Gender

This is the most important theme of the book. Halfway through the novel, Orlando switches from being a male to a female. The change is not the dramatic moment it sounds. From the beginning, Woolf describes Orlando as having a feminine form, with his rosy cheeks and shapely legs. In fact, it is his mind that Woolf describes as masculine. When Orlando changes into a woman, the expectation that he experienced as a man initially lifts. This is particularly the case in her writing. Before he was trying too hard to impress his peers, but as a woman, this is no longer the case and there is not so much pressure on Orlando to achieve. It is during this time she finds her voice as a writer. However, there are different pressures on Orlando as a woman. When her life moves into Victorian times, society suddenly expects her...