Authors use novels to show others their own unique views and perspectives of the world. Although this is not just limited to females, enslaved, and/or racially oppressed writers, this essay will focus on them. All of the pieces of writing we read in class were written in various time periods, and the authors came from different places, class, and background. This essay will focus on Orlando by Virginia Woolf, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. Just like almost any other novel, the authors of these books used many of their own life experiences, whether traveling or growing up, to depict the issues and their views on the world, incorporating the themes and morals of the novels to show what they have to say. But what’s similar in between these novels is the theme of identity. Many authors, especially female and racially oppressed writers, explore this topic as it is important in analyzing how it is influenced by stereotypical views of gender and race. In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Orlando, the main character of the story, ages, travels, takes on adventures, changes sex, and focuses on the search for identity through gender. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Hurston examines how Janie tries to understand her selfhood based on her thoughts, speech, and actions as she undergoes various environments and how she finds herself through her marriages with Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. Angela Carter explores identity in her Nights at the Circus through multiple characters by examining the ways in which they interact with the world around them and how they define themselves. In all of these novels, the authors explore complex elements that play a role in formulating identity and present identity as being mostly individualistic. These female authors use prose fiction to articulate their views of identity through the character’s motives and their surroundings.
Virginia Woolf expressed many perspectives on identity and sexuality in Orlando. Now, it’s important to note that Woolf wrote the novel based on her experiences with identity and sexuality. Although she was married to Leonard, she had an affair with Vita Sackville-West, a bisexual novelist. Vita Sackville-West herself had many affairs besides Woolf, like Violet Keppel. Sackville-West liked to cross-dress frequently and see how clothes restricts her freedom (3). Now, it is easy to see that Woolf’s Orlando is based on the life of Vita Sackville-West.
The novel is full of bisexual sections and in the novel Woolf explores identity as well as gender differences. Orlando explored her identity through multiple ways, all similar to how Sackville-West did. Both had many partners of both sexs and both discovered how the clothes affect the way they act. Through Orlando, Woolf was able to express her views on identity, sexual identity, and gender differences with Orlando’s character similar to Sackville-West.
From the beginning of the novel, the narrator expresses how difficult it will be to describe and characterize Orlando, saying “He – for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it – was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters“ (pg. 11). The text makes the claim that someone’s sex does not affect one’s identity and that society creates stereotypes that cause the imbalance in gender.
Initially Orlando is described as man who comes from a wealthy family, as having “long, curled hair, the dark head bent so reverently, so innocently before her, implied a pair of the finest legs that a young nobleman has ever stood upright upon….” (pg. 18). Through these descriptions we catch a glimpse of Orlando’s initial identity. Also, at first he wants to follow the footsteps of his ancestors and go to war killing foreigners just like them. The narrator explains that “Orlando’s fathers had ridden in fields of asphodel, and stony fields, and fields watered by strange rivers, and they had struck many heads of many colours off many shoulders, and brought them back to hang from the rafters. So too would Orlando, he vowed” (pg. 11). But once he meet Sasha, a Russian Princess, his life takes an unexpected turn. He falls for Sasha quickly and intended to run away with her; however, when the ice melted, she leaves him and he is devastated.
Later on Orlando goes to Constantinople, a city comprised of a myriad cultural group with no single fixed, ethic, religion, or identity. There, he undergoes a sex change and becomes a women. Besides his change in sex, the narrator explains that Orlando stayed the same in every other aspect, saying ““in every other respect, Orlando remained precisely as he had been” and “the change of sex, though it altered their future, did nothing whatsoever to alter their identity” (pg. 102). Here, the narrator is suggesting that the physical sex of someone is not important to one’s identity because selfhood is composed of many characteristics, wish sex being a small one.
After the sex change, Orlando goes on to live with a group of gypsies. While she is with them, her sex does not play a role in her life and wee see that Orlando’s love and interest in nature remain the same. The narrator states that “The narrator says “The English disease, a love of Nature, was inborn in her” (pg. 106). The narrator also describes that she “climbed the mountains, roamed the valleys, sat on the banks of the streams”, that her “soul expanded with her eyeballs”, and “she prayed she might share the majesty of the hills (pg. 106).
A while after she returns the England, we learn the main point. While Orlando thinks about herself, she comes to a conclusion that even though people change, their core inside still exists. In her, this core is the “Oak Tree” that gives Orlando her identity which serves as a symbol for her place in the world.
Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God during the Harlem Renaissance, although she viewed her work as different from the writers during that time that depicted the lives of black people as miserable and deprived (5). Unlike them, Hurston admired southern African-American communities and she embraced women’s sexually in her writing (4). In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston examines her views on many social issues, most notably identity along with women’s roles and gender discrimination.
In the novel, almost all of the characters are looking for self-realization. Nanny told stories about her past and the way white people treated herself and her daughter, suggesting that she strongly identifies herself as black. Nanny telling stories to Janie shows that this method was her main way of showing her black identity. Almost every time she speaks, she talks about white people’ wrong doings and saying that are being evil to African Americans. Nanny also starts Janie’s journey in finding her identity by making her marry Logan. In her own view, marriage will bring love. “
“If you don’t want him, you sho oughta. Heah you is wid de onliest organ in town, amongst colored folks, in yo’parlor. Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road and…Lad have mussy! Dat’s de very prong all us black women gits hung on. Dis love! Dat’s just whut’s got us uh pullin’and uh haulin’ and sweatin’ and doin’ from can’t see in de mornin’ till can’t see at night.”
Joe Stark also has similar tendencies with Nanny. He is travelling to Eatonville to create an all-black community. “Mostly he talked about plans for the town when he got there,” ““Ah’m buyin’in here, and buyin’ in big” (EWG39, 40). Because his main goal is to build a city for only black people, this shows that Joe is having trouble making the black community aware of their own identity. EXPAND HERE
The most important character which Hurston examines is Janie and her search for name, identity, freedom, self-realization, independence, and herself. Even from the beginning of the novel, the narrator does not state the name of the main character, rating referring to her as simply a women. This suggests that from the start of the novel, Janie is an abstract and not well-defined figure. Later on she sees herself in a photograph and notices she is different from everyone else. Janie was being laughed at in front of her own peers and Miss Neillie. ““Everybody laughed, even Mr. Washburn. Miss Nellie, de mama of de chillun said, ‘Dat’s you, Alphabet, don’t you know yo’ own self?” (EWG 24). Being called Alphabet instead of the real name also suggests that not everyone, even Janie, fully knew who she was yet. Janie is extremely surprised when she learns that she is in reality black and not like everyone else. She says ““Aw, aw! Ah’m colored!” (EWG 24). This section of the novel is one of the most important parts of the book because this is the instant that Janie recognises her blackness and selfhood and becomes aware of her identity as a black girl.
After some time, Janie spends much of her time under a pear tree where she questions what she wants in life and who she is.
That was to say, ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom; It stirs her tremendously. How? Why? What? Why? The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh. (EWG 25)
In this scene and part of the novel, the readers can see that janie is somewhat confused with her life. She doesn’t know what her place in the world is and what she wants in life. But it is also here that she starts to realize that she wants to find love and she is slowly starting to become a new person. When the narrator says “That was the end of her childhood” (EWG 25) Janie entered the adult stage of life. Janie realized that being married is not the same as being loved and from this she becomes a real woman.
In chapter 4, after she marries Joe, Janie enters another part in her search for her identity and finding what she really desires. However, both of her marriages with Logan and Joe are not good. Some time after Janie married Joe, she can’t express herself fully because Joe is being a controlling husband. Joey believes women should not work and shouldn’t be doing activities by themselves. He isolates parts of her identity so that she doesn’t show off much, for example tying up her hair and not letting her be herself. As the narrator said, Janie’s hair is extremely beautiful and by hiding it, she cannot fully get and express her identity. Simply put, he degrades her as an individual.
Once Joey dies, Janie becomes more free and starts to realize who she really is. She now has the opportunity to do whatever makes her happy. When Janie finally unties her hair that Joey made her keep tied up, she obtains some sense of what she wants in life and her identity. As a result of the turn of events, she now has understanding of her own identity as a women. Once Janie does look into the mirror she realizes that her young self is gone and instead now stands a beautiful women. She also notices that Nanny was wrong with her idea of love and finding your dreams. The narrator suggests that the only thing that Janie wanted to find was love, and marriage is not the same thing as it.
Unlike her two previous marriages, her third and final marriage made her realize who she is, made her more independent, and gave her love that she was looking for. Tea Cake gives her love, care, and always makes Janie aware of her beauty. Janie also has the freedom to do almost anything. After Tea Cake’s death, Janie contemplates about what Tea Cake gave her, and she realizes that now she has experienced love. And now Janie pulls in the horizon in, which she finally reached. To her Tea Cake “wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net…she called in her soul to come and see” (193).
In the novel, to summarize, we can see how Janie searches for her identity. From first realizing that she was black in white people’s house and from grandma’s life stories, Janie’s passion for her blackness grew. In her three marriages, Janie grows and becomes an adult, taking on a new identity. In her last marriage with Tea Cake depicts Janie’s identity developing, and finding the real love she wanted.
Similar to the two previous novels, the theme of identity is prevalent in Nights at the Circus. However, Carter has an interesting and unique take on identity and gender identity. She also suggests that identity is not solely composed of only appearance. At the very beginning of the novel, Fevvers, the main protagonist of the novel, is introduced with a question of “Is she fact of is she fiction?” (CITATION). Fevvers is part bird and half woman. The only thing that makes her different from other woman and her roles is her wings.
In the novel, the readers can see how Fevvers challenges the roles of woman and see what she identifies as. It’s important to note that Carter was writing Nights at the Circus during Women’s Suffrage Movement. Carter has the story set up in a way that portrays Fevvers as a fighter for women’s rights and a new hope for women during the transition into the new century. Additionally, the readers see through Fevvers the dangers that exist when someone becomes viewed only by their appeared by their appearance and a single role.
When Fevvers is telling Walser about her story, she explains the risks that can occur if someone’s identity is reduced to just appearance. When she is at Ma Nelson’s she is made into Winged Victory and plays the role of a statue. She explains
“I existed only as an object in men’s eyes after the night-time knocking on the door began. Such was my apprenticeship for life, since is it not to the mercies of the eyes of others that we commit ourselves on our voyage through the world? I was as if closed up in a shell, for the wet white would harden on my face and torso like a death mask that covered me all over, yet, inside this appearance of marble, nothing could have been more vibrant with potentiality than I! Sealed in this artificial egg, this sarcophagus of beauty, I waited, I waited . . . “(39).
Here Fevvers is describing her fear of being put into the egg, and breaking out of the shell acts as a symbols for rebirth which breaks the boundaries of the initial identity, creating a more sophisticated one, going from egg to bird. Being born differently from others itself makes Fevvers seem like a completely different women. She is transforming from one initial identity to another, growing and maturing.
As we read the novel, we see the many ways that Fevvers encounters situations that pose a danger in her losing her identity, shrinking it to just the appearance. But in almost all of the situations, Fevvers knew she was more than just looks and wings, so she avoided being degraded. One of the hardest problems that Fevvers encountered was in Siberia. After the train accident, Fevvers starts to lose her sense of herself. The narrator describes “Fewers felt that shivering sensation which always visited her when mages, wizards, impresarios came to take away her singularity as though it were their own invention, as though they believed she depended on their imaginations in order to be herself. She felt herself turning, willy-nilly, from a woman into an idea.” But the struggle to remain herself is resolved when she identifies herself both as fact and fiction, answering her own questions “Am I fact? Or am I fiction?”.
With the abundance of biblical references, we can see Carter makes a lot of connections between characters in the novel with characters from the bible. One such reference that is important is the reference to Lucifer.
‘Like Lucifer, I fell. Down, down, down I tumbled, bang with a bump on the Persian rug below me, flat on my face amongst those blooms and beasts that never graced no natural forest, those creatures of dream and abstraction not unlike myself, Mr Walser. And then I knew I was not yet ready to bear on my back the great burden of my unnaturalness.’ (pg. 30)
In the bible, Lucifer led the revolution against God. In this case, Fevvers, can be considered a symbol for the suffrage of women and the struggle for the rights of women.
Similarly to Fevvers, on the other side of the identity spectrum, we can see who the clowns are. The narrator portrays clowns as just having appearance and most of their identity gone. They cannot be reborn or start a new life, and destroying themselves is the only option they have. For example, this can be seen with Buffo when he loses control over himself and goes mad. Later in Siberia, all of the clones, limited by their clown mask, kill themselves in a dance of death, ““…they danced the deadly dance of the past perfect which fixes everything fast so it can’t move again; they danced the dance of Old Adam who destroys the world because we believe he lives forever” (pg. 243).
