# Archduchess Harriet Griselda — Orlando character guide

> Archduchess Harriet Griselda in Orlando by Virginia Woolf.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the Archduchess, the Archduchess Harriet, the Archduchess Harriet Griselda of Finster-Aarhorn

**First appearance:** 0006-iii

## Snapshot

A towering, melancholic noblewoman who pursues Orlando across Europe with a devotion that turns out to be stranger than it looks.

## Who they are

Harriet first appears in Constantinople, looming in Orlando's doorway with an infatuation that Orlando finds suffocating and slightly absurd. She follows him back to England, undeterred by indifference or geography, and her persistence becomes one of the book's running jokes about desire that will not take no for an answer. What she actually is, and what she wants, is one of the quieter surprises Woolf saves for the middle of the story.

## In the story

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orlando_se/chapters/ii)

A tall, eccentric Romanian archduchess who intrudes upon Orlando's privacy, claiming to be visiting the English court.

### [Chapter IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orlando_se/chapters/iv)

Appears as the Archduke, offering Orlando protection from a crowd and pressing a jewel in the shape of a toad upon her, repeating his suit.

### [List of Illustrations](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orlando_se/chapters/list-of-illustrations)

Featured in an illustration as the Archduchess Harriet.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orlando_se/characters/archduchess_harriet
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orlando_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orlando_se/characters