Summary
Dog Woman resumes her narrative, describing the events of 1649. At first, no one is too alarmed or impacted by the civil war; Dog Woman and the other Royalists assume that the King will be victorious. However, they gradually become worried; no other foreign powers are willing to ally with the English king, and the Parliamentary/Puritan forces, led by Oliver Cromwell, are enacting strict actions against anything they deem sinful. Dog Woman watches as a beautiful stained glass window is destroyed by the Puritans, but is moved to see local women gathering up the shards of colored glass in hopes of reconstructing the window.
In January 1649, King Charles is put on trial. Dog Woman, Jordan (now aged 19), and Tradescant all return to London to watch the trial. As Dog Woman and Jordan approach their house, she is horrified to see that their house has been set afire: the local minister, Preacher Scroggs, and the neighbor whom Dog Woman previously argued with (Neighbor Firebrace) are standing nearby. Dog Woman confronts them, and they claim that they have seized the house because of Dog Woman's political and religious sympathies (she is known to be a Royalist and opposed to Puritanism). Dog Woman ends up in a physical altercation with several of their supporters, and is able to injure and kill some of the Puritans. She frightens away Scroggs and Firebrace, telling them to never return to her home.
A few days later, Dog Woman is drinking with Tradescant at a pub where Royalists were known to gather. They read an illicit message from the king that is being quietly circulated. Since Royalists are not allowed to attend the King's trial, Jordan and Tradescant disguise themselves as prostitutes, while Dog Woman disguises herself as a beggar afflicted with a skin condition. They claim they have been given access to the trial since some well-known preachers have been encouraging sinners to go to the trial as a morally edifying experience. The trial lasts for seven days, and then King Charles is sentenced to death. Many of his supporters are saddened and horrified. He is executed almost immediately. After the death of the king, Tradescant plans to leave on a sea voyage, and Dog Woman quickly realizes that Jordan will want to go with him.
The narrative breaks off to describe what Fortunata is doing: she runs a dancing school, and helps young students to uncover the power and grace of their bodies. The narrative then returns to Jordan, who muses on the nature of love, and whether it can be compared to a disease. In his travels, he once went to a village where love spread like a plague, and wiped out the population. After the most recent outbreak, only a monk and a prostitute were left alive; they have since established strict measures to prevent people from falling in love. Jordan is wary of this, since it reminds him of what the Puritans did in England. However, the monk and the prostitute argue that in order to protect the local people, they are acting in everyone's best interest.
While Jordan is visiting, he begins to play a guitar and sing; the local people quickly join in with singing and dancing. Realizing he has unleashed a dangerous force, Jordan flees. He later learns that the music did indeed lead to an outbreak of the plague of love; the monk and prostitute threatened to kill anyone who would not renounce love. When everyone refused, they killed the entire population, and had to start over yet again.
After Jordan fled from the city where love was a disease, he rejoined Tradescant on his ship. They are sailing to Bermuda to collect exotic plants; they have also been experimenting with grafting (fusing together the tissue of two plants so as to artificially create a hybrid species). Jordan has been able to successfully graft a new cherry. He thinks fondly about Dog Woman, and the loving relationship between them. Jordan also muses on his ongoing search for the dancer, and his philosophies about time and memory. The narrative explains that geography, time, and existence are much more complex than most people realize.
The narrative returns to Dog Woman; after Jordan leaves on a sea voyage with Tradescant, she is sad but resigned. She continues to be at odds with the Puritans, and sometimes gets involved in physical conflicts. One day, she is invited to attend a secret meeting where the speaker invites those loyal to the Royalist cause to inflict physical harm on their enemies. Dog Woman is pleased and inspired by this idea, and she returns to the next meeting with gory trophies: eyeballs and teeth that she has torn from Puritans. Dog Woman is somewhat offended that the other Royalists seem appalled and ask her to not harm so many.
A few days later, a prostitute comes to see Dog Woman; she explains that she and other women at the brothel have been secretly murdering Puritans who visit their brothel. However, they are unable to dispose of the bodies, and want help from Dog Woman. She agrees to help them, even though she is suspicious of most people. Dog Woman goes to the brothel, and she is surprised to catch sight of Preacher Scroggs and Neighbor Firebrace engaging in sexual activity with both women and each other. Dog Woman is eager to have revenge against the two men, and asks to be informed the next time they come to the brothel.
When Scroggs and Firebrace next come to the brothel, Dog Woman is lying in wait for them. She bursts into the room, mutilates them both with an axe, and then beheads both of them. Dog Woman washes herself, leaves the brothel, and walks home.
Analysis
In this section of the novel, Winterson describes a significant historical event, and uses it as the catalyst for plot developments. In 1649, King Charles I was executed; this event was shocking and traumatic for many, as hereditary monarchs were still widely considered to be chosen by God specifically to rule. Winterson gives a historical event personal meaning by incorporating the reactions of Jordan, Tradescant, and Dog Woman.
Dog Woman's loyalty to the crown and Royalist cause is interesting given that she is typically irreverent and unlikely to respond to arbitrary authority couched as an individual having been ordained by God. Jeffrey Roessner addresses this potential inconsistency when he argues that, "the Puritan Revolution marked a crack in the divine right of kings to govern. As such, the war can be read as part of a movement toward a more democratic form of government based on civil law rather than divine authority. In sharp contrast to such an interpretation, Winterson associates the war with the development of oppressive ideals of scientific objectivity and the sovereign individual" (107).
The execution of the king reflects that England is becoming a dangerous place for those that prospered during his reign. For a young and ambitious man like Jordan, there would be few opportunities and much danger, so the execution triggers Jordan and Tradescant departing. This departure foreshadows how decades later, Jordan and Dog Woman will leave England together after another traumatic historical event (the Great Fire of London). Jordan's departure allows for an important structural aspect of the novel's plot: he and Dog Woman will lead parallel lives that require parallel narratives. Because of the non-linear structure, this device has already been introduced, and readers have been introduced to some of the events that occur while Jordan is sailing around the world (such as his meeting with Fortunata and decision to pursue her). The action of the plot unfolds as if someone was telling a story about their past, or recalling a memory: sometimes the action precedes the description of what triggered that action.
It is during this section that Dog Woman's capacity for violence is made evident, which adds nuance and complexity to her character. Dog Woman is not only pragmatic and literal in her outlook; she sees nothing wrong with killing Puritans with her bare hands. Dog Woman's violent actions are presented in a matter-of-fact way, and potentially even condoned within the text. They also contrast sharply with the hypocrisy of the Puritans. The prostitutes who enlist Dog Woman's help are able to kill Puritans because those men come to the brothel, while publicly condemning all forms of sexuality. The scene in which Dog Woman visits the brothel is grotesque in both the kinds of sexual acts that are occurring, and the graphic violence she enacts. Because of her matter-of-fact attitude, Dog Woman is nonplussed by both. The scene implies that when individuals attempt to repress and deny sexuality, it ends up appearing in more warped ways, rather than if they had embraced sexual desire as a natural part of the human experience.
While Dog Woman is exploring hypocrisy around sexuality during her experiences with the Puritans in England, Jordan encounters a parallel storyline in the town where love is considered to be a disease. Love and desire are presented as forces that make people unruly, and less susceptible to submitting to authority; thus it is dangerous to allow these feelings to arise. The two figures who attempt to control these experiences are a monk and a prostitute, who ironically are two individuals who are unlikely to have authentic encounters with love and sexuality. One (the monk) rejects and represses these experiences, while the other (the prostitute) commercializes them; they project their own experiences onto others, and also ignore the hypocrisy of having a lot of sex with each other in order to repopulate the town. These figures, along with the Puritans, reinforce Winterson's critique of attempts to control and repress sexuality.
