38 pages • 1 hour read
Jeanette WintersonWritten On The Body
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Exploration of a New World
Throughout the novel, the narrator’s love relationships are compared to new worlds that the narrator discovers and then explores. The narrator’s life with Jacqueline is compared to an “new island” discovered by the narrator after surviving a shipwreck. As well, Louise’s body is compared to a foreign land as the narrator uses explorer imagery to describe the process of becoming familiar with Louise’s body: “How could I cover this land?” (52). The narrator identifies with Christopher Columbus and uses the words “explored” and “discovered” repeatedly in a sexual context.
As the narrator and Louise grow closer, they see the world through each other’s eyes. Like many new lovers in this situation, they explore their new world together, as intimates. The narrator, however, pushes on Louise’s boundaries and invites a darker interpretation of this metaphor. While exploration and adventure are often linked, exploration can also suggest colonization and domination. The narrator breaches Louise’s “borders” by breaking into her kitchen to observe her everyday items, including her underwear in a laundry basket. Later, after learning about Louise’s leukemia, the narrator makes a unilateral decision to end the relationship so that Louise will stay with her husband. The narrator’s decisions to violate Louise’s boundaries suggests that the narrator holds the power in the relationship. That Louise is from Australia, a continent on which six former British colonies exist, and the narrator is English reinforces the comparison between the British explorer and the land that is explored and then colonized.
Love Relationships and the Loss of Autonomy
Throughout the novel, Louise is a pawn in the conflict between her lover, the narrator of Written on the Body, and her husband Elgin. Ironically, Louise is portrayed as an impulsive free spirit; for example, she deliberately arrives at the author’s house in a rain-soaked dress to appear more provocative. Despite Louise’s efforts to live freely, she is unable to achieve complete autonomy until the end of the story when she appears in the narrator’s cottage of her own volition.
Louise’s lack of financial independence is especially limiting. Though Louise possesses graduate degrees in Art History, she spends her days restoring the antique Tudor house she shares with Elgin, squandering her intellect and education on domestic concerns. When the narrator learns of Louise’s illness, Louise’s options for freedom diminish further. Elgin presents her with an avenue to first-rate medical treatment, but the offer is conditional; she has access to this care only if she decides to stay with him. To make matters harder for Louise, the narrator makes a decision about Louise’s future without consulting Louise, and the narrator ends their affair so that Louise is able to meet the terms of Elgin’s offer.
In the end, the narrator recognizes how the unilateral decision stole Louise’s agency. Left with no choice in the matter of her relationship with the narrator, Louise decides to leave Elgin. Eventually, Louise makes her own decision to return to the narrator. Louise is finally financially independent, thanks to the divorce settlement she receives from Elgin, and emotionally independent, choosing for herself where she wants to be and with whom.
Language and Communication
The narrator of Written on the Body works as a professional translator before leaving London for Yorkshire and working in a wine bar. The narrator’s ability to translate language is a metaphor for the entire novel; in the novel, the narrator presents to the reader all of the other characters and the events that drive the plot forward, and only through the narrator’s language are readers able to understand what happens and why. The title of the novel is also a nod to the narrator’s work with language as well as the narrator’s ruminations on sexual and physical relationships.
At times, Winterson employs the literary device of a monologue to communicate the thoughts of the narrator. A monologue often reveals the inner life of the speaker, and in this case, the narrator of Written on the Body interprets and translates the actions and behaviors of both the narrator’s self as well as other characters while addressing Louise in the second person. The meditative nature of the narrator’s monologues suggests a reflective personality and wistfulness that characterizes the tone of the novel and brings to life emotional experiences like tension and heartache.
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By Jeanette Winterson
