49 pages • 1 hour read
Louisa May AlcottHospital Sketches
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1863A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Obtaining Supplies”
Wanting something to do, Tribulation Periwinkle (“Trib”) accepts her younger brother Tom’s suggestion of becoming a nurse for soldiers fighting in the Civil War. Local townswomen set up an interview with a leading nurse from her community, Miss General S., who is “home on a furlough” (2). Trib enlists. Expecting to receive her commission within days, she begins packing immediately, but when the commission comes, it is at Hurly-burly hospital, a less desirable one than she had hoped for. Tom assumes she will reject the posting. She admits that her resolve had been wavering, but his “disdainful pity” (3) reinvigorates it. She leaves the same day after an emotional goodbye with her mother.
At her next stop, she receives instructions and encouragement from her General. She sets about trying to secure a “free pass to Washington” (4). Being “a bashful individual” (4), she struggles to make her request to the President of the railroad, who refers her to the State House’s Governor. At the State House, she corners a man who frustratingly claims to have no information regarding who she can speak with, but her General comes to her rescue, extracting the name of a Mc K. who might be at Milk Street.
Trib does not find him at Milk Street but is told he might be at Haymarket Square. When she goes there, no one has any information about Mc K.’s whereabouts either. She spots her brother-in-law, Darby Coobiddy, who confers with “an invisible angel” (7) who knows exactly what she needs to do. Though Trib is “a woman’s rights woman” (7), the events of the day have worn her down, and she is ready to accept a man’s help. Coobiddy is able to bring Trib to Mc K, but he informs her that she will first need to secure a pass from Dr. H. The doctor is out but will return at 2 PM. When he arrives, he looks over her credentials and quickly agrees to give the order, pleasantly surprising her.
She brings the order to Mc K., and paperwork is given to a “Boy” (9), who seems in no hurry to assist her. Eventually, the Boy fills out the documents as needed, and another boy sends her, inexplicably, “to a steamboat office for car tickets” (9). She follows the instructions, receives the necessary documents, and is soon on her way.
Chapter 1 Analysis
Hospital Sketches initially appeared in serialized form for an Abolitionist newspaper; its chapters address a specific audience at a specific time. The sketches first appeared in May of 1863, two years into the American Civil War, when the outcome was still in doubt and the Union army was struggling. Though they had made progress on the western front with the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, they had lost a significant battle against the Confederate army at Chancellorsville, Virginia.
Alcott was writing for an Abolitionist audience who enthusiastically supported the war, especially after the Emancipation Act went into effect on January 1st, 1863, when Alcott was still in Washington. Generally speaking, Abolitionists viewed the war as a decisive step toward the dismantling of enslavement in the United States, which was their foremost objective. As with articles and stories in The Liberator newspaper founded by Garrison, Alcott’s sketches could function as a rallying cry to support the war being fought to end the moral stain of enslavement (See: Background).
Alcott begins her first sketch with a declaration suggestive of boredom, saying, “I want something to do” (1). Her family offers a range of ideas, from teaching or becoming an actress to taking a husband, all of which Alcott rejects. It is her brother Tom’s suggestion to “[g]o nurse the soldiers” (1) that ultimately resonates with her, and would most likely resonate with her audience of Abolitionists. She immediately puts her intention into effect. What follows across the chapter is her attempt to prepare herself for immediate departure and secure a free pass, since she had “no desire to waste my substance on railroad companies when ‘the boys’ needed even a spinster’s mite” (4). Saying this of herself is a moral suggestion for her audience as well, inviting them to focus all their resources on the war cause.
Her characteristic style of balancing deep pathos with playful, light-hearted anecdotes establishes the key theme of The Value of Humor in Stressful Times. As she describes the wild goose chase of attempting to acquire her travel documents, Alcott depicts the situation as humorously absurd. Lending significance to her chosen moniker of “Tribulation Periwinkle,” the situation is genuinely frustrating for Alcott, as she is eager to be on her way but financially needful of the free pass. She depicts herself and others bumbling through the process “like an energetic fly in a very large cobweb” (5). In this instance, humor is a way for her to maintain a sense of proportion, so that she can continue in the pursuit of her goal.
During her quest for the pass, Alcott finds numerous allies, introducing The Dynamics of Care and Compassion. Her General and her brother-in-law both look after her, doing everything in their power to ensure that she does not feel alone and that she is able to acquire what she needs quickly. Explored in this section through the light-hearted pursuit of her travel documents, the theme will take on more profound significance for Alcott when she arrives at the hospital and begins caring for mortally wounded patients. The feeling she experiences being looked after by her own allies prepares her emotionally for what will be required of her at the hospital. It also portrays for her audience the principle of caring and being responsible for one another, which, as becomes evident by the end of the book, extends to the entire human community.
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