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WRITING AS FEMALE NATIONAL AND IMPERIAL RESPONSIBILITY: FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE'S SCHEME FOR SOCIAL AND CULTURAL REFORMS IN ENGLAND AND INDIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2010

Chieko Ichikawa
Chieko Ichikawa*
Affiliation:
Kushiro Public University of Economics
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Extract

Florence Nightingale, who became a national heroine after the Crimean War, was the most popular subject in hagiographical collective biographies of women during the mid- and late-1850s. However, her life can be regarded as a resolute resistance to conformity with the ideal of womanhood in the Victorian era. She recognised the chasm between her popularity and reality:

Good public! It knew nothing of what I was really doing in the Crimea.

Good public! It has known nothing of what I wanted to do & have done since I came home. (Private note from 1857; Nightingale, Ever Yours 177–78)

This statement implies the resistance to the misrepresentation of her, which is indicative of her inner struggle to search for a means to express her vision.

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 87 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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