Much of Jeanette Winterson’s books Written on the Body examines relationships, their structure, and how people in them see and feel. While the narrator-X- is trying to recover from the loss of Louise, X finds it very hard to be rid of thoughts of her: “She flooded me and she has not drained away. I am still wading through her, she beats upon my doors and threatens my innermost safety” (163). Here we see Louise described again through images of water. She is the water. Where at other points in the book water has been used as a positive image, in this passage water seems very violent. Words like “flooded”, “drained”, and “beats” all suggest a certain aggressiveness or power. However these metaphors are complicated because X cannot seem to place where Louise is: sometimes she is inside her, around her, or attacking her. However, in ever iteration of water image Louise is the deciding force, she controls the narrator’s actions. She is the active party, the obstacle, or the enemy. Here we see a theme of active or passive roles for X. The narrator places themselves in the passive or victim role throughout much of interactions with Louise. This seems to contradict the narrators own statements about clichés. Despite saying that clichés are the problem with modern relationships because they dictate roles and confine peoples understanding of love, the narrator cannot stop themselves from playing out cliché and time honored roles. It interests me that the narrator is so consistent in their role of passivity while giving Louise an interesting range of images. Louise doesn’t seems as constrained by these rules as X is; in fact by identifying Louise as water the narrator gives her a full range of emotion and power. As the passage suggests water moves in and out, around, up and down. While X is stuck as a helpless victim of love, Louise is a living and changing force. Perhaps Louise is our protagonist who escapes from the confines of dictated love.