“My Lady of the Verdigris”

Louise is one of the few people who make the narrator feel free but also in control, which is something that they seem to value. Toward the end of the book, when the narrator is reminiscing about the good times they had with Louise, they describe her as “My Lady of the Verdigris. Louise is one of the few women who might still be beautiful if she went mouldy” (161). When I first read this, I assumed the “Lady of the Verdigris” was some painting, but upon minimal further research, it seems like the narrator just means Louise is their teal woman. This is an interesting way to describe her, because having grown up in the US, the most famous “Lady of the Verdigris” is the Statue of Liberty. I don’t know if it symbolizes the same things in the UK or if they even think about it at all, but the going “mouldy” (161) and the “copper” hair (161) definitely seem to point to a copper statue that’s oxidized. I feel like the Statue of Liberty can signify two things, especially for people who don’t live in the US.  

The first is, of course, freedom or liberty. The narrator leads a life that seems free of commitment. They describe settling down with Jacqueline as “wallow[ing] in contentment,” and explain that “[c]ontentment is the positive side of resignation” (76). I think that the narrator telling us about all the people they’ve dated in the past characterizes them as a free person who doesn’t get hung up break ups and moves on (fairly) easily. I think this is also demonstrated through the fact that almost all the women the narrator dates are married, while the narrator isn’t; they aren’t legally tied to another person, which gives them the ability to easily date around.  

The second idea the Statue of Liberty could signify, looking at the US in the 1990s from a queer perspective, could be control. There was the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (1993) and the Defense of Marriage Act (1996), for example, and while both of these were implemented/passed after Written on the Body was published (1992), I’d imagine that the suppression of queer identity was present throughout the earlier ‘90s as well. After the narrator hits Jacqueline, they say that they always prided themselves on being the “superior partner” who didn’t overreact and was able to control themselves (86). They had control in their relationship with Louise until she got cancer, and then they attempted to maintain their control by running away to the run-down house in the country. I think it’s in the country where the narrator starts to develop as a character and starts to loosen their control over both the narrative and their relationship with Louise. They start to tell us more about themselves. And in the very end, they embrace the cliches (180) and possible lose control of their sanity (188). 

(source: https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/lgbtq/90s)