Ask Your Reading Guide a thoughtful guide for reading Lytton, here to help you read Constance Lytton's Prisons and Prisoners closely — its history, its argument, and its place in the militant suffrage campaign.
The Argument Why did Lytton believe she needed to become "Jane Warton" to prove her point about class bias — why wouldn't her own experience as Lady Constance have been enough? What specific differences does Lytton document between how she was treated as Lady Constance and how she was treated as Jane Warton? How does Lytton justify hunger striking and civil disobedience as legitimate political tools? What does Lytton's account suggest about the relationship between class privilege and state power in early-20th-century Britain?
Context & Legacy How did the WSPU's militant tactics differ from the strategies of non-militant suffrage organizations of the period? What was the public and political reaction to forcible feeding when accounts like Lytton's became known? How did the Cat and Mouse Act change the state's approach to hunger-striking suffragettes? What lasting effects did Lytton's imprisonments have on her health, and how does that shape how the book was written?