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.
Pages 163-190Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 163-173 Summary
Returning to London, the narrator reflects further on having abandoned Louise and feels frightened that her declaration that “I will never let you go” (163) may be a form of revenge. At their flat, the narrator finds physical evidence of Louise’s past presence: “clothes, books, the coffee she liked” (163). While dusting, the narrator finds letters addressed to Louise after their departure. The letters contain the results of a second medical opinion and states that Louise is asymptomatic and should not undergo treatment. Another letter from Elgin refutes this claim and mandates immediate treatment at his Swiss clinic.
The narrator visits Louise’s mother and grandmother in an effort to find out Louise’s location. Louise had told her mother that “she never wanted to see” (166) the narrator again; having negotiated an extremely lucrative divorce settlement with Elgin, Louise may now be living abroad.
The narrator arrives at Elgin’s address just as the doctor is exiting his car in the company of an attractive woman. The narrator follows the pair into the house and demands to know Louise’s whereabouts. Elgin reveals that he and Louise are divorced and directs his companion to call the police. The narrator is enraged to learn that Elgin’s desire for Louise to remain in their marriage may have been motivated by a desire to be placed on “The Civil List.” This placement would have been considered an honor; members of this list provided services to the British Royal Family. Furious, the narrator punches Elgin’s jaw. Before leaving the house, injured by Elgin’s attempts at self-defense, the narrator assists Elgin’s girlfriend in calling for an ambulance to come to the physician’s aid.
Pages 174-190 Summary
The narrator’s hand is in a cast due to the brawl with Elgin. Efforts to find Louise as a patient at any hospital prove futile. Finally, the solicitor who represented Louise in her divorce agrees to provide the narrator with Louise’s last address; it is that of the narrator’s own flat.
Elgin does not pursue any criminal charges against the narrator and closes up his house. In retrospect, the narrator is horrified to think of the narrator’s loss of control, recalling that the narrator’s “wild streak” (174) had been well-disciplined for years until meeting Louise, who had “opened up the dark places as well as the light” (174). The narrator alternates between joyous images of a healthy Louise in a new relationship and a sense of fear that she is dying alone.
The narrator reverts to a scientific discourse on the metastatic characteristics of cancer. A visit to a local cemetery leads the narrator to reflect on the particulars of the preparation of the corpse, the construction of coffins, and the mechanics of grave digging. After spending more time alone in the flat the narrator had shared with Louise, the narrator returns to the rented cottage in Yorkshire.
During the train journey, the narrator reflects on the narrator’s currently miserable state, noting that “misery pulls away the brackets of life leaving you to free fall” (183). Although the narrator wants to accept responsibility for the narrator’s actions with Louise and detach from the situation, the narrator is unable to do so in the event that Louise is still alive. During the walk from the station to the cottage, the narrator concludes that “neglect” (186) killed the relationship with Louise.
Gail is in the cottage where a fire burns and a tablecloth and fresh flowers adorn the table. She brings the narrator tea while the narrator wonders, “Is this the proper ending? If not the proper then the inevitable?” (188). Gail notes that “people don’t vanish” (189), seemingly admonishing the narrator for failing to have found Louise. The narrator claims that the narrator still loves Louise “with all my heart” (189) and wishes for the opportunity to tell Louise the truth.
Louise then emerges from the kitchen. Upon touching the pale, thin Louise, the narrator states that “she’s warm” (190). The euphoric final paragraph states, “I don’t know if this is a happy ending but here we are let loose in open fields” (190).
Pages 163-190 Analysis
The narrator attempts to make amends for what the narrator now perceives as bad judgment when deciding to leave Louise. The narrator reveals a different aspect of the narrator’s personality when visiting Elgin in an attempt to locate Louise. Infuriated at the sight of the physician, the narrator becomes violent, punching Elgin in the throat and jaw. Once again reverting to religious imagery to justify base physical impulses, the narrator describes their fists as “locked together in unholy prayer” (172).
The fight with Elgin is not the first time that the narrator has used violence to protect Louise from perceived harm. The narrator also twisted Jacqueline’s arm and slapped her across the face when she attempted to assault Louise. In response, Louise pledges, “If you ever do hit me I shall leave you” (87). The narrator attributes the re-emergence of a long existing violent streak to the emotional intensity of the narrator’s relationship with Louise. Yet, even as the narrator reveals these violent tendencies, the narrator also demonstrates a sort of regret regarding the violence. For example, immediately after the fight, the narrator props Elgin’s head on a pillow and helps to call an ambulance.
This section continues to explore the connection between love and the body, continuing the discussion of an important motif, the significance of the human anatomy. The narrator, convinced that Louise has died, engages in a clinical study of burial rites, similar to the narrator’s study of the human anatomy earlier in the novel. The narrator notes that burial preparations of a body “were regularly done at home not so many years ago but they weren’t chores then, they were acts of love” (178). At the same time, the narrator comes to terms with the fact that the narrator may have left Louise as a way to avoid dealing with the physical effects of her illness and death.
At the end of the novel, the narrator declares enduring love for Louise, not knowing that Louise is at the cottage, and the novel concludes as the narrator and Louise reunite. Readers might accept this happy conclusion at face value, or readers might question the validity of their happiness because the narrator has not been entirely reliable over the course of the novel. Instances of flights into fantasy and seemingly exaggerated anecdotes may cause a reader to question this happy ending.
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