he/she is not even shocked by such a transformation but takes it naturally.: “Orlando looked himself up and down in a long looking-glass, without showing any signs of discomposure” (p. 67). Although for

Orlando the change is natural, for conservative society it is something inexplicable:

Many people, taking this into account, and holding that such a change of sex is against

nature, have been at great pains to prove (1) that Orlando had always been a woman, (2)

that Orlando is at this moment a man. (p. 68)

Both explanations still lead to the ambiguity of sex, which is emphasized by Orlando’s

Turkish clothes, which can be worn by either sex. Woolf, again, opens the topic of androgyny, which she sees as natural because it brings the best from each gender:

“His form combined in one the strength of a man and a woman’s grace.” (p. 67), and she comes up with the simple explanation of the transformation: “Orlando was a man till the age of thirty; when he became a woman and has remained so ever since.” (p. 68) which,

40 with regard to the still conservative society in which Woolf lived, seems as a self- censoring. Moreover, it also ridicules people’s way of thinking as they accept the surreal explanation rather than simple truth.

Afterward, Orlando decides to leave Constantinople and joins the gypsies.

At the beginning, she feels happy because they do not distinguish between men and women like people in British society does. Woolf suggests that gender roles are not a biological thing but rather the social one. Although the gypsies are impecunious, they seem to enjoy the life more than the rich British society. They are free, they smoke the real tobacco and drink the real coffee. when Orlando recalls how she pretended smoking and drinking in the boring diplomatic ceremonies, she laughs as it now seems ridiculous to her, as she enjoys her new unrestricted life. Nevertheless, after some time Orlando gets into the conflict with gypsies, who share different ideas about God and possession of wealth. Orlando begins to feel different from them, not because of her gender, but because of her beliefs and thoughts and so she decides to leave back to London. This, again, suggests that people are determined by the environment in which they grow up and by the values they accept as natural, rather than by their biological gender – Orlando was able to change from man to woman painlessly, but she cannot change her British values and beliefs in which she was raised in. This is the explanation of the unchangeable position of women: the rigid society, which hands down its conventions from generation to generation, accepts the women’s inferiority as natural because the environment where people live in has bigger impact on their behaviour and thinking than the biology. Woolf implies that if society would accept gender neutrality as natural, people would gain more individual freedom and they would be happier – just like gypsies.

6.4. Chapter four

Orlando, now a woman, is sailing back to Great Britain. It is not until she is on the deck of the ship that she becomes to realize her gender which she did not have to give much thought when she was dressed in her unisex Turkish clothes and surrounded by the gipsies who did not distinguish between men and women. But now, being closer and closer to conservative Britain, she begins to think about her new “start” and her new role that she is obliged to play. The role which is given to her on the grounds of her sex and not based on her personality and experience.

The uncomfortable “coil of skirts about her legs” and a politeness from the Captain makes her realize that she will obtain some privileges, but at the same time she has to give up the liberty. The women’s liberty related to her chastity, which was considered one of the woman’s most essential qualities: “the whole edifice of female government is based on that foundation stone; chastity is their jewel, their centrepiece, which they run mad to protect, and die when ravished of.” (p. 75). Woolf saw chastity as one of the reasons why women were kept in anonymity – in “A Room of One’s Own”, she wrote: “It was the relic of the sense of chastity that dictated anonymity to women even so late as the nineteenth century.” (p. 42) and further blamed the chastity as one of the reasons why “there are no plays by women” (p. 42). The part of women’s chastity was also to keep the beauty of their body covered. When Orlando, by mistake, shows a little of his ankle and this catches a sight of one of the sailors who violently tug, she apprehends that she must stay covered because it is “the sacred responsibility of womanhood”, which indicates that one of the very few responsibilities of women was the protection of her body and women were the ones to blame if they “seduced” a man.

This was something that feminists criticized. They saw a woman rather as a victim of oppressive patriarchal system (Gamble, 2006). Mary Wollstonecraft also rejected

42 the concept where women should be responsible for male violence, according to Poskin

(2006): “She ridiculed the notion of women as meek and modest; as attractive and shallow playthings for men.” (p. 2).

Orlando continues to consider her possibilities and obligations and admits:

“this is a pleasant, lazy way of life, to be sure” however, she realizes that she is now forbidden to certain things like swimming because her dress makes it impossible and thus she has to rely on a man to save her. Mary Wollstonecraft, the most important female writer of that times in terms of feminism, wrote about it in her works: she assumed that taking away the responsibility of woman’s own life makes her inevitably lazy and vain because she gets used to relying on somebody else. The scene where the Captain is cutting a thin slice of the fat for Orlando, depicts women’s lack of self-reliance and makes them just passive puppets, who can only decide whether they resist or yield, but they themselves do not produces any activity. Orlando, after she became aware of her new position, founds herself depressed: “must I then begin to respect the opinion of the other sex, however monstrous I think it? … I must!” (p.76). Orlando admits that “as a young man, she had insisted that women must be obedient, chaste, scented, and exquisitely apparelled.” (p. 76)

But now, being trapped in a woman’s body she realizes that: “women are not obedient, chaste, scented, and exquisitely apparelled by nature. They can only attain these graces, without which they may enjoy none of the delights of life, by the most tedious discipline.”

(p. 77) which signifes that although women’s lives seem to be carefree and simple, it is paid by the highest price of all: freedom. Orlando is aware of such price which she must pay now: “[Orlando] felt that however much landing there [in Britain] meant comfort, meant opulence, meant consequence and state, […] still, if it meant conventionality, meant slavery, meant deceit…” (p. 80).

Orlando assumes, that the position of women is purposely created by men by denying women education: “to deny a woman teaching lest she may laugh at you; to be the slave of the frailest chit in petticoats, and yet to go about as if you were the Lords of creation.—Heavens!” (p. 77). Here, she mocks men for suppressing women because, in fact, they are afraid of women. Orlando, however, mocks also women: “what fools they make of us— what fools we are!” (p. 77) – her anger is probably pointed against women, who believed that they are supposed to behave the certain way otherwise they are not good enough women. And through the feminist history, it was often women who criticized the progressive feministic ideas (Walters, 2005).

At the end of the voyage, near the British shores and social conventions, Orlando suddenly becomes to celebrate her new gender: “Praise God that I’m a woman!” (p. 78).

The chapter takes place during the Romantic period when the “feminist program” declined a little after the age of Enlightenment. The modesty of woman was stressed as her highest virtue. Mary Wollstonecraft, noted, that women are obsessed by love and see it as the highest value: to find a husband, who will take care of them, and therefore they give up their own responsibility (Walters, 2005). Orlando comes to the conclusion, which corresponds with these Romanticism thoughts:

Better is […] to be clothed with poverty and ignorance, which are the dark garments of the

female sex; better to leave the rule and discipline of the world to others; better to be quit of

martial ambition, the love of power, and all the other manly desires if so one can more fully

enjoy the most exalted raptures known to the human spirit, which are […] contemplation,

solitude, love. (p. 78)

Wollstonecraft presented women’s fear of that time, which was to be labelled as masculine, because if women are ranked only on their feminineness, which meant modesty, the more “feminine” a woman was, the better chance she had to find a good

44 husband, which was at the time, when women had very few opportunities, necessary for their lives. Wollstonecraft herself was labelled by many critics as unfeminine only because she stressed the importance of female education (Walters, 2005). Woolf continues in her criticism of denial of women’s right to education: “Ignorant and poor as we are compared with the other sex, [...] armoured with every weapon as they are, while they debar us even from a knowledge of the alphabet” (p. 78), meaning that all power is concentrated in men’s hand leaving women in the secondary position.

Orlando, who now seems to accept the fact that he needs to adapt to the social convention which awaits him in Britain, still struggles with her new role – she wants to tell the Captain that she was an Ambassador and experienced great things, but she does not know how to express herself. It signals (as cited in Woolf, 2000): “the relic of the sense of chastity that dictated anonymity to women” (p. 42). Such anonymity made it difficult for women to speak up and present their thoughts because thanks to their inferior position they were rarely taken seriously.

When Orlando arrives at her home, she finds out that several lawsuits were brought against her:

(1) that she was dead, and therefore could not hold any property whatsoever; (2) that she

was a woman, which amounts to much the same thing; (3) that she was an English Duke

who had married one Rosina Pepita, a dancer; and had had by her three sons, which sons

now declaring that their father was deceased, claimed that all his property descended to

them. (p. 82).

Woolf noted: “Thus it was in a highly ambiguous condition, uncertain whether she was alive or dead, man or woman” (p. 82), which, however ridiculous it is, was the reality for women since they could not possess or inherit property. It was the case of Vita Sackville-

West, and Woolf excellently demonstrated the absurdity of this law on Orlando’s

45 character, who, although the same personality, lost his rights on the ground of his outer appearance.

Woolf continues in the absurd tone when Orlando is visited again by Archduchess

Harriet, who confesses that he is a man and he pretended to be a woman only because he is in love with Orlando. The two enter the conversation and they swap the roles based on their new gender. The conversation is awkward, and Orlando tries to figure out how to get rid of his annoying companion because since now she is a woman, she can no longer

“knock a man over the head or run him through the body with a rapier” (p. 89) and so

Orlando comes up with the idea of being less feminine, which should make Archduke lose his interest in her. It seems to him like a great plan since women’s highest virtue is their feminineness. Orlando tries to cheat in a game as cheating in order to win or gain something appear as a masculine characteristic. Archduke, even though he is upset by it, forgives Orlando because “there were no witnesses” and “she was, after all, only a woman” – Woolf attacks the men’s ego, which is so puffed up, that it might forgive malice, but would not stand being ridiculed publicly – which is the collision between the private and public life. The Archduke is willing to forgive Orlando his deception because after all, she is only a woman, who possess many weaknesses and for this reason is inferior to men. Finally, Orlando manages to dispose of the Archduke by throwing a toad in between them. The toad as a symbol of something distasteful, which no respectable woman would be able to lay her hand on, disgusts Archduke as he sees

Orlando as too masculine – hence not worthy. The irony is that the Archduke felt in love with Orlando, while he was a man and forgave him even the fact that he left him. However, the toad is in his eyes something unforgivable. This demonstrates the absurdity of social conventions.

Some change in Orlando is, however, seen as she behaves more modestly and vainly: she hides the fact that she is writing, and she becomes to be enchanted by her beauty. It is caused by the women dress Orlando now wears. Woolf notes: “Clothes are but a symbol of something hid deep beneath.” (p. 92). It suggests that women’s and men’s clothes differ in the same way as differ their social roles. Female clothes makes women passive and dependent on men because it restrict their movement – unlike male clothes which is loose and therefore enable men to move freely.

The image of clothes as a social convention occurs through the whole novel. When

Orlando put on Turkish loose trousers which are worn by both sexes, she did not even notice the change of the gender. Woolf hints: “Had they both [men and women] worn the same clothes, it is possible that their outlook might have been the same too” (p. 92).

Woolf assumes that clothes are one of the tools how to distinguish men and women because: “Different though the sexes are, they intermix” (p. 92) and states that Orlando has both typical male’s and female’s characteristics and thus it is difficult to decide whether he is a man or a woman, but the clothes define Orlando as a woman and so she must behave as a woman. On the other hand, the Archduke “became” a woman just because he dressed like one.

The clothes function as a symbol of characteristics which are artificially attached to a particular gender and overlook the fact that they might intermix independently on the gender. Orlando decides to put on men’s clothes after she hears Lord Chesterfield whispered to his son: “Women are but children of a larger growth…” (p. 105) and continues by saying that although men compliment women, it does not mean that they would respect their opinions. Woolf took the passage from the Letters to His Son, which were an actual letter of the Earl of Chesterfield, where the author advised his son about life

(Popova, 2006). Woolf points out the problem that girls are raised by their mothers and

47 boys by their fathers: “Fathers instructed their sons, mothers their daughters. No education was complete for either sex” (p. 95) and such (as cited in Gay, 2006): “thinking back through our mothers” (p. 132) does evolve people’s thinking very little and very slow.

Orlando decides to change the clothes depending on whether she wants to devote to the men’s or women’s activity, which means that each person possesses both female and male characteristics and naturally swap from one to the another.

6.5. Chapter five

The great cloud which covered Great Britain by the darkness marked the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century. This is a metaphor for Woolf’s criticism of the puritan Victorian era, which she and all Bloomsbury group declined. Woolf was affected by the Victorian upbringing which meant that girls were educated at home and when they reached the age of eighteen, they were “introduced to the society”. It meant that they attended the social events in order to find a husband, according to Whitworth

(2005): “For the early Victorian woman, marriage was regarded as ‘a final event’: ‘beyond it, she was expected to find no new development, no new emotion” (p. 9). Woolf mocks this Victorian tradition when Orlando decides to find husband only because everybody else has a wedding ring and couples seem to be “somehow stuck together” as a one piece, which makes Orlando conclude that a single woman without a husband has no value.

When Orlando asks a widowed woman, Mrs. Bartholomew, to see her wedding ring, she refuses because there is nobody who could make her take it off, because her husband: “had put it on her finger twenty-five years, six months, three weeks ago; she had slept in it; worked in it; washed in it; prayed in it; and proposed to be buried in it”

(p. 119). It implies that the ring which symbolizes an institution of marriage was everything to her as a woman, and she saw it as a peak of her life and as her biggest

48 achievement. Marriage stole the women’s identity as they were only wives of their husbands. Under the pressure of conventions, Orlando decides that she must find a husband for herself too even though she is not in love with anyone. She sets out to find a man, but on her way, she breaks her ankle. She is salvaged by men and in a few minutes, they engage. Woolf was probably inspired by the novel Sense and Sensibility by Jane

Austin, where the same scene occurs. Austin’s novel also mocks the puritan tradition and deals with the women’s difficult situation which is caused by the lack of the same rights as men, like the law of inheritance (Andreou & Thalos, 2007). Therefore, women’s only option was to seek husbands to secure their future. Orlando learns the man’s name the next day; his name is Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine. The character is portrayed on

Sackville-West’s husband, Harold Nicholson (Pawlowski, 2003). The scene illustrates, as well as in Sense and Sensibility, the purpose of marriage in the Victorian age, which served to women to solely secure themselves and not as “In the old days, one would meet a boy trifling with a girl under a hawthorn hedge frequently enough.”

(p. 119) – To marry out of love. Woolf portrays the Victorian era as the most evil one, and as the one she hates the most:

Orlando had inclined herself naturally to the Elizabethan spirit, to the Restoration spirit, to

the spirit of the eighteenth century, and had in consequence scarcely been aware of the

change from one age to the other. But the spirit of the nineteenth century was antipathetic to

her in the extreme, and thus it took her and broke her, and she was aware of her defeat at its

hands as she had never been before. (p. 120)

As an explanation, except for Woolf’s own experience, is also the fact that after

Romanticism there was not any noticeable improvement in women’s rights, but rather decay, which she demonstrates on a crinoline. Crinoline is according to Cambridge dictionary is (1999): “a stiff frame worn under a woman’s skirt to give it a full

49 appearance”. A crinoline was worn even earlier, but Romanticism brought more loose and comfortable clothes. However, the Victorian era introduced crinoline again, but in a more extreme way than ever before:

[Orlando] stood mournfully at the drawing-room window […] dragged down by

the weight of the crinoline which she had submissively adopted. It was heavier and

more drab than any dress she had yet worn. None had ever so impeded her

movements. (p. 121).

As clothes play a big part in the novel, Woolf now suggests that crinoline which restricts women’s movement more than ever before signalises that woman’s status is also lower than ever before. Even though this statement is not completely true, as Victorian age brought some minor improvements in women’s rights. However, Woolf sees the whole era as an enemy which stops her generation in achieving the liberty and independence they seek. Moreover, it degrades women to the position of nothing more than wives and mothers. For example, Orlando is not able to write in this period even though she would like to. Woolf was astounded also by the fact that even when woman bore a child, she tried to keep it in secret as long as possible, which a crinoline helped to achieve:

every modest woman did her best to deny until denial was impossible; the fact that she was

about to bear a child? to bear fifteen or twenty children indeed, so that most of a modest

woman’s life was spent, after all, in denying what, on one day at least every year, was made

obvious (p. 116)

Pregnancy was a delicate topic in the Victorian era and was not openly discussed

(Green, 2014). According to Joshi (2017): “For Victorian women, childbirth was their service to their husbands.” Woolf disapproved with the Victorian society because she saw it as a deepening of already divided genders: “The sexes drew further and further apart. No

50 open conversation was tolerated.” (p. 113). Woolf’s criticism of Victorian retrograded society contrasts with the relationship of Orlando and Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmeried, whom Orlando calls Shel. They surprisingly understand each other and they are even able to have an interesting conversation. It makes them think that each of them possesses different gender than they actually do: “You’re a woman, Shel!” she cried. “You’re a man, Orlando!” he cried.” (p. 124). The confusion is made because both hold the opposite characteristics to the traditional view on men and women, and they discover that they are not defined by such conventions, but each of them is a complex personality compound of both female and male qualities.

6.6. Chapter six

Orlando is now in the “modern age”, which takes place in the Edwardian era, and she begins to evaluate her life up till now. She looks at her wedding ring and speculates whether she got married because of the pressure of society or because she really wanted, and comes to the conclusion that “she had never felt better in her life”

(p. 130), which means that it is something she wanted, but she could not know that in the Victorian era since she had had no option there. However, Orlando still has her doubts:

“She was married, true; but […] if one still wished, more than anything in the whole world, to write poetry, was it marriage?” (p. 130) She takes a pen and finally finishes her poem

The Oak Tree, which she was not able to finish in three centuries. This means that to be a married woman does not exclude having own personality and profession.

Orlando bumps into Nick Greene and after he reads her The Oak Tree, which impresses him, he decides to immediately publish it. The poem becomes a success. Woolf expresses that Orlando had to wait over three centuries to be able to write and publish her writing, and the same person – Nick Greene – who before scoffed at Orlando’s writing,

51 takes it finally seriously. Woolf demonstrates the slow progress of women’s position in the society since they were rarely taken seriously. It is manifested in the passage, where Woolf describes the biographer’s point of view on female writers: “when we are writing the life of a woman, we may, it is agreed, waive our demand for action, and substitute love instead.

Love, the poet has said, is woman’s whole existence” (p.132) which assumes that woman’s entire life revolves only around love and marriage and she herself is not able to produce any other valuable ideas: “(and as long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking). And then she will write him a little note (and as long as she writes little notes nobody objects to a woman writing either” (p. 133). Women had to often self-censure themselves or write in anonymity, usually using a male name.

In “A Room of One’s Own”, Woolf (2000) talks about female writers who chose to stay in anonymity because of the dictate of conventions: “all the victims of inner strife as their writings prove, sought ineffectively to veil themselves by using the name of a man.”

(p. 42).

Orlando, by the end of the novel, gives birth to her son. It is on March the 20th, which is not the actual date of Vita Sackville-West’s son birth, but the March is a month when Sackville-West finished her poem The Land which Woolf substituted with the title

The Oak Tree in the novel. Also, in March, Woolf completed Orlando (Pawlowski, 2003).

It may suggest that woman is capable to “produce” both a child and a piece of writing and does not have to choose between family and her career but can do both things together equally well. However, the large number of children that women in the Victorian era and earlier used to have enabled them to be occupied with other activities than only taking care of their children. It changed in the Edwardian era, when: “families were much smaller” (p. 147). Woolf mentioned the issue in “A Room of One’s Own”: “Moreover, the economists are telling us that Mrs Seton has had too many children. You must,

52 of course, go on bearing children, but, so they say, in twos and threes, not in tens and twelves.” (p. 94). Therefore, Woolf does not consider motherhood as an obstacle to having a career if a woman has a reasonable number of children.

Although Orlando is slightly worried about what future brings, she finds the

“presence” better than the previous times, which is depicted by the changing weather:

The sky itself, she could not help thinking had changed. It was no longer so thick, so

watery, so prismatic now that King Edward—see, there he was, stepping out of his neat

brougham to go and visit a certain lady opposite—had succeeded Queen Victoria. (p. 146).

It means, that the “dark” conservative Victorian era was over, and new more liberate

Edwardian era began. More liberate convention are portrayed also by Orlando’s clothes:

“Orlando change her skirt for a pair of whipcord breeches, and leather jacket, which she did in less than three minutes, was to be ravished with the beauty of movement.” (p. 156).

The possibility for a woman to wear trousers – the masculine symbol – which gives her a freedom of movement, was something inconceivable in the previous ages.

Orlando feels finally liberated also from the social conventions which each era required, and she comes to the conclusion that she has many personalities and that she:

“wishes to be nothing but one self, […] the true self, and it is, they say, compact of all the selves we have it in us to be” (p. 153), which means to live in the present time and be who you really are, whether man or woman, heterosexual or homosexual. The novel ends when the clock strikes: “midnight, Thursday, the eleventh of October, Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-eight.” (p. 162), which is the exact date when the novel was published

(Whitworth, 2005) and thus Orlando was “born”. It was also the year when women were given the right to vote in the Great Britain (Pawlowski, 2003), which made them finally the equal citizens on the same conditions as men.

7. Conclusion

Virginia Woolf’s Orlando may be seen as a probe into the history of feminism in Great Britain from the Renaissance to the Edwardian era. Woolf portrayed how social conventions in different periods affected women and their role in the society. Woolf uses the character of Orlando, who changes his gender in the middle of the novel, to demonstrate the absurdity of women’s oppression and their enforced inferior positions towards men, which is caused by the lack of education and unequal rights on the mere basis of their gender. Orlando, despite the fact that he remains the same person inside, is forced to change the behaviour and manners and loses his house only because he changed his outer appearance as he turns into a woman. Woolf assumed that a person’s life is in large measure determined by birth, depending on whether a person is born as a man or as a woman.

The androgynous character of Orlando shows evidence of both female and male character. The blending of masculine and feminine traits is significant in the whole book and shows that there is nothing like a pure male or female characteristic, but we are rather consisting of many different personalities regardless of our sex. Virginia Woolf believed that such a blend creates an ideal personality, which is not only natural, but it is also necessary for a writer to create. The lack of female authors in history was one of the major themes in Woolf’s works. The position of female writers is parallel to the position of women in the society – they were mostly invisible in the public sphere because their only role was being mothers and wives and their lives were in the hands of their husbands rather than in their own’s. This is the reason why Orlando was not able to publish his poem until the last chapter which takes place at the beginning of the twentieth century. That was the time of Virginia Woolf’s adulthood, the time when the first-wave of feminist

54 movement gained women the rights which were prohibited to them before and finally made women equal members of society.

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