Orra

Of the two fourteenth-century protagonists, Orra is clearly more imaginative and nonconformist.

The Liberating and Debilitating Imagination in Joanna Baillie’s Orra and The Dream 2008

Although Orra is afflicted with medieval superstitiousness, her attitude toward gender roles is progressive for the fourteenth century and even for Baillie’s time.

The Liberating and Debilitating Imagination in Joanna Baillie’s Orra and The Dream 2008

Next to the old reel is a new-for-2010 Orra SX model from Abu Garcia.

Baitcasters Then & Now 2009

The count fails, however, to coerce Orra into marrying his feckless son and only heir, who ultimately is slain by the dying Rudigere.

The Liberating and Debilitating Imagination in Joanna Baillie’s Orra and The Dream 2008

As Julie Carlson has pointed out, Orra “reveals not only the illusion of paternal law but the gullibility that founds [...] it” (211).

The Liberating and Debilitating Imagination in Joanna Baillie’s Orra and The Dream 2008

Unlike Osterloo, Orra finds “a joy in fear” (2.1.174) and revels in “stories [...] of ghosts and spirits” (2.1.144).

The Liberating and Debilitating Imagination in Joanna Baillie’s Orra and The Dream 2008

Considered together, Orra and The Dream present a quasi-medieval world in which terrifying situations affect individuals according to their temperament rather than their gender, the power of a guardian, count, general, or prior can evaporate in an instant, and the fearful imagination can be easily manipulated into creating its own nightmares.

The Liberating and Debilitating Imagination in Joanna Baillie’s Orra and The Dream 2008

In Orra, Hughobert relies on the advice of “drones” who “cheat, deceive, [and] abuse [him]” (1.3.1 – 2).

The Liberating and Debilitating Imagination in Joanna Baillie’s Orra and The Dream 2008

According to the stage directions, after making this speech Orra holds “her clenched hands over her head with an air of grandeur and defiance” (Orra 162).

The Liberating and Debilitating Imagination in Joanna Baillie’s Orra and The Dream 2008

Baillie portrays the imagination ambivalently: this potent and transformative mental faculty enables Orra to envision a matriarchal and pacifistic utopia and a rewarding civic career as a co-burgher but also inspires her nightmare of the living dead.

The Liberating and Debilitating Imagination in Joanna Baillie’s Orra and The Dream 2008