[Vwoolf] the Russian princess

[mhussey at verizon.net]

A student in my Woolf class wrote a journal entry yesterday about Sasha, in
Orlando, and I as I cannot recall ever seeing such information/speculation
elsewhere, I told her about this remarkable list and offered to post her
ideas to see what people might have to say!

Tatiana Duvanova (my student) wrote that the name "Princess Marousha
Stanilovska Dagmar Natasha Iliana Romanovitch is, to say the least,
elaborate. Perhaps, I am overthinking this a little, but to me, this name
reads as an allusion to a big part of Russian monarchical history, and its
eventual downfall in 1917.  My first question is what she is the princess
of, exactly. In 1608, and around that time, there was no Russian Tzar, but
instead a time of civil unrest. The Rurick Dynasty had ended when the last
son of Ivan the Terrible died childless in 1598. After that, there were
about thirty years (until 1613) of turmoil before the Romanov dynasty was
installed. The Romanovs were related to Ruricks, but they had a different
last name before Michael Romanov became a Tzar in 1613. I think Romanovitch
is one of the versions of Romanov, which makes me think that her family
might have had a claim to the Russian throne, so that could explain why she
left so suddenly. Dagmar is also the name of the princess Dagmar of Denmark,
Maria Feodorovna after marriage, who was a mother of Nikolai II, the last
emperor of Russia. Another possibly interesting point - his wife's name in
marriage was changed to Alexandra, which is a longer version of Sasha. Like
I mentioned earlier, there was no reason for Orlando to call the Russian
Princess Sasha - it is not part of her name, and she probably would have
mentioned it to him. [.] Orlando seems frivolous, and maybe even treats
women as property (on par with the times, I suppose).  He calls her Sasha
because "it was the name of a white Russian fox he had had as a boy" (33).
She reminds him of something he used to own, a pet animal, and he even calls
her that to her face. However, the moment when something goes wrong in their
relationship occurs, in my opinion, after Orlando "would fall into one of
his moods of melancholy" (33). When he says twice "all ends in death", she
is silent: "Sasha stared at him, perhaps sneered at him, for he must have
seemed a child to her, and said nothing" (34). It is unclear what prompted
him to suddenly get too melancholy; however reasonable his emotion was, I
think that it must have appeared ridiculous to Sasha, even if my assumptions
about her are incorrect. Her country, which she clearly loves, has been
enwrapped by turmoil for as long as she probably could remember. It is
unclear how old she is, but the oldest she could be is twenty or
twenty-five. Even if she is thirty, which is unlikely, she would not have
seen a peaceful time in Moscow. I think that this is the moment that her
perspective of Orlando changes, and she decided to leave. They clearly do
not understand each other, since they do not even speak the same language
but rather "meet" in French. Also, while Sasha is silent, he just keeps
talking. Even though he thinks about asking her about her family and her own
house, he decides against it. It also appeared strange to me, considering he
is already in love with her and they talked about everything under the sun;
yet he neglected to ask her the most basic information."

 

 

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