Orlando · Chapter
Chapter IV explained
Orlando, now a woman, returns to London and re-enters society, navigating the complexities of gender performance and social expectations.
What happens
Orlando, now a woman, returns to London and re-enters society, navigating the complexities of gender performance and social expectations. She takes up residence at her father's house in Blackfriars and quickly finds herself courted by the Archduke and launched into London high society. She also explores the underworld of Nell's parlour, enjoying the company of women and frequently changing her attire to suit different roles, experiencing the love of both sexes equally.
Themes in this chapter
Gender and Identity
Explores the idea that clothes wear us, not we them, and that the sexes intermix in every human being, with Orlando's conduct reflecting a mixture of man and woman.
Love and Desire
Orlando seeks a lover in London, enjoys the love of both sexes equally, and experiences proposals and adventures.
Social Class and Heritage
Orlando's noble lineage and lawsuit attract attention from the common people and great ladies alike, and her fortune is wasting hourly due to ongoing legal suits.
Characters to notice
- Orlando
Returns to London as a woman, reflects on the influence of clothes on gender identity, and navigates society while seeking life and a lover.
- Archduchess Harriet Griselda
Appears as the Archduke, offering Orlando protection from a crowd and pressing a jewel in the shape of a toad upon her, repeating his suit.
- Mrs. Nelly
Nell, a woman of the town, introduces Orlando to her circle of friends, including Prue, Kitty, and Rose, and Orlando enjoys their society.
Key passages
“Thus, there is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not we them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they would mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.”
Clothes shape our behavior and identity more than we shape them.
Reflects on the performative nature of gender and the influence of attire.
“Different though the sexes are, they intermix. In every human being a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place, and often it is only the clothes that keep the male or female likeness, while underneath the sex is the very opposite of what it is above.”
Everyone has both masculine and feminine traits, and clothing often masks the true gender underneath.
Highlights the theme of gender fluidity.
“For the probity of breeches she exchanged the seductiveness of petticoats and enjoyed the love of both sexes equally.”
By switching between male and female clothing, Orlando experienced the pleasures of both genders and loved both men and women.
Summarizes Orlando's dual life and sexual freedom.