Nell Character Analysis

A prostitute whom Orlando meets some time during in the 18th century. When Orlando initially meets Nell, Orlando is dressed in men’s clothing, and Nell naturally assumes that Orlando is a man. When Nell believes Orlando to be a man, she is “appealing, hoping, trembling, [and] fearing,” but when she realizes Orlando is a woman, she immediately begins to relax. Nell’s difference in feelings underscores Woolf’s underlying argument that gender is a social construct that is primarily reflected or perceived through clothing. “I’m by no means sorry to hear it,” Nell says to Orlando upon discovering her gender. Nell isn’t in the “mood” for men, she says, and claims to be “in the devil of a fix.” This implies that, like Orlando, Nell is also attracted to women, but their relationship is not sexual. Instead, Nell and Orlando spend their time together talking. Nell reflects Orlando’s taste for “low company,” but their relationship also implies that the most meaningful relationships are often between those of the same sex, even those relationships that aren’t sexual in nature.