Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 160 views

    Summary

    Uploaded by

    Videos Bank
    The document summarizes Lytton Strachey's portrayal of Florence Nightingale in his work "Eminent Victorians". It discusses how Strachey uses Nightingale to represent the changing role of women in the early 20th century as they gained more independence and pushed back against social constraints. While Nightingale symbolized the growing women's liberation movement, the author believes Strachey also aimed to showcase the potential negative effects this could have on family and society if taken too far.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Summary

    Uploaded by

    Videos Bank
    160 views2 pages
    The document summarizes Lytton Strachey's portrayal of Florence Nightingale in his work "Eminent Victorians". It discusses how Strachey uses Nightingale to represent the changing role of women in the early 20th century as they gained more independence and pushed back against social constraints. While Nightingale symbolized the growing women's liberation movement, the author believes Strachey also aimed to showcase the potential negative effects this could have on family and society if taken too far.

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document summarizes Lytton Strachey's portrayal of Florence Nightingale in his work "Eminent Victorians". It discusses how Strachey uses Nightingale to represent the changing role of women in the early 20th century as they gained more independence and pushed back against social constraints. While Nightingale symbolized the growing women's liberation movement, the author believes Strachey also aimed to showcase the potential negative effects this could have on family and society if taken too far.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    160 views2 pages

    Summary

    Uploaded by

    Videos Bank
    The document summarizes Lytton Strachey's portrayal of Florence Nightingale in his work "Eminent Victorians". It discusses how Strachey uses Nightingale to represent the changing role of women in the early 20th century as they gained more independence and pushed back against social constraints. While Nightingale symbolized the growing women's liberation movement, the author believes Strachey also aimed to showcase the potential negative effects this could have on family and society if taken too far.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Summary:

    In "Eminent Victorians", Strachey by his portrayal of character "Florence Nightingale"


    portrays the lives of ordinary people especially women's unsatisfactory way of life.
    Through his negative depiction of character, he is able to uphold the effects female
    individualism/feminism made in the early 20th century. The author confirms 20th century
    as a period of women's liberty. He depicts women's being/character as molded by the
    shackles and confinements of society. The character "Florence Nightingale' symbolizes
    the current 20th century movement for female liberty. She also desires to go against the
    social standards and act according to her will.

    Throughout his writing, Strachey presents the protagonist who is molded by society
    expectations and set standards of behaviour. He also illuminates on the religious
    spirituality in his prose extract which acted as a guiding light throughout people's lives.
    Several phrases in the text reflected that women's actions are molded by the sacred
    force instead of her own personality which is in direct contrast with the rising movement
    of feminism after WW2, when females started living their lives as they deemed fit. His
    character portrayal of "Florence Nightingale" reflects the changes in human form in
    early 20th century due to contrasting ideas of later religious and social liberty factors.

    Strachey starts his first two paragraphs by portraying characters other than Nightingale
    to reflect how our own perceptions shaped the Nightingale character. In first paragraph,
    the author reflects on the compliant behaviour of women and the limitations on Victorian
    women. The second paragraph begins with the character portrayal in relation with social
    expectations and then names a few places. The number of locations mentioned might
    confuse and lead one to assume that the protagonist has freedom and do as she
    wishes but these actually presents the pre-made choices for her, rather than the
    choices made by her. The entire text of "Florence Nightingale" is concerned with the
    limitations and the struggle of characters against these confinements of society. Due to
    this multi-faceted perspective portrayal of characters, critics named this novel 'a high
    literary art'.

    Florence Nightingale is portrayed as a proto-20th century feminist, and as having


    excessive freedom ,however, it is presented in negative light. Strachey further reflects
    her intellectual awareness of her fate due to belonging to Victorian era and also her
    desire to reject and not be compliant to male's demands. Through several lines in the
    text, the author encourages change in perception of human life form by refusing to act
    according to others' term and live life according to their wishes. The character of
    Nightingale fortells the 20th century women's behaviour change from prior compliancy
    towards shackles of domestic life to complete subversion or abandonment of
    household chores and duties This may be seen as a warning to 20th century women
    not to abandon their duties towards family and the household due to increased reliance
    on electrical appliances used to ease household chores.

    Overall, in this extract of ‘Eminent Victorians’, Strachey explores the effect of social
    influence on the female identity in this extract. The author also considers consequences
    for future female liberation. Although, the entire extract can be considered to be a
    celebration of 20th century female freedom, it is made clear by "Florence Nightingale"
    characterization that the author is concerned about the destructive effect caused by
    liberation of women on society and change in the perception of human form.

    You might also like

    pFad - Phonifier reborn

    Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

    Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


    Alternative Proxies:

    Alternative Proxy

    pFad Proxy

    pFad v3 Proxy

    pFad v4 Proxy