“You never give away your heart you lend it time to time. If it were not how could we take it back without asking? “ I think these two lines from the novel shed light on the whole novel. When the narrator speaks about lending your heart out, I think he has a very narrow perspective on it. Before he met Louise, he taught himself not to give your everything to someone because they knew first handed first hand the evilness it can bring such as the affairs which had multiple of. Also, the evilness of lies that one has to tangle their self in while knowing your hurting the person that loves you, such as the narrator and Jacqueline. The words lend and take are very important in this because these words gives the reader a sense of possession. The narrator is giving the imagine of lending your heart like its an object you posses, but the first line of the novel is “why is the measure of love lost? (9)”. The narrator is explaining that when we lose something that means something to us is when we see the true value it had to us. So, I think the narrator is trying to show us that when you give away something that you control, you see how much it really means to you.
The second line is a question that shows how emotionally unattached the narrator was in the begging of the story. I think this line helps to show one of the main meanings of the book, which was to give people hope that people can change. The narrator went from having affairs with multiple women to finding the love of his life where he was so emotionally invested that he devoted weeks of his life to learning everything he could about human anatomy and cancer to help Louise. The first line also shows the readers the transformation of the narrator because they say with certainty that you NEVER give your heart away. By, the end of the book I think that they did give their heart away to Louise. It is said that if you love, someone, let them go. The narrator knew Louise needed help and that only her ex-husband could give her the right care she needed. Even though it was tough for the narrator to accept the idea of her being with him it was what he thought would be best for her and to me if you truly love someone you’ll always want what’s best for them even if its not what you want.
In class we discussed the painting, Love and the Pilgrim. We discussed that the narrator is the pilgrim holding on to the thicket of thorns, which was his troubled pass. In the beginning when the narrator only lent their heart out for weeks or a few months and had affairs with women this was his trouble pass, which was shown by the thorns. Louise who was the angle was showing him how to truly love someone and pulling him out of the thicket of thorns. Also, in Eve Sedgwicks book, Tendencies she illustrated societies perception of love and perfection through typical Christmas ideas. In Christmas ads there are always a happy family under the Christmas tree with Santa or the idea that a happy family that goes to church on Christmas and everything is perfect. These lines in Written On The Body help to show the realness of love. Another thing this novel helps us understand is breaking societies perception of many things such as the thought that being in love and in married is always perfect. This isn’t true; there is sometimes heartbreak, affairs, and lies all, which the novel shows us. Also, by not giving us a gender it made me break down any typical perception I had of a man and women in a relationship.
Ideas of possession and territory emerge throughout the novel in the narrator describing themselves in relation to Louise’s words and her body. The narrator has repeatedly lent their heart out to multiple lovers but they warn against giving the heart away in the way they have given it to Louise. After the narrator leaves Louise and attempts to find her do you think the narrator is asking for their heart back? I see the events that unfold towards the end of the novel as the narrator realizing that they have lost control in a situation they thought they planned out.