This document presents a comparative study of gender identity in the novels Orlando by Virginia Woolf and The Well of Loneliness by Marguerite Radclyffe Hall. Both novels were published in the early 20th century and featured protagonists with ambiguous or non-conforming gender identities. The novels used clothing and dress to express the gender identities of Orlando and Stephen Gordon. They also challenged Victorian constraints on sexuality and gender norms through their protagonists' experiences. While Stephen Gordon saw herself as abnormal, Orlando embraced her ability to change and exist between genders.

1. Comparative Study Of
Gender Identity in
Orlando And The Well
Of Loneliness
Presented by- Hinaba
Sarvaiya.

2. • M.A.Sem-02
• Paper no:-The Twentieth Century Literature: 1900 to
World War II
• Roll number:- 09
• Enrollment no:- 4069206420210032
• Email id:- hinabasarvaiya1711@gmail.com
• Submitted by:- S.B.Gardi Department of English, MKBU.

3. About Author:-
Virginia Woolf:-
Born:25 Jan, 1882,
Died:-28 March, 1971.
She was English writer, considered
one of the most important
modernist 20th century author and
a pioneer in the use of Stream of
Consciousness as a narrative
device.
Marguerite Radclyffe Hall:-
Born:- 12 Aug,1880
Died:- 7 Oct, 1943.
Hall was an unwanted child and
her mother and stepfather did not
pay much attention to her.
This is reflected in most of her
major work. She wrote about
Children growing up without
father or without maternal love.

4. Dress up Give to Identity?
The Trend probably originated with women who
did not want to dress feminine out of
convenience and to convey a sence of identity.
These reasons could also be applied to the main
character of the early twentieth century novel
“The Well Of Loneliness” and “Orlando: a
Biography”.

5. The Well Of Loneliness:-
The Well of Loneliness is a
Lesbian novel by British Author
Radclyffe Hall that was first
published in 1928 by Janathan
Cape. It followed the life of
Stephen Gordon, an
Englishwoman From an upper-
class family whose “sectual
inversion” is apperent from an
early age.

6. Gender Identity by Stephen Gordon:-
• In this novel, Female Protagonist Stephen Gordon feels
uncomfortable in dreesse and does not like to be feminine in
general, and from a very younger age wears masculine
clothing. This is also encouraged by her father, who had
rather had a son. Father tells her,
“I am going to treat you like a boy, and boy must always be
brave, remember”
He let’s wear breeches during hourse riding, finding that she
can’t ride side-saddle, and as soon as she is able, she buys
herself Suits, ties, and find ways to defeminisd herself as much
as possible.

7. Orlando: A Biography:-
Orlando: A Biography is a
novel by Virginia Woolf, first
published on 11, October
1928.
Inspired by the tumultuous
family history of the
aristocratic poet, and novelist
Vitta Suckville West.
Woolfs Lover and Close
Friend.

8. Gender Identity in Orlando:-
• The difference between the genders is a dominant
theme in Orlando: A Biography. When the male
Orlando wakes up and finds herself a female, she is not
at all disconcerted by the change in her gender. Initially,
she feels no difference between what she is and what
she has been earlier, but as time passes society makes
her conscious about her role as a women. This falls in
line with what Woolf intends to show that gender roles
are not biological but Societal.

9. The Novels have a number of things in
Common:-
• Firstly both Orlando and The Well of Loneliness are portraits
of artist who have an ambiguous relationship with literary
convention because of their sextual deviance.
• Both Orlando and The Well of Loneliness can be seen as a
reworking of traditional literary conventions in the light of an
ambitious gender and sexuality.
• Thirdly, both novels were a risk for the author, who
challenged their reputation in publishing their book.

10. • Fourth, both of the works used Clothing as a main
instrument to express the gender of the Protagonist.
• Finally, both were written with the goal to defy the Victorian
constraints laid upon sextuality, especially in women.
• There is one main difference:-
• Stephen Gordon defines herself as a freak, abnormal, and
unnutual but Orlando embraces her ability to dress in a
misculine way, changing between man and woman as it
pleases her.

11. Conclusion:-
• The Well of Londiness and Orlando have much in
common, as both novels are portraits of an artist,
and both protagonists have an ambiguous relations
to literary convention, as Stephen is a Lesbian and
Orlando is bisextual conventional gender identity.

13. Work Citation:-
• Bruinsma, Ymke. “‘Give Us Also the Right to Our Existence!’
Explorations of Gender Identity in the Early 20th Century as Portrayed
in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of
Loneliness.” 15AD, pp. 1–46.
• Hall, Marguerite Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness. Blue Ribbon Books,
1928.
• Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. London: Published by Leonard &
Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1933.
• Yazdani, Saeed. “A Modernist Perspective: the Concept of Gender
Identity in Woolf’s Orlando, from the Viewpoint of S. D. Beauvoir.”
Sept. 2014, pp. 469–476.