Orlando

The story of Orlando takes a deep look into the differences between Gender in society. It also is a commentary on biographies. Orlando begins the story as a man, a writer, and a young child. The book spans many years (far longer than any one person could ever live). As a man, Orlando is overcome by desires for women, and there is much talk about how men become fools in front of women. They want them so much, and yet they sacrifice they're own minds to do so. Women on the other hand, have large responsibilities to be who society wishes them to be. They need to wear fancy clothes and remain innocent and chaste, yet be likable. Orlando studies both sexes, as he experiences life as both, and concludes mostly that there are few core differences. "It is a strange fact, but a true one, that up to this moment she had scarcely given her sex a thought."Orlando is the same person, as a man, and as a woman. Though the way society views him/her is quite different. This poses interesting questions regarding gender in today's society. Woman politicians are still rare these days, and men continue to dominate the work force and political world. This story relates to our kings and queens thesis mainly because we are creating a biography, and because the dynamic between the sexes has been an ongoing and ever changing phenomenon. Like Virginia Woolf, I find most biographies dry and dull, the do not peak my interest the way an exciting work of fiction would. But as an illustrator, it is my job to tell a story through pictures, perhaps more interesting than it might be had it been told in photographs. It will be interesting to see how the thesis topics differ when told by a man or a woman, and how the male and female monarchs have been portrayed through each.