Florence Nightingale Story: Outline

Exposition:
• 1837: Florence Nightingale is 17
o Florence Nightingale:
 Attributes:
• Attractive
• Kind
• Brilliant
• Independent
• Courageous
• Loved by a man named Julian
o Florence’s parents, Eric and Mary, expect her to conform to society’s mold for all women- happily married, live in a house, cook for her husband, mother children, make man happy- and nothing more
 Eric’s Attributes:
• Well-educated
• Stubborn
• Head of the house
• Bossy
• Wealthy
 Mary’s Attributes:
• House wife
• Not well-educated
• Shy
• Responsible
• Traditional
o Julian also has expectations for her:
 Marry him
 Be the mother of his desired seven children– 3 girls and 4 boys
 Cook
 Clean
 And be an all around respectable woman/ wife
• Florence thinks she should be happy. She thinks she should be excited about her upcoming marriage. Isn’t that what every woman waits for, even longs for? So what was wrong with her? Why was she so unhappy?
o Florence is confused:
 She wants be different
 She wants to strive for more than just a house wife
 Yet, she is afraid
• Women are not supposed to be more
o Society won’t allow it
• She does not want to disappoint her parents or Julian

Rising Action:
• Months later, middle of winter: Florence is still confused, not sure what to do
o Gazing out her window, Florence counts the snow covered trees while praying for some answers to her life
 Abruptly she hears a voice—surprised, she glances around the room but she is alone
• The voice starts speaking again
• It tells her he is God and what decision she should make
o She should strive to be more
 She should become a nurse

Climax:
• Florence refuses Julian ’s marriage proposal
o Causes horrible uproar in the family
o Eric, Mary, and Julian don’t understand why she would do such a stupid thing
• Florence tells family she wants to become a nurse
o Parents go crazy with anger – tell her repeatedly she will not be doing that, since nursing is not a respectable job for a woman… she mine as well go and be a prostitute for that matter. Nursing was no better.
o Eric and Mary tell Florence she has to choose between them and her so called “nursing whim”
• Florence chooses nursing

Falling Action:
• Florence goes Kaiserswerth for three months where she receives her nursing degree
• Immediately after finishing her training, she begins her nursing work
• 1854: Seventeen years pass: Florence is 34 years old
o She is a single workaholic
o The Crimean war is ending and the medical system for the soldiers is criticized
 Sydney Herbert, the head person at the clinic Florence works at, appoints her to recruit 37 women (plus herself) to go work in the military hospitals in Turkey in an attempt to make up for the harsh criticism
 Florence finds 37 very diverse women
• She becomes very close friends with Jane and Susan
o Jane’s attributes:
 Kind
 Fun-loving
 Smart
 Funny
o Susan’s attributes:
 Sweet
 Breath-taking-ly beautiful
 Compassionate
 Brilliant
• In the beginning the doctors shun them
• However after the first wave of injured soldiers come the doctors realize the women are actually helpful and good at their jobs
• Florence falls in love with James (one of the military doctors)
o James’s Attributes:
 Handsome
 Kind
 Excitable
 Honorable
 Trustworthy

Resolution:
• Florence, Jane, and Susan become the leading three nurses in the military in Europe
o They are outstanding nurses and are loved by the entire hospital staff and all their patients
• The nation wants to thank them for their revolutionary work and achievements
o Achievements:
 Florence, Jane, and Susan’s greatest achievement was that they revolutionized nursing. They made it socially acceptable for women to work in medicine, which in the past had been viewed similarly to prostitution. They gave the job of nursing to many women across the nation and the world, which raised the standards of patient care forever.
o The nation did this by funding two clinics, to be run by the three women, in Great Brittan
• Woman accepted this offer with utter amazement and happiness
• James proposes to Florence
o She accepts
o They go on to have one daughter, who will one day follow in the footsteps of her mother
o Florence may have lost one family but she gained another

External Conflicts:
• Society does not allow women to work in hospitals
• Women are discriminated against

Internal Conflicts:
• Florence does not want to disappoint Julian or her parents
• Struggles between what how she wants to live her life and how society tries to define and confine her life
• Does not know who to choose
o Her family
o Or the thing in which she longs for most in this world

Relationship between internal and external conflicts:
• Society defines women a very particular way
o This impacts Florence’s internal conflicts because society is what defines who she is supposed to be and how she is supposed to act. However this goes against everything she desires to be.