Because of her strong feminist beliefs, Woolf's persona is intellectual, political, and radical for her time. Though some of her sentences can be lofty, elevated, and confusing, Woolf will bring her reader back to reality by addressing them directly. At times it seems as though she is rambling on within her own mind, but then reaches some kind of a blunt or rather harsh, yet humorous epiphany about life or death, male or female, the self or society. The main themes in Orlando are sexuality, the search for self, the passage of time, female consciousness, society, and writing and reading. Woolf likes to explore and often overstep the boundaries, whether it be the depths of the mind, the vast lands both foreign and familiar, or the expected gender roles of society.
Society becomes an area for close scrutiny, particularly female constructions, in Orlando .
Woolf is psychological by exploring the mind and the many selves at different levels of consciousness creating a surreal and dreamlike quality to the atmosphere of the book. Her interest for the beginnings and endings of experiences are clear as Orlando changes from man to woman, different monarchs rule the country, various trends come and go, and new eras quickly become old. Woolf most likely directed her writings towards society as a whole. She wanted others to see from the outside looking in, just as she did. Historians would probably find Orlando disturbing, because much of the material presented is fictional.