Orlando Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Orlando - Essay Examplehe novel, by choosing not to deform old during the three centuries time span of the storyline and most importantly changing gender from potent to female, is depicted in such a look as to provoke the readers thought by sincerely analyzing all aspects of the two sexes behavioral attributes.Although Woolfs work of Orlando is a passionate painting based on the life of her friend and lover Vita Sackville-West as it was originally intended to be, the novel gives us a far more illustrative place of the world concerning gender specifics, sexuality and human nature as it had been during the second half of the previous millennium. According to Wikipedia, the novel can be read as a roman clef which is a work of literature describing real life, behind a faade of fiction and where the main spirit is usually a known personality, or in some cases, the author. Woolf has used immense material from the writings of Vita as a basis for her own novel. Even though the main c haracter here is based on the life of Vita, using the overtones of fiction and the liberties made available through fantasy, Woolf was able to construct a well documented register of Vita, without subjecting herself to criticism or controversy. Themes such as homosexuality have been subtly brought into the picture by fictionalizing the real life character as a male who transforms into a female later on. This show the ingeniousness of Virginia Woolf, as most other works of English fiction directly approaching the subject of homosexuality had been banned during her years. Therefore even though she has titled her work as a biography, the novel has been classified as fiction, and this shows how Woolf had intended to cross the boundaries set in the midst of fiction and non-fiction with Orlando, so the novel is not only about trans-gender, but also trans-genre, so to speak. (Wikipedia)The book offers us considerable insight into the study and relation between the male and female mind, as Woolf