ornamental line

A Twofold Harvest

"the transaction between a writer and the spirit of the age
is one of infinite delicacy . . ." (266).

Points for Reflection

Orlando, chp. 4 (pp. 153-226)

  1. is Orlando more pleased or discomfited with the changes attendant upon her new (female) sex and social position?
  2. are Orlando's calves, so celebrated by the biographer (and any number of characters) while Orlando is a man, equally appealing once he is a woman?
  3. what territory does Orlando's transformation allow Woolf to explore? What is she beginning to suggest about the nature of heterosexual attraction and gender roles?
  4. what type of religion does Orlando adopt as her own?
  5. are Woolf's reflections on the social function of clothing meant to be taken seriously?
  6. under which circumstances do our "illusions" about a given subject or person thrive--in darkness, or under illumination?
  7. what is Nell's occupation?


Orlando, chp. 5 (pp. 227-62)

  1. that chill and "damp" which Woolf locates in the nineteenth century impacts what various facets of British life?
  2. why does Eusebius Chubb end his life?
  3. how far does Woolf's critique of the nineteenth century extend? Does it encompass every aspect of Victorian life?
  4. what is the "great fact" which "every modest woman did her best to deny," assisted by a crinoline (234)?
  5. what attitude towards marriage does Woolf develop across this chapter, beginning with Orlando's noticing the absence of a wedding ring on the second finger of her left hand?


Orlando, chp. 6 (pp. 263-329)

  1. how does the narrator define "love" (268-69)?
  2. does chapter six continue the previous chapter's critique of marriage, or complicate it?
  3. Orlando's love for Nature finally encounters a limitation in this chapter--what is it?
  4. has Nick Greene changed for the better, since we last saw him in the Elizabethan age?
  5. does Woolf glorify the early twentieth century?
  6. how does Orlando react to the presence of Big Ben and other loud clocks in London?
  7. does Orlando enjoy driving her own car through the streets (306-307)?
  8. what exactly interrupts Orlando's enjoyment of her centuries-old house?
  9. has the novel provided an answer to Orlando's old question of "what poetry is and what truth is" (102), and whether the two can coexist (101)?


close-up of young woman with long, red hair, wearing white blouse and black dress
In the Grass (1864-65)
Arthur Hughes


Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu