The Archduchess Harriet Griselda / Archduke Harry Character Analysis

A nobleman who falls in love with Orlando by simply looking at a painting of him. The Archduke moves near Orlando’s estate in London and dresses as a woman, disguising himself as an Archduchess to deceive Orlando. Orlando is indeed duped, but he soon realizes that the feelings he has for the Archduchess are lust, not love, and Orlando runs to Constantinople. After Orlando returns to England as a woman, the Archduke hears of Orlando’s change and immediately goes to her estate. He explains himself, apologizes, and begins to court Orlando; however, Orlando does not reciprocate his feelings. Orlando must cheat at a parlor game to make herself less attractive to the Archduke, and she is successful. The Archduke angrily leaves, but he does later forgive Orlando for her own deceit. The character of the Archduke serves to disrupt popular stereotypes of gender and sexuality, and he is another reflection of the narrator’s assertion that the sexes “intermix.” According to the narrator, “a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place” in every human being and “it is only the clothes that keep the male or female likeness, while underneath the sex is the very opposite of what it is above.”