Sally Potters Film Orlando - Essay Example

Orlando Gender in a civilized society should remain neutral in terms of dispensing roles to different sexes. This is because gender affects other pertinent elements of establishing a firm society where peace and harmony prevail. In the movie Orlando, for example, confusions and changing of roles largely influence the choices made by some of the characters such as Orlando and his wife, Lady Orlando. Contrastingly, as this paper will explain, cultural structures that include patriarchy, mixed identity, language, and lived experience forms a critical framework of understanding the importance of Potter’s film. It also explores the complex nature of cultural interpretations that emerge when roles change with emphasis on Orlando’s sudden transformation in the movie. Sally Potter’s film Orlando is a brilliant cinematic production that articulates several issues especially from a gender context as noted by Judith Butler, a cultural theorist in her essay. The film is set in the Elizabethan Age prior to Queen’s death. However, the Queen is keen to bequeath a young nobleman called Orlando a piece of land as gift to erect a castle for himself. Gender echoes significantly as observed by Butler in terms it being constituted over a certain period (Butler 519). In other words, gender is usually affirmed as a distinct identity institutionalized via repeated acts as displayed by Lady Orlando after discovering the shacking sex transformation of her husband, Orlando. It is a complex manifestation fuelled by language as the medium of communication in comprehending movements, gestures, and enactments of being. Accordingly, while Potter’s film casts the central characters as persevering against the backdrop of lawsuits especially in the patriarchal era, the prospects of triumph are encouraging. Similarly, Lady Orlando’ lack of powers in matters concerning land rights is an epitome of identity crisis that usually afflicts societies such as the one depicted in the film. Overall, gender transformation expands possibilities for the social audience concerned with the fate and destiny of characters that include Princess Sasha, Clorinda, Favilla, and Euphrosyne. Another interesting issue emerging from the movie is tied to Butler’s assertion that the conception of gender identity is a belief inspired by appearance. In Orlando, for illustration, the clash of gender and historical situations such as the passing of Queen Elizabeth I displays the comfort in leadership that inspired Lady Orlando and her husband before his gender transformation. Consequently, the triumph amidst the land squabbles exposes also how leadership influenced socio-cultural and feminist issues in society. Filing of law suits against Orlando’s wife is an exemplification of the cultural meanings that often arise in theatrical contexts or performative acts. This is unlike the literary intention by Virginia Woolf that concentrated more on spreading the historical idea preceding Lady Orlando’s victory over powerful landowners. Alternatively, self-identity expands the possibilities of identifying the relationship between dramatic performance to reveal gender messages and the historical dispositions that materialize in the film. For example, the dramatization and reproduction of Lady Orlando in the 1990s as a winner in the court case points directly to gender possibilities found in performance. Portrayal of the couple is a pointer to the mixed realities that occur to women when their roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined even with success as noted in the main character. In a wider context, Butler still affirms the essence of gender when it is revealed through personal acts or biased perceptions. These are founded on social and cultural foundations that resulted to Lady Orlando’s failure to find love and getting embroiled in a court case. From a cultural framework, however, the womanizing behavior of Orlando with Sasha displays a dominant patriarchal approach in Victorian societies that suppressed the success and prosperity of women. The themes of despair and desperation such as that found in the protagonist’s life, thus, interconnect with Butler’s feminist impulse and subjective experiences of individuals. Additionally, social conditioning of fighting against an anti-feminist society leads to cultural production of aggressive personalities noted in Lady Orlando and Sasha. These two women are determined to revenge against a misogynistic society. Likewise, language transcending the film especially the conversations between the major characters is another interesting phenomenon in comprehending gender from a cultural context. A case in point Lady Orlando declaring her womanhood after facing the difficulties of escape from her home. Evasion of marriage proposals by her lover equally triggers a complicated scenario of heartbreaks where women are desperate to become wives or domestic workers. Butler’s opinion on gender in regards to Potter’s film Orlando revolves around the lived experience of her the central characters namely Sasha, Orlando, Lady Orlando, and Clorinda. According to Butler, cultural structures largely manipulate the experiences projected by either women or men in the society (Butler 522). This implies that one has to improve his or her personal situations to adapt and survive in cultural structures that are ever changing and transforming people’s tastes and preferences. An example is the failure by society to publish Orlando’s poem for many years compelling to embrace gender-change and abdicate his societal roles and responsibilities. Notably, Lady Orlando’s personal situation is ruined by cultural make-up that despises the rise of women particularly in the acquisition of property. Butler argues that lived experience is changing one’s tastes and preferences including adjusting of individual dispositions to make living easier. People such as Sasha, Orlando, and Nick Greene encounter difficulties of shaping their experiences to meet their passions in spite of numerous trials in life. Gender roles, therefore, act as contradictions in seeking the true meaning of life especially from a cultural realm. It, therefore, is essential to link the cultural perspectives of defining gender in society while searching for solutions to retrogressive habits echoes in Potter’s film. These include denying women rights to landownership as demonstrated by Lady Orlando’s ordeal or tormenting them in marriage. Alternatively, inculcating new roles and responsibilities to men such as Orlando or Early of Murray will strengthen their resolve to become better people in society in initiating progressive changes. In other words, as Butler has observed, cultural structures should accommodate everyone. Work Cited Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Theater Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-531. Print. Read More