Unknown woman, formerly known as Florence Nightingale is an oil painting done by Augustus Egg. It is a portrait painting that is 17.1cm x 10.8 cm and supposedly depicts English nurse and statistician Florence Nightingale. Egg is best known for his modern triptych "Past and Present" which shows the breakup of a middle-class Victorian family. Egg was also an active organizer of exhibitions, being admired by fellow-artists for his dedication and fair mindedness. He was one of the organizers of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1860. By 1910, Mrs. W Rathbone would donate this piece to the "National Portrait Gallery" in London.
Reflection of life in Britain
- Florence’s father gave her a classical education, as well as education that was deemed improper and unusual for a woman in her time: mathematics and philosophy.
- These two subjects changed her perception of the world and gave her unique thinking abilities that influenced her life’s work (Alligood, 52).
- This also led her to write her essay “Cassandra”, where she critiques the Victorian family and describes “domestic duties” as “bad habits”.
- Nightingale refuses her family’s begs to marry.
- Nursing in England in the early to mid-1800s was not a respectable position. It was not considered professional.
-->Florence Nightingale turned nursing into a career.
- Arguably, the turning point in Florence Nightingale’s life came in 1844 where she decides to go against her family’s wishes and left to work in a hospital.
-->This changed the career of nursing and helped it evolve to what we have today.
The Portrait In Regards to Jane Eyre
- The neutrality of Nightingale’s facial expression demonstrates the societal expectation of women to stay silent/handle bearings of everyday life.
--> A woman’s role in the Victorian Era included domesticity, chastity, being the “Angel In the House,” “separate spheres” between women and men, and tame sexual desires (if she was deemed to have any).
--> “Women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings..” (178).
---->The lack of emotion in Nightingale’s portrait parallels with the limitations placed on women in Victorian society. It shows the lack of authority she possesses over her own face, which is similar to the fate predetermined by society in which she doesn’t possess her own identity and she’s a mere shadow of her husband as a result of marriage and other societal norms that make women subservient.
- The depiction of beauty/19th-century feminism
--> “The Victorians believed cleanliness was next to Godliness, and with it came morality and the desire to be respectable” (Fleming).
--> A woman’s hair was her “crowning glory” (Fleming).
--> “...the clothed hyena rose up, stood tall on its hind feet..she parted her shaggy locks from visage, and gazed wildly at her visitors. I recognize well that purple face, bloated features” (379).
--> “Compare these clear eyes with the red balls yonder - this face with that mask - this form with that bulk” (381).
---->The clearly racist distinction of beauty standards among British society is a clear indication of the lack of inclusion in 19th-century feminism as it completely ignores non-white women, specifically Black women and includes stereotypical phrases associated with that of colonization and the need to “cleanse” and “bring light” to the “dark continent.” Jane comparing herself to Blanche and feeling subservient while comparing herself to Bertha and instantly putting herself on a pedestal is a clear marker of Victorian societal thought in terms of the social rankings of Black people.
Discussion Questions
1. Literary critic Elizabeth Rigby said that if it [Jane Eyre] was the product of a female pen, then it was the writing of a woman "unsexed." Why were people caught up about female writers and does this invalidate the experiences/feelings that come with being a woman?
2. Regarding the previous comments in our presentation about the perceptions of “beauty” during the Victorian era; what do you think Jane’s perception of “beauty” is?
3. How did Florence Nightingale influence the Jane Eyre era of women (how are their backgrounds, tribulations, and personalities similar)?
4. “My business is to live without him now… I must seek another interest in life to replace the one lost (Brontë 503). How does the power dynamic of Jane and Mr. Rochester’s relationship shift by the end of the novel? How can you connect this with Florence Nightingale?
5. In, The Nursing Pioneer, Florence Nightingale writes, “Women never have a half-hour in all their lives (excepting before or after anybody is up in the house) that they can call their own, without fear of offending or of hurting someone” (Nightingale). What does she mean by this and how can it be connected to Victorian era stereotypes?
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