Extinguishing the Lady with the Lamp: Florence Nightingale and the Work of Empire in the Interludes of The Waves
In the interludes of The Waves, the sun rises "as if the arm of a woman couched beneath the horizon had raised a lamp" (7), signaling popular imagery of Florence Nightingale, also known as The Lady with the Lamp, and signaling, too, Woolf's critique of women's complex relationship with the imperial project. The popular 19th century expression, "the sun never sets on the British Empire," encapsulates the established association of the sun with the reach of the empire and with the mission of British imperialism. This "mission," as Jenny Sharpe explains, "is primarily a story about the colonizing culture as an emissary of light" (100). The various incarnations of Nightingale in her and Woolf's contemporary cultures contribute to the association between women and empire, culminating in The Waves co-opting of these images to illuminate the work of women in the imperial project and criticize and expose its subsequent violence. Woolf counters this Lady with the Lamp figure in the final interludes of The Waves through an alternate female subjectivity positioned outside of the light of empire in the language and space of darkness.
In the first interlude of The Waves, the sun rises over the horizon....
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