Florence Nightengale - Independent and Prideful
No one could ever question that Florence Nightengale is a good person or deny all the good she did, however Lytton Strachey's portrait of her does suggest she may have an ulterior motive. It seems as though she was somewhat of a control freak, and the more things she changed, the easier it was to feed her ego. As it says on page 112, "...when her sister had shown a healthy pleasure in tearing her dolls to pieces, had she shown an almost morbid one in sewing them up again?" Perhaps this is why she was so obsessed with having her own independence which in those days was considered "almost unimaginable" for a lady. Part of her may have just wanted to get away from her parents and show them how incharge she was. She was so dead set on being her own person, independent of the social norms of the day that she denied herself a chance at being in love. Lytton Stratchey describes her as having a feeling, "...which she had never known before." He claims it was "The most powerful and the profoundest of all the instincts of humanity laid claim upon her." Still she "had the strength to stamp it underfoot," not wanting to be part of a Victorian marriage, something she hated so much. She chose to deny herself happiness rather than swallow her pride.
posted by Jon Ebeling @ 11:50 AM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Jon, thanks for alerting me to this new post. It looks like you have two separate blogs created. You might want to paste this one to your old blog (or consolidate with this one from here on out). Otherwise none of us will find your new postings.
Jon, you state that Florence Nightengale's "goodness" is unquestionable. I take it that your justification for such a view is summed up by your concluding sentence, in which you pay homage to the traditional glorification of martyrdome so common in our society. I firmly believe that in retrospect, the deceased Sidney Herbet and Arthur Clough would beg to differ. Why would any "good" person work thier supporters to death, motivating them with verbal beatings? Florence Nightengale strikes me more as a self centered egomaniac. Her "desire to right wrongs" is little more than her putting on a Goodguy Badge to sanction her cruel treatment of the people most loyal to her, the people that died for her. The negative results of her exploits (particularly the spread of infections) can be blamed on ignorance. Her treatment of her friends (which should really be called servitors) is inexcusable. As for her denial of happiness, I argue that she was happy. Every time a wounded individual implored her for aid or she gained praise for her "sacrifice", her pride swelled to obnoxious proportions. She didn't deny herself happiness, she found new avenues of satifaction. She was little more than a parasite.
As you can see, I respectfully disagree. :)
Yes, I also believe that Florence Nightingale was happy. I respectfully disagree with GBB's comment that she was little more than a parasite. Nightingale was a hero and laid the groundwork for modern nursing. She had to be tough and perfectionistic - she was up against a ridiculous amount of bureaucracy. I'm not sure that the spread of infection can be strictly blamed on ignorance - we tend to take the existence of germs for granted these days, and remember the head honchos in the military who berated Nightingale for wanting extra food for the soldiers so that they could have a shot at nutrition?
As for Nightingale denying herself love, marriage is not for everyone. Modern nursing owes Nightingale a great deal for her decision to go against the norms of her day.
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