A Fortune of Sand

The Nightingale building symbolizes the tension between protection and control that underlies The Use of Psychiatric Diagnoses to Control Women. Presented as a progressive arts residency for women, it is also used as a concealed evaluation program for residents whose families have questioned their mental fitness. On the surface, it offers freedom, resources, and community—a sanctuary where women can pursue their creative passions. Yet the residents are not told that they are also being observed and evaluated, creating a contradiction between the program’s protective purpose and its lack of informed consent. Juliette intends the Nightingale to protect women from unjust institutionalization, but the elaborate rules of the “lease,” Dock’s observation of the residents, and restrictions on their movement also limit their autonomy. The building therefore combines opportunities for creative independence with forms of supervision that the residents have not knowingly accepted.

The building’s contradictory purpose becomes clear when Marjorie discovers the residents’ files, which include the alleged diagnosis of “Chronic Imaginative Derangement” beside her artistic discipline as a clothing designer (197). This discovery reveals that her creativity exists alongside a psychiatric label connected to her family’s concerns about her mental fitness, although she has not been told that she is being evaluated. Juliette Bonafante’s personal history of being wrongfully confined by her own father after behavioral changes caused by an impacted tooth explains her determination to protect other women from being institutionalized without proper evaluation. The building’s name reinforces this purpose: Marjorie recognizes that Juliette identifies with Florence Nightingale, a symbol of “healing and devotion” (206). Yet the secrecy surrounding the evaluations complicates that association, making the Nightingale a symbol of the tension between protecting women and respecting their autonomy.

The recurring motif of keys and locked doors represents the tension between safety and restriction at the Nightingale. Throughout the residents’ time at the Nightingale, Dock’s repeated insistence is that the doors must be locked at all times. While framed as a safety measure against the dangers of Detroit, the rule forms part of the wider restrictions governing the residents’ movement within the program. As Marjorie gradually questions the rules and later discovers that the residents are being evaluated without their knowledge, the locked doors acquire a more troubling significance. What initially appears to provide security also reflects the limits placed on the women’s autonomy, connecting the motif to the use of psychiatric diagnoses to control women. The locks therefore make the tension between protection and restriction physically present within the residents’ everyday lives.

The silver keys complicate the purpose of the locked doors by giving residents access to spaces that are otherwise closed to them. Bernice uses her silver key to enter the playwright’s apartment after Ivy discovers that the residents’ silver keys open one another’s doors, while Marjorie later uses hers to enter Ivy’s room after her disappearance. The keys therefore provide access to other residents and to information that would otherwise remain behind locked doors, showing that the same system that restricts movement can also create unexpected points of access. The motif reaches its final reversal when Marjorie leaves the Nightingale after discovering the truth about the program: She deliberately does not lock her apartment or the front door and takes the keys with her. Her rejection of the locking routine marks her refusal to continue submitting to the rules that have governed her movement and access throughout the residency.