Reflecting on Reflected Space

In Michel Foucault’s essay “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias,” he lays out the argument about utopias and heterotopias as space or location. I will let Foucault’s words explain these concepts with his example of the mirror:

Between these two [utopias and heterotopias], I would then set that sort of mixed experience which partakes of the qualities of both types of location, the mirror. It is, after all, a utopia, in that it is a place without a place. In it, I see myself where I am not, in an unreal space that opens up potentially beyond its surface; there I am down there where I am not, a sort of shadow that makes my appearance visible to myself, allowing me to look at myself where I do not exist: utopia of the mirror. At the same time, we are dealing with a heterotopia. The mirror really exists and has a kind of come-back effect on the place that I occupy: starting from it, in fact. I find myself absent from the place where I am, in that I see myself in there.

Starting from that gaze which to some extent is brought to bear on me, from the depths of that virtual space which is on the other side of the mirror, I turn back on myself, beginning to turn my eyes on myself and reconstitute myself where I am in reality. Hence the mirror functions as a heterotopia, since it makes the place that I occupy, whenever I look at myself in the glass, both absolutely real - it is in fact linked to all the surrounding space and absolutely unreal, for in order to be perceived it has of necessity to pass that virtual point that is situated down there. (Foucault 352).

For Foucault, the mirror is both utopia – because it is a place without a place—and heterotopia –because it forces the viewer to turn back on himself and reconstitute reality. (Perhaps we should refer to the mirror as a “you-topia” since—unlike Foucault’s claim that he sees himself where he is not—he is really seeing a “not himself,” for this reflection becomes an Other, a “you” instead of a “me.” The reflection is not “himself where he is not,” it is another self, a being without being.

 Within Orlando, Foucault’s mirror appears as Queen Elizabeth sees Orlando kissing a girl.

Meanwhile, the long winter months drew on. Every tree in the Park was lined with frost. The river ran sluggishly. One day when the snow was on the ground and the dark panelled rooms were full of shadows and the stags were barking in the Park, she saw in the mirror, which she kept for fear of spies always by her, through the door, which she kept for fear of murders always open, a boy—could it be Orlando?—kissing a girl—who in the Devil's name was the brazen hussy? Snatching at her golden-hilted sword she struck violently at the mirror. The glass crashed; people came running; she was lifted and set in her chair again; but she was stricken after that and groaned much, as her days wore to an end, of man's treachery (Woolf 20)

Does she break the mirror as a symbol of her broken heart? If we look through Foucault's lens, then we can see that the Queen is only seeing a utopia (or dystopia) through the mirror, for the reflection is a space that does not exist. The fact that she kept the mirror "for fear of spies" only adds to the utopia: she expects to use the mirror to find betrayal – its sole purpose – and she does. But instead of finding spies, she finds lies.

Perhaps the breaking of the mirror is an attempt to erase this betrayal--since she's only seen the betrayal in the mirror/utopia, the destruction of the mirror/utopia will end the betrayal. Or, perhaps, if we move on to Foucault's mirror functioning as a heterotopia, the Queen began to "turn back" on herself and "reconstitute" herself in reality. The non-Queen in the reflection has no being; likewise, Orlando’s and the girl’s reflections have no being. It is the reconstituted Queen in reality, Orlando’s kissing of the girl in reality, that causes the Queen to break the mirror.

Foucault then goes on to describe different types of heterotopia. For the purposes of Orlando, we will look at two of these, those that relate to time – “In the first place there are the heterotopias of time which accumulate ad infinitum, such as museums and libraries. These are heterotopias in which time does not cease to accumulate, perching, so to speak, on its own summit” (Foucualt 355), and

Along with this type, bound up with the accumulation of time, there are other heterotopias linked to time in its more futile, transitory and precarious aspects, a time viewed as celebration. These then are heterotopias without a bias toward the eternal. They are absolutely time-bound. To this class belong the fairs, those marvelous empty zones outside the city limits, that fill up twice a year with booths, showcases, miscellaneous objects, wrestlers, snake-women, optimistic fortune-tellers, etc. (Focault 355).

These heterotopias function as the form of the novel and within the novel. Following is “how the two types of heterotopia, that of the festival and that of the eternity of accumulating time, come together” (Foucault 355).

Orlando in and of itself is a “heterotopia of time which accumulate[s] ad infinitum.” The book spans over three centuries, with “the idea of accumulating everything,... of creating a sort of universal archive, the desire to enclose all times, all eras, forms and styles within a single place, the concept of making all times into one place, and yet a place that is outside time, inaccessible to the wear and tear of the years, according to a plan of almost perpetual and unlimited accumulation within an irremovable place,” (Foucault 355) The time changes, but the characters remain the same throughout the change. Granted, some have superficially changed: Nick Greene has become wealthy (Woolf 203); Sasha may or may not have become fat and lethargic (Woolf 222); and of course, Orlando has switched genders. But none of them age or become someone else. After all, “Orlando has become a woman—there is no denying it. But in every other respect, Orlando remained perfectly as he had been. The change of sex, though it altered their future, did nothing whatever to alter their identity” (Woolf 102). The only characters who seem to be linked to time are members of the Royalty: Queen Elizabeth I ruled from 1558-1603; Queen Victoria ruled from 1837-1901, and King Edward ruled from 1901-1910.

Within the book, the heterotopia of festival is seen with the carnival of the Great Frost (Woolf 26). It is “absolutely time bound” for it can only last as long as the freeze; it is a “marvelous empty zone” that takes place on the river; and it has “fill[ed] up…with booths, showcases,” etc. in the form of “arbours, mazes, alleys, drinking booths, etc.” (Woolf 26).

By holding Orlando up to Foucault’s mirror, and seeing the utopias (dystopias) and heterotopias the text creates, we can gain new insight into the novel.