Essay on "Androgyny in Woolf's Orlando a Biography and Room of One's Own"

Essay 6 pages (2011 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Meno & Phaedo

What it Takes: Woolf's Notions of Androgyny

There are very few doubts that the historic and contemporary treatment of gender is at the center of a large number of writings of Virginia Woolf. This proclivity of the author is evinced most prominently in "A Room of One's Own," which originally began as a pair of lectures she delivered regarding the relationship between money and the writing of fiction, and in the novel Orlando: An Autobiography. Although there are several authors that choose to deal with issues of gender in relation to both men and women, Woolf is one of the daring few to do so from a synthesis of the respective perspective of each sex. Androgyny figures fairly prominently in both of the author's aforementioned works, and represents, at its best, a creative genius with which the mind is able to fulfill its virtually unlimited potential (Encyclopedia Britannica 2012) . An androgynous mind state's effects, however, have profound implications on the conventional norms of both gender and sexual identity of a person, inherently changing them from that of relative stasis to a state of frequent fluctuations. A critical examination of both of these texts of Woolf's indicates that androgyny is ultimately responsible for the facilitation of a greater understanding between the sexes. The central precepts for this understanding and its effects upon the felicity and creativity of people is denoted in "A Room of One's Own" and demonstrated in Orlando: A Biography.

The fact that androgyny (if not in a literal sense then certainly in the way of one's thinking) will only aid human beings is alluded to fairly frequently in the former of these previously mentioned pieces of literature. Its effects on conventional roles that are germane to identity -- such as the division of labor that was historically centered around sex -- would be fairly tumultuous, perhaps even unpredictable. Still, it is rather obvious that Woolf conceives of such instability in the perceived identity that androgyny produces from a favorable viewpoint, one which is related to a greater degree of satisfaction and happiness. The musings of the narrator -- Mary Betton -- (Fernald 1994, p. 165) in "A Room of One's Own" about the manifestation of combining the characteristics between men and women illustrate the favorable effects on the changing notions of identity upon a person in the following quotation.

"…in a hundred years…women will have ceased to be the protected sex. Logically they will take part in all the activities and exertions that were once denied them. The nursemaid will heave coal. The shop-woman will drive an engine. All assumptions founded on the facts observed when women were the protected sex will have disappeared… Anything may happen when womanhood has ceased to be a protected occupation (Woolf 1929)."

The most important aspect of this quotation is that which is alluded to in its final sentence. The limitless nature of the possibility for women (for whom "anything can happen") when they begin to take on culturally identifiable forms of labor that are traditionally male, and which would then result in a form of androgyny for the women performing such work, is readily demonstrated in the preceding passage. Yet there are positive connotations about these possibilities, which are implied by the fact that performing traditionally male sorts of labor would represent a liberation of women from their traditionally assigned labor types -- which have been overwhelmingly domestic in nature. This lack of stability in the identity of a woman who is able to achieve a certain degree of androgyny by working jobs that have historically belonged to men engenders (which is alluded to in the possibility of women being able shovel "coal" and operate motorized vehicles) is viewed favorably by the author for the creative potential it allows for.

Conversely, the circumscribing effects of a dearth of androgyny, particular when viewed through the creative mind of a man, for example, is as stifling, predictable, and as negatively viewed by Woolf as is the instability of a dual incorporation of facets of both genders is viewed favorably. In this respect, it is interesting to note the role of sexual identity within males who are not androgynous. Although there are a decidedly copious amount of references to sex and its relationship to the happiness of people in Orlando: A Biography, Woolf also makes a number of allusions to sexuality in "A Room of One's Own." In fact, the following quotation alludes to the tenuous ramifications of the sexual nature of an androgynous person by demonstrating how predictable the sexual tendencies are in those of the male gender. In this quotation, a male author, Alan, whose book the narrator is reading, interacts with a woman, Phoebe, who is emblematic of the conventional way women are treated by males in literature.

…the shadow of Alan at once obliterated Phoebe. for…Phoebe was quenched in the flood of his views. And then Alan, I thought, has passions; and here I turned page after page very fast, feeling that the crisis was approaching, and so it was. It took place on the beach under the sun. It was done very openly. It was done very vigorously. Nothing could have been more indecent. But . . . -- I am bored! (Wolf 1929).

This quotation shows how the proclivity of males is to attempt to dominate females through their sexuality. It is fairly apparent that Alan has "indecent" sex with Phoebe; later on in this passage Woolf alludes to the fact that he does so in order to assert his manhood -- and subvert her status as a woman. Woolf's negative viewpoint of this tendency in men is underscored by the fact that she becomes distinctly "bored!" By this part of the book. The implications of this passage, of course, are that if Alan was androgynous, and wrote from both male and female perspective simultaneously, he would not engage in repetitive, dull acts of sexual conquest because he would feel little need to do so. The normal sexual identity of a typical male is decidedly stagnant and predictable in its "passions" for conquering women. The author views this tendency as something negative. But this passage implies that Alan or anyone else's sexual identity was tempered by androgyny, the desire for sex would be more unpredictable and prone to change course by the very fact that it reflected both conventional feminine as well as masculine propensities.

This point is definitely demonstrated within Orlando: A Biography. Androgyny is at the root of this novel, if for no other reason than the protagonist, the title character, actually transforms gender from a man to a woman midway through the book. However, the repercussions of his/her androgyny are fairly pronounced, especially because in the beginning of the novel, when the character is a man, he randomly and wantonly sleeps with a bevy of women yet finds no true happiness or fulfillment with any of them. It is highly significant that it is only after Orlando becomes a woman is she able to find any great deal of satisfaction in a lover, which she obtains through the advances of the seaman Shel. The following quotation shows how the Orlando's sexual and gender identity are fulfilled by the androgyny that she now experiences after being both a man and a woman.

"Oh! Shel, don't leave me!' she cried. 'I'm passionately in love with you,' she said. No sooner had the words left her mouth than an awful suspicion rushed into both their minds simultaneously. 'You're a woman, Shel!' she cried. 'You're a man, Orlando!' he cried (Woolf 1928).

The happiness and fulfillment Orlando experiences at being "passionately in love" with Shel is related to the instantaneous connection the characters share with one another. They were engaged within a pair of minutes after meeting, and were cognizant of all but the most trifling details about one another. This connection can largely be attributed to the fact that Orlando was once a man, and that Shel was once "a woman." This fact, and the intrinsic happiness the characters find within one another, reflects the positive view of androgyny that Woolf propagated in "A Room of One's Own." Moreover, it reinforces the notions that both one's sexual identity and gender identity are able to transcend the conventional boundaries and limits of either gender, which allows the characters to feel a sense of attachment and awareness of one another that is highly distinct from the boring sexual encounters Woolf wrote about Alan in the preceding paragraph.

In that respect, Woolf is able to address the implications of a female's sexual identity that is alluded to in "A Room of One's Own" through the androgyny of Orlando, who is able to experience facets of the identity of both a man and a woman. Woolf details a great number of the limitations that women experience as part of their gender identity in this text, such as their inherent poverty (Bimberg 2002, p. 3), and shows how circumscribing… READ MORE

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