I have been thinking a lot about the film Orlando and how throughout the film he changes from a man to a woman, but he/she never ages. The film spans several-hundred years but Orlando is just as young at the end as she was at the beginning. What is the significance of Orlando's immortality?
The one idea I could come up with is that by not aging, the film is able to show how women were treated throughout time without age being a factor. In the beginning, Orlando is betrothed to the woman (I don't know if we are ever told her name) but leaves her for the Russian woman. He chooses an attractive woman with more power over a less attractive, less powerful woman.
Later, after he transforms into a woman we see her struggling in her big dress. This shows that appearance is still important. Men expect women to be feminine with big hair and big dresses.
Then, she falls in love with the American man and she seems to gain power when she chooses not to go exploring with him. She is given the option of what she wants to do with her life. Yet, that the power is quickly taken away when she is informed that because she is no longer a man, she has no right to own property and she either has to bear a son, marry that man (was he a duke? I can't remember), or lose all of her possessions. She ends up having a daughter, so she loses it all because she did not stay a man and chose not to marry. Men still have the power. Men can still try force women into relationships they do not want, but the women do have a choice.
It ends in the 1900's when women are not expected to dress as feminine and they are able to own property (she has a motorcycle and a video camera). Women are able to survive at this time without men. At this point we realize that the child does not age either.
Why do you think Orlando does not age? What significance does this have?
I believe that Orlando does not age so that, as you stated, we are able to see the way he/she is treated as both a man and a woman throughout the ages and how the perceptions of both genders have changed throughout time. For me, one of the most interesting points was the way the movie both began and ended with Orlando under the tree with the only difference being that at the end Orlando is a she rather than a he. Even more, in the beginning Orlando notes that men of his time attempt to look more feminine and at the end, she states that woman of her time are looking more and more manly. Overall, this brings the idea of gender as a performance to the audience very clearly. If Orlando had not been able to span the ages, this effect would have been lost.
ReplyDeleteYour question reminded me about the discussion in class about Tank Girl and the reason behind why her name is not mentioned in the movie, nor is the name of the Kappa Child. More specifically, when someone said that perhaps the reason why she was not given a name has to do with being “everywoman”, which also reminds me of The Female Man and the character “I”, which in my opinion was inserted so the audience wouldn’t assign “I” a personality, a judgment based on the character behind the name. I think Orlando never aged for that reason, so the stereotypes that surround every age would not be assigned to her changing character, stereotypes surrounding “everywoman.” The reason could also be by concentrating on the same age, the audience can witness how many stereotypes there are for a woman of just one age. In the scene when Orlando is clothed in that huge dress, having tea with those other men, they spew out many stereotypes, for example, when she briefly voices her frustration the men laugh because it amused them that a woman would have an opinion, but when she ends up sitting quiet, the men mention how much they like the subservient woman more. Or when she bares a baby girl and therefore had to leave her property. These examples are stereotypes that are assigned to “everywoman” and therefore it was not necessary for Orlando to age, the directors could get their point across without having her age, which only makes their argument about excessive stereotypes even more true. Overall, I agree with you that by not aging, the film is able to show how women are treated throughout time without age being a factor.
ReplyDeleteI think that there is a major significane that Orlando does not age during the movie. She changes from being a men to a woman but her age always stay the change. We went through Orlando journey from older times to more modern times. We seen all the stereotypes that women had to face at the begining of the movie and how they still occured during the end. Women was noticed for how beautiful and they had little power. We seen how Orlando power decrease as he be came a woman but the audience got the chance to see that age had nothing to do with this power that Orlando had.
ReplyDeleteI think there are many reasons as to why Orlando does not age. The main one being like the girls that posted before me said was to show how both genders were treated and expected to act throughout time. Throughout the 1800's you could see how gender played a role in that women dress very feminine with big dresses and hair while the men had the power as shown when Orlando got her property taken away for being a women. I think if Orlando were to have aged, the movie would have had to focus on how he or she was treated regarding their age and their gender as opposed to just their gender. We knew Orlando was being treated the way he or she was due to his gender rather than his age. As a viewer, we could just focus on Orlando's gender whether than his age.
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