Being frightened by the male, Woolf has deep distrust in men and therefore, naturally, turns her interest and trust to the female and this kind of emotion gradually develops into Sapphism. Vita, the Original model of Orlando, who is a bisexualist, has especially great influence on her and makes her regard that the man-woman and the woman-woman relationship interlace, which is the direct source of her theory of androgyny.
The experience of growing up in a patriarchal family also makes Virginia Woolf rethink about women's status and the man-woman relationship: she advocates theory of androgyny to oppose her father Leslie Stephen's theory that an artist should be either extremely masculine or completely feminine; she holds the view that androgyny and the neutral attitude towards art is the key factor for being an outstanding artist. This opinion can be traced in her works Woman and Fiction: "The vision becomes too masculine or it becomes too feminine; it loses its perfect integrity and, with that, its most essential quality as a work of art." (P5) In Orlando, she further gives her explanation of androgyny: "In each of us two powers preside, one male, one female; and in the man's brain, the man predominates over the woman, and in the woman's brain, the woman predominates over the man."(P115) In this novel, androgyny is taken as a union between male and female, a means of existence, a compromise and perfect combination of the two sexes, which would subvert male tyranny and bring about universal harmony; and most importantly, is the nature of a human.
Since androgyny is considered as the human nature, how does Woolf reveal it?.
Let us trace back Orlando's life, from Elizabeth Age, when he is still a boy.
2.2. The Masculine Characteristics of Orlando.
Growing up in the male-dominating society, Orlando inevitably has masculine characteristics £ ∘he has the lure to control others, to show his chivalry by conquering the enemies and the female, and he takes women's traditional virtues for granted.