Croteau 1

Virginia Woolfs Orlando follows the centuries-long life of an English noble by the same

name, exploring the interactions of gender identity, change over time, class, and fashion. Even

the form of the novel mimics its content: Fantasy, novel, biography, poem, history all of these

terms may be applied to the book, but no single one describes it adequately. It seems fitting that

this book about the intermingling of the sexes should be a hybrid of several literary types

(Marder 114). Although the novel does not overtly point to it, orientalism and race are also

important aspects in forming identity, if only as a source of otherness by which one can define

oneself. Intersectionality is key to understanding Orlandos identity and her queer place in the

world, seeing as topics such as race, class, gender, and sexuality are far from separate spheres

it is their interactions with Orlando that make up her identity. Orlando is often able to subvert the

categorizational norms of the time and place by existing outside of traditional gender and sexual

binary categorization, a process both aided and hindered by her way of dress, but at the same

time, she owes her comfortable position outside of heteropatriarchal binaries to her own binary

categorization of racial others, whom she relegates to the background of her story.

The construction of Orlandos identity and the evaluation of others identities are hinged

upon their appearances and, as an extension, their fashion. The very first sentence of the novel

demands that the reader bear in mind the importance of fashion in constructing identity: He

for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise

it (Woolf 11). This fitting first line marks the meandering path that Woolf forces the reader to

follow her down: At every moment that she issues an imperative, she immediately turns with a

qualification or even subtly a contrary possibility (Burns 347). As such, clothes are an

important factor to understand the intertwining threads that weave Orlandos nuanced and

sometimes contradictory identity. Furs and velvets, repeatedly mentioned within the novel, have
 Croteau 2

strong associations with the upper class: From the fourteenth to seventeenth century, the kings

and queens of England, for example, issued royal proclamations in order to regulate furs and fur

apparel and, especially, to reserve the the more exclusive furs of marten, fox, gray squirrel, and

ermine for the aristocratic and clerical elite (Steele 115). The presence of these sumptuary laws,

as they were called, indicates the need to create distinct categories which can then be filed

accordingly into a hierarchy of power. Velvet, too, occupied a place in the dress of the elites:

The prodigious repeat sizes and lavish use of precious materials are pervasive in fifteenth-

century European depictions portraying sacred and secular elites dressed in vestments, gowns,

and mantles of giant, serpentine pomegranate and artichoke designs (394). Both velvet and fur

have somewhat androgynous uses in fashion, showing the fluidity of gender presentation and

fashion over time. From the middle of the eighteenth century and into the next, silk velvet

appeared in mens apparel (especially waistcoats) and luxury carriage interiors, but womens

fashion abandoned stately velvet in favor of lighter fabrics Fittingly, fur seems to have

undergone the opposite transformation, during the late nineteenth century, fur became

increasingly identified with elite womens fashions and the fur coat was reversed in the sense

that fur was now worn almost exclusively on the outside (116). The acknowledgement of the

fluidity of dress and even of the changing associations of fashions depending on the time and

place is crucial to Orlando. Both fabrics are class symbols, as Orlando and other aristocratic can

don such finery and, if they so choose, forgo it, as Orlando does when he flirts with working

class women, wrapped in a grey cloak to hide the star at his neck and the garter at his knee

(Woolf 22). This class fluidity, which appears fairly early on in the novel, is one of the first

examples of how clothes are used to distinguish things such as class and gender. This particular

instance, however, denotes a certain privileged fluidity: the fact that Orlando, because of his
 Croteau 3

social standing and subsequent access to clothes both high and low, can transform from a

nobleman to a commoner differs from the limited fluidity that commoners possessed unless they

were lucky enough to somehow acquire the luxurious clothes of the upper classes.

The most important usage of velvet and furs in the novel occurs during Orlandos initial

meeting with Sasha, marking a pivotal change in his life. Sasha first appears to Orlando in

oyster-coloured velvet, trimmed with some unfamiliar greenish-coloured fur (Woolf 28). Her

dress symbolizes multiple things. As both fur and velvet have been, throughout history, at times

both mens and womens garments, her warm and sensuous fabrics mark androgyny. Both

fabrics have been associated with and even strictly relegated to the use of the upper class,

denoting her status as a princess. Finally, velvet has its origins in China, a symbol of the East and

an object of exoticism, eroticism, and otherness. Likewise, fur has a history linked to imperialism

through the fur trade and the exploitation of native peoples for fur. The rich history of these

fabrics how they have been repurposed and appropriated by oppressors, how they have shifted

in their gender symbolism represents a complex and not easily categorized physical object. The

complexity of these fabrics histories mirrors that of Orlandos perception of Sashas body. The

narrator describes Orlandos confusion as his mind races with thoughts of Sasha: Legs, hands,

carriage, were a boys, but no boy ever had a mouth like that; no boy had those breasts; no boy

had those eyes which looked as if they had been fished from the bottom of the sea (28). Her

gender is indeterminate because of not only her clothes, which adorn her body, but the body

itself.

The motif of misleading bodies that do not easily fit within a gender binary is a recurring

theme throughout the novel. The figure that next affects and perplexes Orlando is Archduchess

Harriet. Although nor Orlando nor the reader knows it at the time, Harriet is actually an
 Croteau 4

Archduke named Harry who dressed as a woman to seduce Orlando, much as Orlando does to

others once she is a woman. She possesses several manly qualities and, like Sasha, wears wintery

clothes to give her an androgynous appearance, as Orlando describes her in a mantle and riding

cloak though the season was warm (86). It is Harriets striking beauty that forces Orlando to

flee to Turkey to suppress his lustful desires. Harry, once he courts Orlando as a woman, proves

to be exceedingly boring to Orlando, revealing his cross-dressing to be something different than

the ambiguity of gender Orlando experiences. Finally, the figure of ambiguous gender is brought

up for the last time in the case of Orlandos husband, Shelmerdine. The two are equally aware of

each others ambiguous gender status, on more than one occasion proclaiming, Youre a

woman, Shel! Youre a man, Orlando! (Woolf 184). This encounter is different in that each

person acknowledges the others androgyny. According to Marder, Woolfe believed in the value

of androgyny in which the masculine and feminine elements unite in perfect harmony, but

what her novel reveals of her characters and their identities suggests something other than

harmonious androgyny (108).

The novel is full of tensions held in tandem, the most obvious being the tension between

masculine and feminine identities within Orlandos own character. In Burns work on Orlando,

she describes the tensions between essential and constructed selves present within the work. This

tension, noticed by many critics, can be interpreted as evidence of an entirely new kind of self in

which the presumed essential and constructed selves merge. Kaivola asserts,Hybridity serves

to characterize new forms that do not blend pre-existing essences into new stable entities but

rather unsettle the very idea of essence or stability (240). In line with Kaviolas thinking,

Cervetti believes, Orlando uses identity as a practice and performance, disrupting not only the

categories of male and female, but the concept of category itself (171). Yes, Orlando is a person
 Croteau 5

of her own accord who feels that the change of sex, though it altered their future, did nothing

whatever to alter their identity, providing evidence for a consistent and constructed self (Woolf

102). Yet, at the same time, as she learns, Orlando is also a product of society and her own

material conditions, a fact she realizes when people start treating her differently when she

dresses as a woman: up to this moment she had scarcely given her sex a thought (113). Not

only does Orlando mark a non-binary space between essential and constructed identities, but she

also inhabits a similar non-binary space within gender constructions: Thus, it was in a highly

ambiguous condition, uncertain whether she was alive or dead, man or woman, Duke or

nonentity, that she posted down to her county seat, where, pending the legal judgement, she had

the Laws permission to reside in a state of incognito or incognita as the case might turn out to

be (125). Her interrogation of binaries and the inclusion of the Law points out an important

part of binary categorization: that it is inherent in systems such as fashion, language, and even

the legal system, as each of these systems serve as tools for the clear demarcation of categories

like male and female, in order to easily place people within a hierarchy through the use of

symbols..

Burns asserts that If Orlandos sex is at first ambiguous, when s/he is eventually

transformed, this is not affected through a genital change. It occurs instead as a gender

transformation that emerges after a change of clothing (351). This change of clothing marks the

point in Orlandos life when men begin to gasp at her ankles and treat her as a hunter treats the

hunted. The change in power dynamics that Orlando experiences, whether or not she would like

to admit it, has an impact on her identity and actions. Although Orlando may be a mix of gender

identities, she is often categorized into one or the other for the convenience of others, seeing as

the English language is hardly capable of acknowledging the presence of individuals that exist
 Croteau 6

outside of binaries: Note that the pronouns their, his, hers are comfortably accommodated in

a single identity determined by memory chains, a further mark of the disidentification present

in identity (Burns 350). Language and clothes are tools of a heteronormative patriarchal society

that does its best to exclude non-binary identities, evidenced by Orlando having to choose

between masculine and feminine pronouns and clothes. Her greatest subversion of binaries lies in

the occasional usage of they pronouns to refer to her a nod to a gender identity not expressed

by the he/she binary, as well as the multitude of identities contained in one person. Nonetheless,

she uses the power of clothes to do certain business, even donning the clothes of the opposite

gender of her desired sexual partner to subscribe to heteronormativity, evidence that the problem

Orlando faces with having to choose one category extends even to her sexuality. Orlandos body

is neatly categorized within the patriarchal hierarchy as she sees fit: Throughout Orlando, dress

is a persistent theme, different clothes addressing different desires and sexual relations. Gender

becomes a cultural performance shown to be historically, even geographically, contingent and in

the service of regulatory systems of reproduction and compulsory heterosexuality (Cervetti

168). Orlandos power to choose her place in that hierarchy, and to demonstrate that it is not a

rigid social structure but a fluid one, represents another significant subversion of binary

categorization.

However, as Orlando moves into the Victorian era, she finds herself more restricted. She

must settle down and find a husband in order to continue her precious pursuit of poetry. Her furs

and velvets go away and she wears physically restricting crinoline under her dresses, which not

only impedes movement but alters the pliancy of the muscles that is, alters the physical body

(Cervetti 169). Her restriction in her clothes, and accordingly her gender fluidity, parallels the

changes in ideas of gender at the time: The transformation of the androgynous ideal, which in
 Croteau 7

the Romantic period had functioned as a symbol of unity, into a late Victorian sign of cultural

chaos demonstrates that, given certain historical and ideological pressures, the conceptual

boundary between the (safe, idealized) androgyne and the (dangerous, disruptive) hermaphrodite

is fragile and unstable (Kaviola 241). Orlando manages to both subvert and reaffirm Victorian

ideals: She had just managed, by some dextrous deference to the spirit of the age, by putting on

a ring and finding a man on a moor to pass its examination successfully (Woolf 196). She

engages in a process of disidentification, a mode of recycling or re-forming an object that has

already been invested with powerful energy, by taking on the heavily charged symbol of the

wedding ring and negating its traditional significance by ignoring the traditional duties of a wife

(Munoz 39). This method of coping with material changes brought on by time reflects the

blending nature of hybrid figures such as herself. She, like many others who resist

categorization and exist in an oppressed state, reappropriate symbols of the dominate culture in

order to survive under its tyrannical reign.

As Orlando demonstrates in her adaptation to the Victorian Era, time and history are

significant factors that affect the material conditions of an individual. The narrator speaks about

Orlandos panicked experience of memories clashing with the present: That Orlando had gone a

little too far from the present moment will, perhaps, strike the reader who sees her now preparing

to get into her motor car with her eyes full of tears and visions of Persian mountains (Woolf

223). Although both Woolf and Orlando idealize a harmonious androgyny, what Orlando

experiences is closer to the hermaphroditism Kaviola describes, as Orlandos condition is far

from peaceful. As German and Kaehele put simply, As living conditions and customs are

modified with the centuries, as Orlando alters some of her habits and beliefs, as her

acquaintances and servants disappear with the years,the power of time over man and his
 Croteau 8

creations becomes quite apparent (36). The material conditions produced by ones identity,

then, are not only a product of said identities, but the time in which one lives and acts. Orlandos

time period is not the only thing that affects her identities and actions, however. Her cultural

history has a strong bearing on her current position, affording her privileges based on race and

class.

Orlando is a queer character in the sense that she does not conform to the norms of

gender or sexuality, but she also owes her freedom to express said queerness to her status as an

upper class white woman. The work done by queer theorists can help to illuminate the many

elements at play in Orlando. While discussing orientation, Ahmed begins to talk about the

Orient and how the term is related to phenomenology. She emphasizes that the Orient is the

exotic other that can just be seen on the horizon, but in spite of its distance, the fact that we can

see the Orient emphasises that the Orient is reachable (Ahmed 116). This distinction of the

Orient and otherness in general as distant but reachable is significant because it sets up a power

dynamic: the other is absolutely different from the norm, but it is close enough that the norm can

take from it, or in the Orients case, the Occident can colonize it. This allows for a cultural

exchange and a blending of the lines that were previously distinctly drawn, illustrating a flaw in

ideologies that emphasize otherness. This, as discussed earlier, is reflected not only in the

fabrics worn by androgynous characters within the novel, but also in the place of Orlandos

transformation and the clothing she wears directly afterwards. Orlando dons Turkish pants,

marvelling at those Turkish coats and trousers which can be worn indifferently by either sex

(Woolf 103). The Orient, a land mystified by Westerners in an attempt to objectify and

subjugate its people and resources, is the only natural place for Orlandos transformation to

occur: Orlandos journey suggests that gender crossing is imagined as a cultural border crossing
 Croteau 9

as well (Lawrence 329). Orlandos comfortable status as a hybrid person, in Kaviolas terms,

ultimately rests on her whiteness: the result is paradoxical: androgyny moves in one direction,

giving women greater sexual and gender freedom; orientalism moves in the other, affirming

through racial stereotyping that such women can retain their femininity and attractiveness to

men (Kaviola 254). Her freedom to experiment outside of the traditional gender binary comes at

the cost of reaffirming the binary between white and non-white.

Although Orlando subverts binaries in her gender expression, the otherness she directs

towards the Orient depends on setting up a binary, one between the dominant (the West) and the

submissive (the East.) Somerville explores the problems that arise from this strict divide in her

analysis of the work of Pauline E. Hopkins, which often features mixed-race characters. While

talking about the nature of novels with mixed-race characters at the time, she states that,

although the passing novel offered to challenge the stability of racial categories, it did so within

a framework of individualism and often reinforced the cultural biases that posited hierarchies of

white over black (Somerville 83). This mirrors the case of the Occident and the Orient one

can submit to Occidental authority and assimilate as colonized people sometimes did, or one can

accept ones place in the power dynamic as lesser or other. Either way, the power dynamic

between East and West, black and white, queer and normal, remains fully intact with only

individuals who can pass benefitting. All that are visibly other have no choice in adopting the

ways of their oppressor to alleviate the pressures of otherness. Orlando is definitely a hybrid

identity when it comes to gender, but her racial status is entirely assured: In Orlando, then, race

stabilizes Orlandos identity: the decapitated and dehumanized African head provides the

starkest possible contrast to Orlandos personal freedoms (Kaviola 253). The stark contrasts

offered between East and West and black and white contrast Orlandos own hybridity, obscuring
 Croteau 10

a hybridity that most certainly exists within racial categorizations in order for Orlando to

experience some semblance of stability.

Orlando proves that all forms of identity, from sexuality to race, are cultural constructs

that take on different meanings depending on a myriad of other factors such as the interplay of

different identities one possesses and the time frame and geographical place in which one lives.

At the same time, the belief in essential identities relating to ones race, gender, or sexuality

affect an individuals material conditions, just as time does, thereby influencing their

construction of their own identity. The importance of clothing in the novel, then, is its role in

aiding to construct individual identities. Clothing and language, especially moving into the

Victorian era, take on a renewed emphasis on creating stark binaries, which make it difficult to

subvert said binaries. Despite Woolfs subversion of binaries, she reinforces said binaries at the

same time. Orlandos transformation and discovery of androgyny is dependant on the

otherness of the East, of the ambiguous genders of the gypsies she spends time with, and of

those Turkish trousers that so disguise her identity. Orlando is evidence of the nuance present in

all identities and of the importance of intersectionality, as one can be oppressed and still oppress

others. The novel is not nearly as subversive as some claim it to be because of Orlandos

relegation of the East and non-white people to the opposite side of her place as a white person on

the racial binary.

Works Cited

Ahmed, Sara. Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Duke University Press,

2006.
 Croteau 11

Burns, Christy. Re-Dressing Feminist Identities: Tensions between Essential and Constructed

Selves in Virginia Woolf's Orlando. Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 40, no. 3, 1994,

pp. 342-364.

Cervetti, Nancy. In the Breeches, Petticoats, and Pleasures of Orlando. Journal of Modern

Literature, vol. 20, no. 2, 1996, pp. 165-175.

German, Howard and Sharon Kaehele. The Dialectic of Time in Orlando. College English, vol.

24, no.1, 1962, pp. 35-41.

Kaivola, Karen. Revisiting Woolf's Representations of Androgyny: Gender, Race, Sexuality,

and Nation. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 18, no. 2, 1999, pp. 235-261.

Lawrence, Karen R. Orlandos Voyage Out. Virginia Woolf: An MFS Reader, edited by Maren

Linett, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009 pp. 327-354.

Marder, Herbert. Feminism and Art: A Study of Virginia Woolf. The University of Chicago Press,

1972.

Munoz, Jose Esteban. Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics.

University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

Somerville, Siobhan B. Queering the Color Line: Race and the Invention of Homosexuality in

American Culture. Duke University Press, 2000.

Steele, Valerie. Fur. Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. Vol. 1, 2005.

Steele, Valerie. Velvet. Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. Vol. 2, 2005.

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. Harcourt, Inc, 2006.