by Megan Shaw

Created on: June 15, 2009   Last Updated: June 16, 2009

"He -for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it-": These are the first words of Virginia Woolf's novel, Orlando. Not only do they set the tone for the novel, but they give the reader a peek into an analysis of identity and gender controversies. Ever since this very controversial novel was published in 1928, scholars and critics have debated and analyzed the core gender themes of this brilliant novel. Three common topics that scholars have analyzed that are crucial in the understanding of this complicated novel include:

1. Gender identity versus personal identity

2. Clothing influences on gender roles

3. Gender conventions in writing.

One highly debated issue in psychology is whether gender affects identity. A man who had a great influence on Woolf and her writing was Sigmund Freud. Suzanne Ferris, writer of "Unclothing Gender: The Postmodern Sensibility in Sally Potter's Orlando.", states, "Freud's writing shows that sexual difference is...a hesitant and imperfect construction. Men and women take up positions on symbolic and polarized oppositions against the grain of a multifarious and bisexual disposition...the lines of that division are fragile in exact proportion to the rigid insistence with which our culture lays them down; they constantly converge and threaten to coalesce." This influence of Freud's thinking is clearly visible in Orlando. Orlando, the protagonist, starts the novel as a male. He lives a rich lavish life as a male, yet he possesses female qualities, even in appearance. The queen even describes him as a handsome tender man. When he is going to leave for the Polish wars, she orders him to join her, because she could not "bear to think of that tender flesh torn and that curly head rolled in the dusk." Orlando lives his life as a man as most men do. He has female lovers, becomes a great political figure, hosts gatherings, and becomes an ambassador. It is not until the transformation of Orlando to a woman that we really get a glimpse into the gender and identity crisis. It is at this great change in Orlando's sex that the reader is now challenged as to whether or not this change affects the identity of the protagonist. Many scholars argue that Orlando portrays a constant personality and exhibits only physical change of the external body as time passes. So the question is does Orlando actually change in identity by changing gender? No, this is not

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