Category: 2015 Blog Post

“She would have bound me to her with ropes and had us lie face to face unable to move but move on each other, unable to feel but feel each other. She would have deprived us of all senses bar the sense of touch and smell. In a blind, deaf and dumb world we could conclude our passion infinitely. To end would be to begin again” (Winterson 162).

   During this part of the novel, Louise is asking the narrator of her loyalty to her. The narrator then muses about all the things Louise would do to keep them together. There are repetitive phrases in the passage, but most importantly is the phrase—repeated twice, “She would have” (Winterson 162). This set of words portrays Louise as the active party, and with the descriptive actions that come after each phrase, portrays the narrator as the passive party. This may be the narrator attempting to prove to readers that Louise would go further than they would to keep them together, as a defense for their affair altogether. However, this active versus passive language also seems somewhat accusatory. In many marital affairs, the outside party is often blamed more than the married person. Here, the narrator makes it seem as though Louise chased them, as though the narrator is helpless because Louise “bound me to her with ropes” (Winterson 162). This part especially depicts Louise as an almost villain, as someone who ties people up so she may have her way with them. In this passage, Louise appears to take something away from herself and the narrator, but this absence adds something to their relationship. First, she takes away the ability to move away from each other. But the narrator adds that they would be “unable to feel but feel each other” (Winterson 162). The narrator continues, and after stating Louise “would have deprived us of all senses but bar the sense of touch and smell” (Winterson 162), states “In a blind, deaf and dumb world we could conclude our passion infinitely” (Winterson 162). This gives readers the idea that although Louise would strip herself and the narrator of different abilities, that they would still be able to enjoy their relationship in a different way, as though their relationship could evolve during any challenge. The narrator goes on to describe the world Louise would create if she “deprived us of all senses bare the sense of touch and smell” (Winterson 162). This part made me think of what it would be like to be buried as a corpse—what it would be like to be dead. The narrator may be making a small hint at Louise’s possibly fatal illness, especially when they say, “To end would be to begin again” (Winterson 162). The end of the passage seems to refer to the novel as a whole, to the issue of their affair and it’s seeming end as a whole. The narrator appears to almost be saying that dying may relieve all of the pain they and Louise are experiencing, that even in death their relationship could go on.

Page 162

“Passion is not well bred. Her fingers bit their spot. She would have bound me to her with ropes and had us lie face to face unable to move but move in each other, unable to feel but feel each other. She would have deprived us of all senses bar the sense of touch and smell. In a blind, deaf and dumb world we could conclude our passion infinitely.”

 

In this passage the narrator is reminiscing on the past relationship that the main character and Louise had. This was stated after Louise asked is he would be true to her. He responded “with all my heart.” The irony here is that earlier in the book the narrator talks about the hoop of rope that she had around his heart but it was in a positive sense in which he was talking about at the time.

 

There is a sense of struggle within this passage. The deprivation of the senses as described only leads me to believe the turmoil felt within the main character. He is lost without Louise but at the same time is unable to have her. As elated as he once was with her, he now describes their relationship in a negative light with pain she caused him by pinching his nipple, binding him to her, and then stripping him of the innate senses. Moving as one sounds more like a struggle than a pleasure, too. Where her touch used to be soft, the narrator describes it now as a bite.

 

Previously the narrator wrote a short passage on each sense respectively and the importance of each in regards to Louise. To now be stripped of them by her contradicts previous passages. However, going forward I think the main character would benefit from being blind, as he would not have to see Louise sick and suffering. On page 186 it is written, “What then kills love? Only this: neglect. Not to see you when you stand before me.” Again the senses are removed and painful feelings are present; death, pain, and neglect.

“You have scored your name into my shoulders, referenced me with your mark. The pads of your fingers have become printing blocks, you tap a message on to my skin, tap meaning into my body. Your morse code interferes with my heart beat” (89).

Within this passage exists a repetition of the words “you,” “my,” “your,” and body parts – shoulders, fingers, skin, body, heart beat. This possessive language indicates that the narrator feels as if these actions have been done to him/her. From this repetition of “you” and “my,”the narrator is indirectly stating that Louise has left a physical impact on his/her body. She has metaphorically branded the narrator – written on his/her body. The repetition of the body parts displays the physicality of the relationship. The narrator is acknowledging that fact that their relationship was confined to the bedroom. They were bound by lust and promiscuity and were unable to act normally within society.

The narrator expresses these thoughts after he/she fights with Jacqueline and strikes her in the face. “I had a steady heart beat before I met you, I relied upon it, it had seen active service and grown strong. Now you alter its pace with your own rhythm, you play upon me, drumming me taut” (89). After the dramatic episode in the flat with Jacqueline, the narrator is beginning to understand the impact that his/her relationship with Louise has had on him/her. This is just yet another example in which the narrator places the blame on Louise. He/she is unable to take responsibility for any part of the relationship. On the other hand, the narrator is also not used to feeling so vulnerable; he/she has never experienced the passion, chaos, and responsibility of true love. The active verbs in this passage demonstrate this continuation of the narrator moving everything on to Louise, as he/she has done throughout the novel.

Another element to this passage that resonates with me is the element of marking, branding, or writing. The title of the book, Written on the Body, helps me to conclude that the narrator is implying that Louise has written all over him/her. Right after he/she states the passage indicated above, the narrator thinks about Louise’s reading hands and how she has written on his/her body and translated him/her into her own book. The narrator, at this point in time, is unable to accept responsibility for the relationship. Despite how unhealthy and destructive this relationship is, he/she has never felt so loved by anyone in his/her entire life. This passage is an example of the overarching theme of the novel – the narrator feeling victimized by Louise.

In the passage on page 180 the narrator says, “I decided to try out the cafe, out of masochism, out of habit, out of hope. I thought it might comfort me, although I noticed how little comfort was to be got from familiar things,”  (Winterson).

This might be a stretch to what the author is trying to say but, I think this greatly helps provide a better point to a comment I made in class. I talked briefly about how I thought that relationships, especially marriage, should not be content. This is not to say that the marriage has to be nothing but trials of the heart or on one side the spectrum (happy or sad). I think a marriage or relationship should be made out of things that make you something more than just content. The narrator talks about their relationship with Jacqueline as one of content or plateaued feeling, and I think that’s why it was so hard for them to be as emotionally invested. Relationships, of any sort, are supposed to help a person grow, or come to a new understanding in their life. The narrator’s relationship with Jacqueline was not helping them grow in any sort of way. However they were comforted by the familiarity with being with her. And even in that familiarity, can we even say that is comfort? They knew she would be there, but they were never comforted by her presence. With Louise, however, there was comfort, and as we see throughout the novel, nothing about there relationship is familiar. This is a new experience from the way Louise was upfront with Elign about the affair to the fact that the narrator left her. This relationship is comforting without it being familiar. The narrator has show growth and knowledge from this comforting unfamiliar experience.

 

“You have scored your name into my shoulders, referencing me with your mark. The pads of your fingers have become printing blocks, you tap a message on to my skin, tap meaning into my body. Your morse code interferes with my heart beat.” (89)

 

In this passage the narrator is referencing the profound affect that Louise has upon them.

The letter M is repeated frequently in this passage. Especially in the first sentence with words like name, my, me, and mark the soft M begins to surround this passage. The letter M is used to create a soft and gentle foundation to support these words of love that the narrator has for Louise.

Outside of the text the letter M has many comforting connotations. It is the majority of the word “mom and mama”. Mothers are seen by our society as the ultimate form of comfort and therefore their name immediately creates comfort. In the prayer word “Om” the M is always held out until the vibrations fade into the air. Om is believed to be the first syllable/sound that was uttered by a living being in this world in Hinduism. To be in a room full of people praying and saying Om is to be blanketed and supported by a simple vibration.

These connotations of the letter M help to support the narrator’s easily identified care and comfort in Louise. The narrator describes how Louise has, “tap(ped) meaning into my body” and “interfere(d) with my heart beat.” The narrator has acknowledged head-on that their love for Louise and the love she has for them has affected them. This affect is received with open arms, which is shown by the constant use of M. The sound of the words out loud deepens the softness that the narrator feels towards Louise.

Page 159: I had to leave. She would have died for my sake. Wasn’t it better for me to live a half life for her sake? 

This passage’s words are of comparatively moderate importance to its tone: the agonized whimper of false justification. Even saying/writing this, our Narrator knows that it is wrong, and that s/he has made a terrible mistake. The evidence is in the syntax used:

“I had to X” is one of the most common justifications in the English language, and thus one of the ones that rings the most hollow. In truth, it is not used even as a justification, much less an explanation, but as a plea for understanding from an assumedly judgmental audience. A plea that is made only when the pleader has doubts about the correctness of their actions and feels the need for the agreement and support of others, which would be unnecessary if they truly believed they did the right thing.

In the second sentence, the use of “would have” is most revelatory. It expresses willingness in the past tense, implying that the Narrator knows s/he has crossed a line and no longer believes Louise still would do so. I also saw the implication that the Narrator does not consider him/herself to be worth dying for, because of what s/he has done.

Lastly, that the third sentence is a question is a huge point. Here the Narrator shows that s/he cannot even convince him/herself, and is no longer sure of the reasoning.

This passage struck me as important because it so perfectly illustrated what has become the Narrator’s primary flaw: martyrdom. S/he views this as sacrificing their relationship rather than throwing it away, and thus leaves Louise despite the pain so that she can have a better life. But the Narrator did nothing to actually ensure that Louise would get treatment, or even need the treatment. The moment s/he chose to trust Elgin over Louise was the moment their relationship was doomed.

So desperate to make the sacrifice for Louise, the Narrator denied Louise even the chance to do the same. S/he loved Louise too much to let Louise love him/her back, too much to let Louise lose anything (Why is the measure of love loss?), and that is the flaw that led the relationship to fail. That is what the passage above shows: the Narrator’s realization of his/her mistake.

“You have scored your name into my shoulders, referenced me with your mark. The pads of your fingers have become printing blocks, you tap a message into my skin, you tap meaning into my body. Your morse code interferes with my heart beat.” (89)

When Louise and the narrator decided to tell Elgin about their relationship, they were able to express how much love they had for each other. This passage was one of many where the narrator described how much of an impact Louise made on their life.

Throughout this entire passage there is repetition of the words “you” and “your”. Whenever the narrator says one of these words, it is always to describe something that Louise has done. For example, the narrator says, “You have scored your name into my shoulders…” (89), implying that Louise has left a mark on their body that cannot be replaced or removed. The constant use of “you” and “your” also shows that the narrator has trouble taking responsibility for their part in the relationship. The narrator constantly says these words to show that Louise was the one who made their relationship exciting, yet complicated as it is.

There are also numerous words that are associated with writing. The narrator says “morse code”, “printing blocks”, “mark”, “score” and “branding irons” all within this passage. Also, the title of the book is Written on the Body and this passage describes all the messages and marks Louise has left on the narrators body. The narrator is expressing how Louise has essentially left her mark on their body, and that mark shows that Louise is forever a part of the narrator. The use of these words also imply a sense of permanency between Louise and the narrator. This also shows that the narrator feels like their relationship will last forever.

The words “shoulders”, “fingers”, “skin”, “body”, and “heartbeat” all appear in this passage, and all of these words are about physical body features. This says a lot about the depth of the narrator’s relationship with Louise. Whenever the narrator would describe something they loved about Louise it would always be something physical, such as her flaming red hair or her breasts. But the narrator never speaks about how Louise thinks or some of her interests. The fact that Louise is leaving all of these permanent marks on the narrators body parts instead of their mind and heart also shows that their relationship was based mostly on their physical being rather than their mental.

“She was free. Is that you flying over the fields with the wind under your wing? Why didn’t I trust you?  Am I any better than Elgin? Now you’ve made fools of us both and sprung away. The snare didn’t close on you.  It closed on us” (172).

This passage is particularly interesting for several reasons.  Throughout the course of the novel, the narrator has made use of many different pronouns, such as he, she, her, and you.  Beforehand, the “you” was seemingly used to address the reader but, in this passage, the narrator is referring to Louise.  In addition, there are two different metaphors of Louise as a bird and then as a rabbit or other small critter.  A significant aspect of this quote is that the narrator draws a comparison between him/her self and Elgin, who has been presented as a damaging character incompatible with Louise, given her wildness and exotic aura.  Given the comparison between the narrator and Elgin, the narrator hints that he/she and Louise may be incompatible with one another as well.  Another significant aspect is that the narrator implies that Louise is free of him/her and Elgin, so the narrator may admit that his/her relationship with Louise may not have ultimately been healthy.

This passage again hints at how the narrator is envious of Louise’s autonomy.  Louise does not stay with Elgin, who could heal and support her, even after the narrator leaves. Louise also does not seek out the narrator until the very end of the novel, thus leaving the narrator to fret and worry for months.  The narrator also spends a lot of time reflecting on and remembering past lovers and relationships, hinting that he or she feels trapped by these memories, for they can elicit feelings of regret, sadness, and even self-hatred, such as on page eighty-three, where the narrator says “I air my scruples now but it didn’t stop me at the time. I do despise myself for that.”

This book could be broken up into different sections; initially, the narrator talks about his or her past relationship with Bathsheba, which then led to him or her dating Jacqueline, who seemed like a “safe” alternative.  The narrator then meets Louise, but the two are hardly spent time together when the narrator leaves and spends the rest of the novel regretting that decision and missing Louise.  The narrator implies that he or she is a fool, while Louise is “free.” As was mentioned before, Louise could be free from several things: life, an unhappy marriage with Elgin, her disease, society, or the narrator.  The narrator, however, is not really free from anything; he/she spends much of the novel reminiscing about old flames yet does not disclose many personal details.  Thus, the narrator chooses to define him/her self by these past relationships.  In a way, letting go of these relationships implies a loss of self and identity for the narrator.  This explains why the narrator continues to pine over Louise despite the lack of contact and the probability that Louise has passed away.   Because the narrator continues to be attached to Louise and the past lovers, one could say that the narrator is a fool.  Earlier in the novel, the narrator referenced some “friends” who stated that the narrator was foolish for becoming involved with a married woman again.  To conclude, this passage reflects how Louise is a very autonomous character, a quality which the narrator envies as he/she is entrapped in a cycle of love and love lost. 

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.

“I still wanted her to be the leader of our expedition. Why did I find it hard to accept that we were equally sunk? Sunk in each other? Destiny is a worrying concept. I don’t want to be fated, I want to choose” (Winterson, 91).

The narrator offers these thoughts during their tenuous coexistence with Louise and Elgin, when Louise is still trying to balance her loyalty between her husband and her affair. A confusing time for our narrator, they express in this passage a lack of stability and a desire for some semblance of control. The narrator wants Louise, for example, to “be the leader of [their] expedition,” acknowledging that the two of them are attempting a feat together and that someone needs to take charge of its success. Even more anxiety is expressed through the feeling of being “sunk,” which the narrator experiences so strongly that they state it twice. To be “sunk” is to be forced to stagnate, to be trapped without option for progression or change—or even a way out. This is clearly not a desirable state for our control-seeking narrator, even if it is with Louise.

“Destiny is a worrying concept” for our narrator because they cannot exert control over it, and neither can their beloved Louise. For what good is Louise as an expedition leader if fate has already dictated that their expedition should fail? Here the narrator makes explicit their opposition to being “sunk,” claiming that they “want to choose” their path instead of being manipulated by their potential fate. This opposition of destiny and choice is especially powerful here because of how the narrator seeks choice through Louise; they do not “want to be fated” but they still want Louise to lead, like they want to exert control but only some. It is as though the narrator is uncomfortable with their lack of stability and also feels incapable of accepting the responsibility of choice.

The narrator’s struggle for control is reflected in the novel as a whole, primarily through the non-linear mode of storytelling. The narrator guides us from one scene to another, one relationship to another, offering hints about how each piece fits into the greater story but ultimately revealing only what they deem relevant. The narrator exerts control by telling the story exactly how they desire, but in doing so they forfeit the ability to dictate all of the details (such as the narrator’s gender.) Because the narrator only offers specific pieces of the story for examination, we iare left, much like Louise, to “lead the expedition” and draw our own conclusions, to make decisions on our behalf and the narrator’s.