Florence Nightingale: The Making of a Radical Theologian 0827210329, 9780827210325

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FLOREN CE

NIGHTINGALE " In Florence's Victorian times, the Britis h obsession with 'class' and manners served to keep upper-class women 'in their p lace' as hoslesses and serva nts 10 their ow n fam ili es, and our of public servi ces or politica l office ... A superb iro ny is tha t Florence's great sensitivity to t he systcma1izcd in equitic~ of the British 'class' system ignit ed the fires of Uberation theology w1t b in her. lier power springs from ~ tirm conviction that it w .1s ht"r special vocatio n to bring a 'natural' fai th to the com m,,n man (as well as good medical hygiene, administ rative p ractices. and educa ti onal opport u rHl i~s 1. .. In th is manuscript , so well researched and rigorously d ocumented , Florence Ni ghtinga le comes to life as a deeply sp inlua l searcher for Truth. The common mispercep1inn of h er a s a rather neurotic, compulsive "grinder' of data and letter. is dispelled by Val Webb'i, bu ildi ng such a welldocumen1cd case for her personal theology, which was the central theme and core motivntion of her life."

/oh11 D0110/1ry A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom, And flit from room to room. And slow, as in a dream of bliss, The speechless sufferer tu rns to kiss Her shadow, as it fa lls. "' T/1is Florence was installed in the public imagi.natio11 even before she returned from twenty months in the Crimea. Two Florences now existed, and, si nce the real Flo rence virtually disappeared from public sight on her return, the popular image triumphed. Strachey says: The name of Florence Nightingale lives in the memory of the world by virtue of the lurid and heroic adventure of the Crimea. Had she died- as s he nearly did-upon her return to England, her reputation wuuld hardly have been different; her legend would have come down to us almost as we know it today-that gentle vision of female virtue which first took shape before the adoring eyes of the sick soldiers at Scutari. 16

Biographies- Fact a11d Fiction 9 Florence indirectly fueled this legend-ma.king by refusing all public accolades on her return. Knowing plans were afoot to welcome her back, she refused a man-of-war vessel, traveling fi rs t to Paris then arrivi ng, unnoticed, in London. She m11de no public 11ppearanws o r s tatements d espite pleas from politicians, friends, and family, and refused to have her portrait pa inted. Her mysterious absence simply increased p ub lic ado ration. As far as the world was concerned, the real Flore nce disappeared, 11 nd, since her name did not appem- on her parl iamentary reform activities, many people forgot she was stiUalive. The fickle public opted for the icon, and biographers embellished the Crimean Florence with a childhood in keeping with the image- a heroic young gir l preparing ior a divine task. Crimea and the N ighti ngale School of Nlusing became the s um of her life and work This was the age of the heroine biography, eagerly devoured by young fema le minds as a v icarious escape. Althvugh ca lled b iograph ies, they were closer to constructed fiction, including only suitable facts about a life within appropria te limits for their young re.1ders.'' Heroines were courageous, good, and sp irituill from childlwod. cha racteristics that enabled them to face adversity and opposition in later life. While they

might accompl.ish deeds beyond the scope of the average you.ng woman, they never stepped beyond societa l and cultu ra l bounds for long, and they responded to their challenges d ifferently because of the ir gender. While heroes explored a r1111ge of 11dventures, heroines fu lfil led home duties, remained feminine, and shone in public only in nurturing, caring, and service-oriented roles. Grace Darling, the twenty-three year old daughter of a lighthouse keeper on the Northumberland coast, a favorite for heroine collect ions, rowed out i n a raging s torm to save nine shipwrecked p eople. However, vn returning, she reassumed the female role of nursing them back to health. Florence, another favorite s ubject, was depicted, despite her longing to escape her id le hom e life, as sacrificing it and her health for so ldie rs, se rving b Florence would have to tally rejected this image, given her frustration with those at Scutari who saw a dying soldier only as a soul to save. Yet the biographers also declared the selection.ofnurses for Scutari a religious selection in some biographies:

Biogmpli ies-Fnct 1111d Fictio11

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It was al.s o necessa ry that the ladies chosen should be earnest followers oi the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing but real love for Him would enable them to stick to their posts." This is not subs tantia ted by rea Ii ty-the nltrses se.nt out were a s trange m.ix. Protestants refused to send nurses und er Florence beca use her religious affiliations were s usp ect. Many Ca tho lic siste rs, recrui ted because they already did s uch work, o pposed Florence, convi ncing her never to establish a religious orde r. One children 's b iography was amazed at Florence's l1enw11/y d1arity beca use she called a priest to a dying Catholic "as readi ly as if it were her own fovori te minister who was d esi.red ."3: ,,Vi.ntle and Witts deny any vola tile secta rianis m ex is ted at all. There was to bC' no discussion o r controversies on relig ious differences. Why should there be? It is su rely e,1 sy t!nough for Christian people to d o d eed s of mercy and cha rity, w ithout quarrelling about matters upon which they think c!Jfferently."

If s uch biographers were at pains to demonstrate FlorC'nce's religious convictions, why did they not share her religious writings? Her Notes Nursi11g outlin ing he r religious motivatio ns were widely p ublis hed, and some articles appeared in Frnser's Mr1g11zi11e in 1873 s ummarizing her ideas. Wintle and Witts mentioned these, calling h er thoug h ts remarkable and startling, but they wen t no furthe r:

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In thi s article, which extends to ten pages, the writer emp hasiz.es man's ignorance and misconceptions of the nature of God, and presses for an entirely new basis o f moral sciC'nce. Some of the suggestions here given are rather startl ing, in that they express the possibi lity that what are known asorl hndox opinions may be based upon a complete misunderstanding of the character and purposes of God." No doubt Florence's image was good val ue for encouraging young women into God's service, b ut her radica l thoughts a nd her nerve to express them p ublicly h ad to be kept under wraps. Biographies tha t focused only on Florence's Crimean and nurs ing work assw·ed the Bri tish public that a ll was s till in ordC'r. The folk myth of the common soldier and the woman who served them exem plified the idea l Victorian male-fema le relations hip-long-su ffering, brave soldiers an d a ha rdworking, gen tle nursC' find.i.ng complete fu lfill ment in sacrificing herself to serve Britain's men. Florence as a sexless, perfect mother, w i.fe, a nd daughter reassured Victorian ma11hood , assuaged the

14 Florence Nighti11gnle

British conscience over dying soldiers, and offered vicarious hope that women would aspire to such roles without upsetti ng the male-female balance. A reformer of the Army and the power behind politicians was a very different and dangerous image. Interestingly, after Florence's first visit to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Albert was impressed with her "modesty," an appropriate Victorian womanly virtue, while the queen said, "She has a wonderful, clear and comprehensive head. I wish we had her at the War Office!":!' Biograph.ies change with culture, reinforcing different "virtues." vVhile the mid -1800s emphasized the devout young woman. in the home, late nineteenth-century writings e ncouraged duty in the wider world, but within feminine boundaries. Suffragist and pre-war days at the beginning of the twentieth century promoted women who were challenging bo th the injustices of the world 111ut limitations on women. By the 1950s, the psychological turmoil of choosing between marriage and voca tion-you could not have both- fil led the page-s. Florence's confusion and angst began to be featured at that time: She was morbid, she was ~elf-willed, and a rea l problem tu her parents who could not understand why she should not be as happy and contented as her sister. She been me thoroughly out of sympathy with her· fami ly, her relations and their attitude to everything. Even before she was a fully grown woman she was conscious of being set apart. She felt· that she had a mission to do good in the world: she ielt in some way called to a dedicated life, but what this was to be she did not know. It worried her:¼ Healing sick dogs and dolls took second place to feeling misunderstood, to a cons uming passion for the poor, to a struggle to distance herself from romantic attachments, and to the cho ice of s ingleness as self-denial and sacrifice for a greater cause. In rea lity, however, Victoria n marriages were seldom as romantic as the 1.950s depicted them, and Florence's rejection of marriage, despite family pressure, was fueled by the actuality that marriage would exclude her from her vocation. In the arena of serious adult biographies, Sir Edward Cook was commissioned to do the two-volume biography that was published in 1913, three years after Florence's death. Cook undertook the commission on condition he could pursue the truth without opposition, no doubt wishing to displace the mythical image. Sorting through thousands of letters and drafts, he covered in careful detail not only her life up to the Crimea but her massive reforms afterward, arguing that the British Army's debt to her, both in England and overseas, was far greater than that owed by nursing. Cook tried to balance Florence's many sides:

Biogmpliies- F11ct 1111d Fiction 15 She was a woman of strong pass ions- no t over-given to praise, not quick to forgive; so mewha t prone to be censorious, not apt to forget. She was not only a gentle angel of compassion; she was more a logician than a St'ntimentalist; s he knew that to do good work requires a hard head as well asa soft heart.. .[she] knew hardly a ny fault wh ich see med wo rse to her in a ma n than to be u.nbus iness-like; in a woma n, than to be "only enthusiastic." She found no use for 'angels without hands.'·" Yet he was constrained b y the proximity of Florence's demise and many family members' being alive to withhold materia l and censure the facts. He did not elaborate on problems in the N ightingale School of Nurs ing so as to pro tec t its reputation as a n opportunity ior women. Despite this, Cook still rema ins the prem ier source on Florence. Why then did the myth persist with Cook's biography and some 10,000 le tters and manuscripts in the British Library and o ther collections? I s uggest a c()mbination of her secl usion after the Crimea, leaving nothing to cha llenge the p ublic persona; the anonymi ty of her reform work, with the Nig htingale School a nd her writing on nursing a_nd health the only public exposure of he r name; and Lytton Strachey's biography. Why the latter? Because Strachey, using Cook's ex tens ive work, penned a brief but racy sketch of Florence tha t became the popular version of her life. Strachey desctibed his own intentions: If [the biographer] is wise, he wi ll adopt a s ubl'ler stra tegy. He will attack the subject in unexpected places; he will fall upon the flank, or the rear; he will shoo t a sudden, revealing searchlight into obscure recesses, hitherto undivi.ned. He will row out over that grea t ocean of material, and lower down in to it, here and there, a li ttle bucket, which wi ll bring up to the ligh t of day some charncteristic specimen, from those for depths, to be examined with careful curiosity."

His rules of brevity, wit, and irreverence caricat11red his s ubjects by putting them i.n absurd s itua tions and mocking them . His agenda with Florence was clea r- to replace the gentle "lady with the lamp" w ith his image of a possessed, merciless woman who wou ld nrnnip ulate even God to achieve her nursing goa l: "One has the impression that Miss Nightingale has got the Almighty too in to her clutches, a nd tha t, if He i.s not careful, she will kUl J:-fim with overwork_,,,., Like manv o thers, Strachey "proves" his thesis with the us ua l s tories-sick dogs and dolls. Then by reducing Cook's nine hundred and forty-four pages lo fiftyone pages of the "most relevant facts" (al l supporting his a rgu ment), he fell s lightly s ho rt of calling her a wi tch:

16 Florence Nighti11g11/e Madness? Mad-possessed-perhaps she was. A demonic frenzy had seized upon her. As s he lay upon her sofa, gasp ing, she devoured blue books !government reco1·ds], dictated letters, and, in the intervals of her pa lpitations, cracked her febrile jokes.'" Because all his biographies in E111i11e11t Victorinn.s were s hort and vigorous, Slrachey's Flore nce replaced Cook's ca refully nuanced but length y portrait as the preferred account, especially as it claimed to be an abb reviation of Cook. The