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“The Oak Tree” and the Oak Tree
Virginia Woolf mentions dogs repeatedly throughout Orlando, and they are symbolic of Orlando’s deep connection to nature within the novel. Orlando’s connection to nature is central to his—later, her—identity, and this connection is reflected in his love of “beasts,” or dogs. Orlando is never without a dog for the entirety of the novel, and he judges other people based on how they treat dogs. For example, after Favilla beats a spaniel for ripping a hole in her stocking, Orlando considers her a “perverse and cruel” woman. On the other, Orlando is willing to forgive Euphrosyne’s introverted and cold personality in large part because she is “never without a whippet or spaniel at her knee” and feeds them from her dinner plate. Orlando’s connection to dogs is so strong that his Seleuchi hound never leaves his side during the week-long sleep that transforms Orlando into a woman, and when Orlando finally wakes up, the dog is “half famished with hunger.”
In Orlando’s experience, people are mostly a disappointment, and after Nicholas Greene gives one of Orlando’s original plays a bad review, Orlando sends his servant to fetch him two of the best elk hounds from Norway. “For,” Orlando says, “I have done with men.” Orlando is repeatedly disappointed by others, and there remains but two things in which he puts his trust: “dogs and nature; an elk-hound and a rose bush.” Dogs remain an integral part of Orlando’s life for hundreds of years. Even as Orlando walks down to the oak tree at the end of the novel to bury her poem, thus repaying her debt to nature, she takes her dogs with her.
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Dogs Symbol Timeline in Orlando
The timeline below shows where the symbol Dogs appears in Orlando. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...up at court” with her “assiduity” and eyes. One day, Orlando witnesses Favilla beat a dog that had ripped her silk stocking (of which she had few, the narrator points out)....
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...is “fair, florid, and a trifle phlegmatic,” but she is “never without a whippet or spaniel at her knee.” She will make a perfect wife for Orlando, and by the time...
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Chapter 2
...buy. “For,” Orlando says. “I have done with men.” The servant returns with two prime dogs, one male and one female, and Orlando immediately takes them to his room. “For,” he...
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...“his boyish dream and very short.” He now puts his trust in only two things: “dogs and nature.” Calling to his elkhounds, Orlando decides to take a walk in the park....
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Chapter 3
...depressed to such a pit of gloom” that he prefers to remain alone with his dogs. Despite this, rumors exist to this day of Orlando’s life and the many men and...
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...this Orlando shows no “signs of perturbation,” and she calls to her Seleuchi hound (the dog never left Orlando’s side, even as she slept) and climbs on her horse. “Thus,” the...
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Chapter 4
...the country house, Orlando is met by Mrs. Grimsditch, Mr. Dupper, and an overly excited elk hound , which nearly knocks her to the ground. “Milord! Milady! Milord! Milady!” Mrs. Grimsditch cries...
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“What the devil is the matter with me?” Orlando asks her spaniel, Pippin, on “Tuesday, the 16th of June, 1712,” as she bursts into tears. “I don’t...
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Chapter 6
...Spoilt? Perhaps.” She watches the passing trees. “Trees,” she says, “I love trees,” and “sheep dogs.” Orlando continues. “And the night. But people? […] Peasants I like. I understand crops.”
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Orlando calls to “her troop of dogs” and walks to the gallery. There, rows of chairs of faded velvet line the walls,...
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...but unlike when the clock struck in London, she has “complete composure.” She calls her dogs and goes down to the garden, where the “intricacy” of the flowers and trees are...
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