Page 14 - Annonce 5

be a woman and a man through her hero. makes an irony and rejects the view that
While doing this, she did not compromise human beings are born with polarized gender
her feminism. To quote from the book, in characteristics and that these characteristics

Orlando’s internal monologue we read: “No are unchangeable or biological, that the
one objects to a woman thinking as long as characteristics of femininity and masculinity
she thinks of a man.” We see traces of Woolf’s are determined by society and defends the

feminism in the film as well. Early in the movie, idea that individuals are forced to adopt only
when Orlando was a boy, he says he fell in one of these identities. Although the feminist
love with Sasha, so Sasha belongs to him. point of view was transferred to the film, I
Sasha, on the other hand, proves this wrong do not think that the criticism of gender, the
and leaves Orlando and England. At the end concept of single gender and its biological

of the movie, when Orlando is a woman, emergence were conveyed. It is only seen
Archduke Harry proposes to her and tells her when Orlando wakes up from her long sleep
that Orlando belongs to him because he loves and realizes that she is a woman, and says,

her, the roles are reversed and Orlando rejects “Same person, just a different sex.”
him. We see the bewilderment Orlando feels
at how people treat her so differently after There are some differences between the
she turns into a woman in the film as well as book and the movie in terms of time. The
in the book. In the book, people had begun movie consists of death, love, poetry, politics,

to treat her and her thoughts with much less society, sex and birth parts. Considering that
respect, furthermore as if she could break at the life cycle of a human begin starts with
any moment and as if she was incapable birth and ends with death, we can say that

of looking after herself. Being a woman, the fact the film begins and ends with birth
she also lost her right to her family property. conveys the eternal existence of Orlando’s
In the movie, the same thing happens, in character and what it represents. During the
addition, Orlando is witnessed sitting down transformation of Orlando into a woman,
and listening to a group of “intellectual” men the difference between the book and the

humiliate women and describe them (rather movie increases. In the book, while Orlando
wrongly) in their own way. Unfortunately, in serves in the embassy in Istanbul, it is not
the 21st century, men still categorize women certain where it is in the movie, it is said that

and treat them the same way. it is only an Eastern country, but it is certain
that it is not Istanbul. After a series of complex
Woolf presented androgyny as a solution to events (Woolf avoided going into detail here
the gender polarization she emphasized on and wrote that it is not known what exactly
and the restrictive and suffocating effects of happened that day), Orlando falls asleep

polarizing gender roles. While Woolf constantly and when she wakes up, she appears before
repeats in her book that it is a waterproof us as a woman. The next morning, she sets off
fact Orlando’s gender is male, she actually with a gypsy. She spends most of her time with

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