The Girl in His Shadow

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 7

Chapters 8-14

Chapters 15-21

Chapters 22-28

Chapters 29-35

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 8-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 8 Summary

Nora explains that Croft often asks her to prepare bodies for him, and Daniel’s horror changes to sympathy as he assumes that Nora is terrified by the task. When he offers to finish the autopsy, she refuses, and he realizes that they are in “combat.” Even as he points out the illegality of her actions, he notes her precision and care. Unnerved, Daniel asserts that a “woman of [her] delicacy and age should hardly be left to haunt dissecting rooms” (81) and suggests that Croft has done her a disservice. He reminds her that she would be accused of witchcraft if someone were to find her dissecting the dead girl, and he goes on to admonish her for her willingness to be alone with him, especially in the middle of the night. He declares that his sisters would never act so improperly.

Nora moves to inspect Lucy’s lungs, but Daniel refuses her the scissors. When she lifts the saw, he flinches from her, “recoiling at such an antithesis of femininity” (83). A moment later, he glimpses her “womanliness” when she smooths her apron and touches Lucy’s body, and he “swallow[s] in fear” (83) at this combination of qualities in a female. When Croft arrives, he is pleased with Nora’s work and agrees that Lucy’s ruptured appendix made her death inevitable. He is happy that Daniel now knows about Nora.

However, Daniel cannot justify Croft’s actions, and although he admits that Nora is competent, he also finds her terrifying. Now, Daniel realizes how Nora’s help simplifies Croft’s work and allows him to see so many patients. He considers telling someone their secret, but he reminds himself of his “honor” and decides to speak with Croft directly. Croft listens to Daniel’s concerns and declares that he thought Daniel would be more open-minded. Croft tells Daniel that he is free to leave, and Daniel is shocked that Croft would dismiss him rather than Nora. That night, Daniel goes to his parents’ house for dinner, unsure if he’ll return. Daniel knows that his arrival will surprise his mother, and she doesn’t like surprises that upset the seating arrangements for dinner. His intended fiancée, Mae Edwards, is there. Mae asks him to tell her about his work, but Daniel refuses to “sully her” with stories of his occupation. When Daniel returns to Great Queen Street, he admits to Croft that he had not been sure if he would return.

Chapter 9 Summary

Daniel’s disapproval hurts Nora, who never felt inadequate for her lack of “delicacy” before he arrived. One day, he orders her out of the surgery, citing her fatigue, and they argue. She organizes her paintbox to calm herself, then decides to read one of Croft’s new books. She finds Daniel asleep on the couch with the book in his hands. She doesn’t want to touch him, so she eases it free, and it is not until she is well into the second chapter that she notices that Daniel is watching her.

Nora offers Daniel the book, but he declines, asking her if she remembers having cholera. He suggests that Croft “forgot” about her after she recovered and then neglected her. Nora explains that she was provided for and loved, noting Daniel’s disapproval. He condemns her upbringing and claims that she was robbed of a “conventional life.” When she asks him to “be less dismayed that [she] exist[s]” (96), Daniel denounces Croft’s consent to her practice of medicine as shocking and unreasonable, but he agrees to not expose their secret.

Chapter 10 Summary

Taking tea in the hospital courtyard, Daniel peruses a letter from Mae, whom Harry calls the “uppity girl”; Daniel reminds Harry that he and Mae are engaged. Harry was a surgeon with the navy for the last two years, so the politics at St. Bart’s are still new to him. He longs to see Croft’s surgery, and Daniel believes that one visit won’t jeopardize Nora’s secret.

When Nora enters the surgery, Daniel introduces her to Harry, and Harry is amused when she reaches out to shake his hand. He compliments Nora’s anatomical drawings, and Daniel says that she helps Croft in the clinic. Harry is delighted but surprised that she is not upset by the visceral nature of the work. Nora suggests that women are nervous by upbringing rather than by nature, and Harry compliments the house’s many “curiosities.” Nora invites him to dinner, and Harry’s conversation is pleasant. When Croft asks him to come again sometime, Harry looks directly at Nora when he accepts the invitation.

Chapter 11 Summary

At St. Bart’s, Harry and Daniel treat a woman whose hand was run over by a wagon. Rushing her to surgery, Daniel prepares to operate while Harry gives her laudanum, and Vickery watches. Daniel amputates one finger but saves the hand. After stitching the wound up, Vickery eyes Daniel’s pale face and teary eyes and smugly announces that surgeons must be strong. He tells Daniel to cauterize the wound, but Daniel doesn’t because he has read about the trauma caused by the procedure and has never had success with burning infection away. Harry warns him that Vickery won’t like his decision.

Croft calls Nora into the room with Harry and Daniel, as Harry is interested in her thoughts. Harry describes the patient’s amputated finger and Daniel’s refusal to cauterize, and Nora agrees with Daniel’s choice. She knows that Croft loses fewer patients to fever and shock than Vickery does. Nora and Harry flirt, and he describes her as “a lady who thinks for herself” (116), which Croft confirms. Croft goes to bed, and Nora tries to leave, but Harry detains her. In front of Daniel, Harry asks her to go for a walk with him on Sunday, lamenting their lack of privacy. Daniel says that Harry has “little concern for conventions” (117), but Nora accepts Harry’s offer and is satisfied to realize that Daniel doesn’t like her plans.

Chapter 12 Summary

At St. Bart’s the next day, Vickery informs Daniel that the woman whose finger he amputated is now dying of sepsis. Daniel is shocked, having never seen an infection develop so quickly. Vickery removes Daniel from the woman’s case, and when Daniel dives into his bag for a scalpel, Harry escorts him from the patient’s room. Outside, Daniel explains that he wanted to cut the patient’s stitches and clean the wound, but Harry says it looked like Daniel was going to stab Vickery. Daniel fears that Vickery will provide a version of care that kills the woman, just to prove Daniel wrong.

Nora is pleased that Harry is unbothered by her lack of “feminine refinements” and hopes that he is more like Croft than Daniel. Harry arrives just then, looking for Croft, but Croft is out. Harry explains that Daniel’s patient is dying because Vickery is trying to prove a point. He tells her that Daniel is now completely intoxicated and is busy telling everyone at their club that Vickery is a murderer.

Chapter 13 Summary

Concerned that Daniel’s actions will ruin Croft, Nora accompanies Harry to the club. Ladies are not permitted inside, but she barrels past the porter who tries to block her entry. Inside, Harry explains to the horrified men that she is Croft’s ward and a nurse. Nora approaches Daniel and speaks soothingly to him, while another man makes a lewd comment about Daniel’s inability to satisfy her. When Harry tells Daniel that they need to get Nora out of the club, Daniel manages to get up. Nora burns with embarrassment as the other men stare.

The next morning, Daniel awakens with chest pain, the result of his grief for the septic patient. He is mortified at the mockery that Nora faced on his account. Mrs. Phipps shows Nora a newspaper article about Daniel, his medical “negligence,” the scene at the club, and Nora’s own involvement. When Daniel emerges from his room, Mrs. Phipps reminds him that Croft has lost patients too, and he responds petulantly. She chastises him for pouting and sends him downstairs. Croft believes that Daniel will be suspended from the hospital. He states that cauterizing wouldn’t have saved the woman, because pig dung from the road had already contaminated her wound, causing an infection that cauterization would not reach. Daniel says that this explanation won’t matter to Vickery. Croft tells Nora that both she and Daniel acted foolishly. Feeling ashamed, Nora vows that she is finished trying to help.

Chapter 14 Summary

On Sunday, Harry and Nora go for their walk. Nora asks his opinion about Lucy’s ruptured appendix, wondering if any treatment could have helped her. Harry marvels, suggesting that Nora is a true scientist. He agrees with Croft that nothing could have been done to save Lucy since it is too dangerous to operate on the abdomen. However, he tells her of a French doctor who successfully removed a living patient’s appendix under very specific circumstances that are unlikely to be replicated. After dinner that night, Harry examines the appendix and disagrees with Nora’s claims that successful abdominal surgery is possible. Daniel cautions Nora about Harry’s unconventional nature. Nora claims this is why Harry fits in so well, and Daniel understands that his conventionality is precisely why he does not.

A patient named Nellie Foster arrives with a painful and immobile thumb. Daniel diagnoses her and offers to fix the problem immediately, but he will have to make a small incision to access her tendon. He asks Nora to send a message to Emily’s widower and tell him that Daniel will be late. Nora assumes that Emily’s baby is ill, but Daniel reassures her, admitting that he stops by when he can to calm the man’s fears. He doesn’t see her thoughtful frown. Daniel calms Nellie and speaks kindly to her. Daniel moves dexterously, surprising Nora will his speed and precision. The next day, Daniel gets a letter from Mae, who read the newspaper reports of him and the “brazen woman” at the club. She waited for four days for an explanation, but now she feels compelled to call off their engagement. He is ashamed of his “drunken display in front of notable society” (154) and resolves to win Mae back.

Chapters 8-14 Analysis

In this section, Blake juxtaposes Harry and Daniel as foils for one another, with Harry as the more open-minded and unconventional thinker and foreshadowing his growing interest in Nora, who is also unconventional in almost every way a young lady can be: dissecting bodies, rejecting delicacy, eschewing fashion, and allowing herself to be alone with men. On the night that Daniel finds her dissecting Lucy, he thinks of Nora as the “antithesis of femininity” (83), highlighting The Arbitrary Nature of Social Conventions. After this, he looks at her “like she was a faulty clock” (92), a simile that suggests he sees her as broken because she lacks feminine sensibilities. By contrast, Harry flirts with Nora, compliments her skill, enjoys her wit, and describes her as a “lady who thinks for herself” (116) before boldly asking her out on a date. While Daniel wastes time and energy being shocked that Nora allows herself to be alone with him and fearing that his mother will resent his unexpected visit, he reveals himself to be preoccupied with very conventional concerns, while Harry’s Croft-like dismissal of social conventions gives Nora new hope for her future.

Nora and Mae are also opposites, prompting Daniel to evaluate Nora against the standard for ladies set by his fiancée. Mae is proper, calling Daniel “Dr. Gibson” and speaking with “a ribbon of satin sound” (90). Enamored of her stereotypically feminine qualities, Daniel betrays his ingrained prejudices once again when he refuses to “sully her ears” (90) with stories of his work: the same attitude he took when he dismissively told Nora that she wouldn’t understand the circumstances surrounding Emily’s death. Thus, Mae is established as being delicate and refined: everything a lady is supposed to be in Victorian society. Upon her decision to call off their engagement, her outrage reveals her adherence to society’s judgments despite The Arbitrary Nature of Social Conventions, for she condemns the incident as a “disgrace” and labels Nora a “brazen woman,” denouncing Daniel for behaving in a manner unbecoming of a gentleman. Notably, she is most concerned about her own propriety and is hardly concerned about Daniel himself. By contrast, Nora ranks concern for Croft and Daniel far above propriety, even daring to enter a male-only club and subjecting herself to ridicule and scandal to protect her colleagues’ reputations. Because Nora refuses to bend to convention as Mae does, Daniel is flummoxed and even frightened when his attempts to behave as a gentleman in Nora’s presence seem to be wrong for the first time in his life.

While Daniel conforms to Victorian sensibilities in almost every sense, he is highly unconventional in one respect—the intensity with which he experiences and displays emotion—and this prompts Nora to reevaluate him. After Harry asks her out, the realization that her plans disturb Daniel increases her happiness and anticipation, causing her to develop a “sudden, delicious glow” (118). At this point, she views Daniel as a combatant: someone who finds fault with her existence and refuses to recognize her autonomy. However, when she learns that he visits Emily’s widower to calm the fretful man, she is surprised by such a display of sensitivity. Furthermore, when he holds Nellie Foster’s injured hand “as if it were a fragile and priceless artifact” (147), Nora is once again taken aback to realize that he is capable of gentleness and warmth: two traits that Croft certainly lacks. In addition, Daniel is deeply affected when his patient dies of sepsis, and he has always struggled to endure the cries of people in pain. However, his steadfast conformity to Victorian social standards compels him to condemn his own acute empathy as a weakness, as does Vickery.

Finally, Nora’s lack of feminine delicacy and Daniel’s emotional disposition juxtapose two of the novel’s most significant themes: The Arbitrary Nature of Social Conventions and Women’s Lack of Agency in the Victorian Era. Nora’s highly developed skills in the clinic and the surgery, as well as her lack of squeamishness, support the claim she makes when first introduced to Harry. She chides him, saying, “I see you’ve read too much George Eliot and not enough Wollstonecraft, Dr. Trimble. You’ll find women are bred to be nervous, not born to it” (106). By mentioning George Eliot, Nora refers to the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, a novelist whose heroines are often deeply conventional, and sets her in opposition to Mary Wollstonecraft, a staunch advocate for women’s rights known for asserting that women can achieve as much as men if they are permitted the same opportunities. Thus, Nora takes the opportunity to openly criticize the social conventions that prevent women from reaching their full potential. Because Nora was trained differently, she therefore has the opportunity to become something other than a timid, nervous woman who is limited to the domestic sphere. In an ironic reversal of this concept, Daniel tries his level best to live up to the strict social standards set for men, but his intense emotions often overwhelm his sense of propriety, as he demonstrates in his responses to the septic patient and Vickery. Thus, the narrative uses Nora and Daniel show that the standards set for each sex are not based on innate qualities or inherent skills but are instead taught and then performed by individuals who wish to be accepted by society. In revealing how such social conventions are taught and performed, Blake highlights the arbitrariness of those conventions, destabilizing them and suggesting that they should not be used to measure an individual’s value.