Lessons on lockdown from literature

A few months ago, in the peak of lockdown, my friends and I reflected with despairing amusement that “the best years of our lives” had begun to resemble the slow-paced lives of the women we had once mocked: the moaning and idling protagonists of Austen and Brontë novels.

Time that once would have been spent at after-work drinks or dinners, in bars, clubs or parties, turned into days whiled away taking long walks, baking bread and penning melancholically letters (texts) reflecting on every inconsequential detail of our lives to equally bored friends. As I turned pages in a well-thumbed copy of Jane Eyre that had been collecting dust on a bookshelf since school, I found myself relating to the protagonist with revered empathy. “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will,” I wanted to scream at the daily coronavirus briefings.

Having days filled with menial tasks during those bleak months was fortunate (as low risk and non-essential worker) and unfortunate (time dragged; it was both dull and terrifying). Now, as London enters Tier-2 and further lockdowns creep closer by the day, it seems boredom beckons once again. And so, I consulted my bookcase for others like Jane Eyre; seeking fictional figures and their experiences of entrapment, enclosure or any form of boredom of the mind or the body, to try and make sense of our strange reality.

Consider boredom a state of mind

The first striking quality of many of these fictional figures was their lack of boredom despite what is (in my eyes) rather dull day-to-day lives. Perhaps it is the access to such multitudes of entertainment that drive us to boredom; we are simply spoilt for choice. In this thread, I found the words of Zelda Fitzgerald on the America flapper particularly motivating. In The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald, she writes; “She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring.” In the same vein, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights narrator Lockwood declares, “I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.” Though Lockwood is hardly the novel’s most colourful character, and these attitudes seem to dance the line of denial and strength of mind, channelling their self-assuredness seems as good-as-any coping mechanism.

Cause some drama

If the sensible approach is not for you, perhaps Albert Camus has the answer. In his 1956 novel The Fall, Camus writes of his protagonist: “He had been bored, that’s all, bored like most people. Hence he had made himself out of whole cloth a life full of complications and drama.” If you were looking for a sign to send that message, stir that pot and create some drama to keep things interesting, here it is.

Silently protest the state of things

It is a great relief that J.K Rowling retired the wizarding world many years ago, for the thought of poor Harry Potter living out lockdown in his tiny room under the stairs in the Dursley household is almost unbearable. On the other hand, perhaps a little magic wouldn’t be the worst thing right now. Either way, Potter would be handling the lockdown in his passive-aggressive manner. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, he informs at the Dursley’s: “I’ll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending I’m not there.”

Travel through the imagination

The best cure for boredom, as this article well-proved, is reading. And in a true trick of meta-fiction, these characters agree. Though she is merely boasting to attempt to attract the attention of Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice’s Caroline Bingley says: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book!” And Little Women’s Jo March agrees, “…and best of all, the wilderness of books, in which she could wander, where she liked.” Reading allows you to travel across time and space, away from the constant bad news and tightening restrictions that every day seems to bring.

Cherish time

For many of us, work-from-home allows us a little extra time in the morning and evenings, thanks to the short commute from bed to desk. In Emma Donoghue’s Room, a mother and young son are trapped in a small room, closed off from the outside world. Only five, the son reflects: “In Room, me and Ma had time for everything. I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there’s only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit…” It is a luxury not all can afford but forgetting to cherish the slower moments where time is spread a little less thin might be something worthy of regret when life eventually resumes at full speed.

Be present and positive

In her novel Villette, Brontë writes: “Peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy, and the faculties are employed.” This is a comforting mantra, so applicable to our current situation it is almost hard to believe it was written in 1853. A reminder to be grateful for our health above all else. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the characters find themselves thrown into reality even more jarring than our own. The protagonist Offred reflects: “I want everything back, the way it was. But there is no point to it, this wanting.” We have gotten to the point in the pandemic where there is no going backwards, only forward. Offred’s words remind the reader of the danger of living in the past.

Curse those who locked you up in the first place

If all else fails, and (understandably) the anger wins, turn to Shakespeare’s most comedic villain Twelfth Night’s Malvolio, and curse those who locked you up in the first places. Having been tricked and locked up, he angrily vows: “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.”

Strangely none of the characters could be found doing Joe Wicks workouts or making copious amounts of banana bread but escaping into fictional worlds and the strange scenarios of their circumstance can help to make our own reality less unbelievable. In the suffocating news cycle of lockdowns, curfews and crisis, there is no sweeter relief than burying yourself in a book, safe in the comfort of a world without mention of depressing statistics or coronavirus itself.