“The Waning of the Light”: The Forcible-Feeding of Jane Warton, Spinster

Abstract

On January 31, 1910, Lady Constance Lytton, a member of the Women's Social and Political Union, the militant branch of the English women's suffrage movement, appeared on the platform of the Queen's Hall to detail her prison experiences to the public. Earlier that month Lytton had disguised herself as “Jane Warton,” a spinster seamstress, and allowed herself to be arrested during a suffrage demonstration. During earlier imprisonments for suffrage activities. Lady Constance Lytton had gone on hunger strike but had never been forcibly fed because of her weak heart. However, when “Jane Warton” entered into a hunger strike, she was forcibly fed eight times before her release. As Lytton had anticipated, this treatment caused a strain to her health that would contribute several years later to a paralyzing stroke and an early death. As delivered by a martyr figure, Lytton's speech was a mimetic act through which she served as a liaison of identity between her Queen's Hall audience and the voiceless women in prison. This speech offers insight into the mimetic functions of martyrdom and the metaphors of vision naturally arising from the martyr's testimony.