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Part 2: The Cells, Tissues, Systems and Cavities of the Body
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Written on the Body, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Loss
Desire, Infidelity, and Love
The Body
Memory and Meaning
Summary
Analysis
The skin is made up of the dermis and the epidermis. And the dermis, composed of dead cells, is what the narrator knows best of Louise—the dead parts of each of them in constant contact. The narrator wants to be rescued, returned to Louise. They want to lie beside her and be soothed by the touch, smell, and taste of her skin. In their imagination, the narrator pleads for Louise to let them massage their feet and remains unphased by potentially distasteful things that can befall a body, including sweat, grime and disease.
In contemplating the skin, the narrator reflects on the part of Louise’s body they were most intimate with. The narrator also observes that they knew Louise best through the “dead” parts of Louise’s body, because the majority of epidermis cells are already dead. This passage once again illustrates how central physical intimacy was to the narrator and Louise’s relationship.
Active
Themes
Louise’s body must by now transformed by her leukemia, and in its weaker state, the narrator assumes she would no longer be able to handle Louise’s body with the same roughness as before—pleasure that bordered on pain. The narrator used to be able to sense changes in the temperature of Louise’s skin, and knew when the physiological effects of lust were beginning to take hold. The narrator still marvels that Louise shared this desire. In the armchair by the fire in their Yorkshire cottage, the narrator survives through their own memories and by reading medical textbooks. The narrator wonders what changes Louise’ s skins and organs have since undergone.
Active
Themes
