Randle P. McMurphy; 35 years of age, loud, sexual and confident. They say he is a psychopath, but is he really insane or was he just pretending Forman’s film explores an ethical battle between the two main characters; R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) and nurse Mildred Ratched (Louise Fletcher). Throughout the film, director Forman uses aesthetic techniques, as well as sound and colour to help position the audience how he wants. The film is essentially about R.P McMurphy getting transferred to a mental institution from a prison farm from evaluation. He assumes it will be a less restrictive environment; unfortunately for McMurphy, nurse Ratched runs the psychiatric ward with an iron fist. Keeping her patients cowed through abuse, medication …show more content…
and sessions of electroconvulsive therapy. The rebellious McMurphy and the inflexible Ratched soon affects all the ward’s patients. Before McMurphy was sent to the mental institution, the patients had gotten used to the repressed emotions and daily scheduled that nurse Ratched abides by. But it all changed at the arrival of McMurphy. His loud, free laughter stuns the patients when he first arrives. McMurphy exemplifies sexuality, freedom and self-determination. During the film it is established that McMurphy is not, in fact crazy. Director Forman has showed McMurphy to use relativistic discourses to rationalize his criminal behaviour, this positions the audience to see him not so much as a criminal but a loveable rogue. He does the same thing to hide the fact that he was convicted of statutory rape. At the beginning of the film, McMurphy starts of as self-serving; reaching out to the patients, not because he wants to, but to relieve the boredom. Despite this, it is shown that as the film progresses, it appears that McMurphy has advanced into a utilitarian, and has the best interest for the other patients. Because of this, it makes it harder for the audience to resist him as a decent person. “You’re no crazier than the average asshole on the street, no more no less” ~ R.P. McMurphy Whilst in the mental institution McMurphy escapes over the fence, but rather than fleeing, he takes his fellow patients on a fishing trip; introducing them to deep sea fishing. It becomes obvious to the audience at that point that, the fishing trip was better therapy than Ratched’s rules. By sharing his relativistic outlook, he is also raising the other patients’ self-esteem. He also helps their self-esteem by saying, “You’re no crazier than the average asshole on the street, no more no less”. McMurphy tries escaping a second time, but in the best interest of the other patients, he stays to throw them a party after Nurse Ratched leaves the institution.
At this point in the film, director Milos Forman positions the audience to relate to the characters of the film. Nurse Mildred Ratched; the nurse that every patient fears. Nurse Ratched was introduced into the film wearing a long black jacket and hat; this leaves the audience to ponder about her ethics as a Universalist. For a nurse to be seen wearing black is a very unusual sight; simply because nurses are seen to be representing purity by wearing white. Even her hair, noticeably styled as if she has two devil horns. Forman was very clear in the way he used symbolism to position the audience to disapprove of her. When Nurse Ratched first enters, she is given very little textual space compared to McMurphy’s vibrant entrance. By doing this, it makes Ratched seem dehumanized. Throughout the film, nurse Ratched makes sure that all patients abide by the rules. Ratched presents herself as a Universalist when she wouldn’t let McMurphy into the nurses’ station to turn down the music because, ‘it is against ward …show more content…
policy’. During the film, McMurphy asked Ratched if she could put the ball game on the television, but she said no because it was against the wards’ policy. After thinking about this, she decided to let them have a vote on this, due to the fact that she knew the other patients wouldn’t vote because they are all scared of her. This itself is a trait of Universalism, which often manifests in compliance through an unspoken fear of consequence. “When the meeting was closed, Mr McMurphy, the vote was 8-8.
That’s not enough to change ward policy” ~ Nurse Ratched However after some time, McMurphy brings up the ball game situation again and asks for another vote after he has gained all of the other patients’ respect. She agrees to this; but when McMurphy gets his majority, she manipulates the parameters of the voting public to include patients who can’t think or speak. This positions the audience to dislike her and is reinforced when she reverts to Universalist discourses when McMurphy manages to get one of the ‘feebs’ to vote after the close. “When the meeting was closed, Mr McMurphy, the vote was 8-8. That’s not enough to change ward policy”. This positions viewers to dislike her even more as it becomes obvious that she is not at all concerned about patient welfare, but rather maintaining her authority. Like all great fictional tales, the nemesis eventually loses to the hero. Ultimately Nurse Ratched found a way to repair her power in the psychiatric ward of the mental institution. Ratched’s solution to reclaim her power in the ward resulted in the lobotomy of R.P. McMurphy. Ratched thought she had gained all power back; but what she didn’t realise was McMurphy is more like a hero than what she
thought. McMurphy’s death represents a significant growth in his power; he has left behind a legacy for the other patients, a legacy capable of ending their miserable days in the ward. Through Forman’s communication of Ratched’s leadership in such a Utilitarian manner, how could our perspective be otherwise? Even though Ratched may not have had a huge head or red hair, we still believe in the virtuous ethics of McMurphy’s one-man revolution.
Nurse Ratched was head nurse of the ward. She needed to have control over everything. All of the patients feared Nurse Ratched, or as they sometimes call her, “Big Nurse.” That is everyone feared her until McMurphy. Because he refused to listen to Nurse Ratched, the “ruler” of the ward, it showed that there will be dismay between the two throughout the story.
He would always sneak in wine, gamble with them, and would have them play along on all his jokes. His need for freedom was refreshing to everyone else, that what kept them going. At points when he gave up from being a rebel, other patients gave up. McMurphy wins this war between him and Ratched because he helps other patients continue to be excited and helps them get out of there. McMurphy influences patients to stand up for themselves and not take orders from Ratched. Harding listened to McMurphy and did exactly that. He started to call her out on things and make fun of her, and she couldn't respond. It was clear that Nurse Ratched wasn't the same person and because of what McMurphy did, she couldn't get back in control. Ken Kesey writes, “She tried to get her ward back into shape, but it was difficult with McMurphy’s presence still tromping up and down the halls and laughing out loud in the meetings… she couldn't rule with her old power anymore… She was losing her patients one after the other” ( 320-321). McMurphy has always taught them to follow their own rules and not obey Ratched. In particular, he influenced Chief, a quiet patient that watches his surrounding carefully. After teaching Chief what it's like to follow your own rules, Chief begins to follow McMurphy’s role. After the incident of stripping Ratched’s identity, he learns that McMurphy was a hero to him and although he doesn’t physically help him out, McMurphy has taught Chief how to play this game. Chief tries to be like McMurphy by taking over. DOing so he tries on his cap, trying to be the new McMurphy. Ken Kesey writes, “I reached into McMurphy’s nightstand and got his cap and tried it on. It was too small” (323). Chief realized that no one could take over McMurphy's role, but that Chief would have to be in control over himself to make a statement. Chief does exactly that, he runs for it, making him happier than he has ever
In Ken Kesey’s novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, he engages the reader with Nurse Ratched’s obsession with power, especially against McMurphy. When Nurse Ratched faces multiple altercations with McMurphy, she believes that her significant power is in jeopardy. This commences a battle for power in the ward between these characters. One assumes that the Nurses’ meticulous tendency in the ward is for the benefit of the patients. However, this is simply not the case. The manipulative nurse is unfamiliar with losing control of the ward. Moreover, she is rabid when it comes to sharing her power with anyone, especially McMurphy. Nurse Ratched is overly ambitious when it comes to being in charge, leaving the reader with a poor impression of
Nurse Ratched is portrayed as the authority figure in the hospital. The patients see no choice but to follow her regulations that she had laid down for them. Nurse Ratched's appearance is strong and cold. She has womanly features, but hides them “Her Face is smooth, calculated, and precision-made, like an expensive… A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing putting those big, womanly breasts on what would have otherwise been a prefect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it.” (11) She kept control over the ward without weakness, until McMurphy came. When McMurphy is introduced into the novel he is laughing a lot, and talking with the patients in the ward, he does not seem intimidated by Miss Ratched. McMurphy constantly challenges the control of Nurse Ratched, while she tries to show she remains in control, He succeeds in some ways and lo...
In the novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the characters are in a mental hospital for various reasons. Narrated by Chief Bromden, a large Native American man, the story tells mainly of a newcomer to the hospital, Randle McMurphy, who is not actually mentally ill, but pretends to be to escape work detail. A much-feared middle-aged woman named Mildred Ratched runs the hospital. She runs the hospital like a concentration camp, with harsh rules, little change, and almost no medical oversight. The “prisoners” have a large amount of fear of Nurse Ratched, as she rules the place like she is a soulless dictator, the patients get no say in any decision made. This is exemplified when McMurphy brings up the World Series, and the patients take a vote on it. Though everyone wants to watch it, they have so much fear for Nurse Ratched that they are too afraid to speak out against her wishes.
The theory of the Therapeutic Community is that the group can “help the guy by showing him where he 's out of place; how society is what decides who 's sane and who isn 't so you got to measure up (p.49).” If a person has a quality that makes them stand out from the rest of the people (if they have a stutter, or have feminine features even though they 're men, or if they like to gamble) then society deems them insane and unfit for society. These are the people who go to the ward for “fixing”. All people in society have to be a certain way, they can 't have any qualities that makes them stand out and it is crucial that by the time they come out, they have no personal liberty because a person who has freedom of mind threatens the control of those in charge (Mcmurphy has personal liberty and that is why he is able to threaten the control of Nurse Ratched.) He makes a bet with the other patients that “I can get the best of that woman-before the week 's up-without her getting the best of me (p.79)” and because he has his own personal freedom, he is able to do just what he said he 'd do. The next morning Mcmurphy woke up early, ruining Nurse Ratched 's beloved schedule an walking around with nothing but a towel around his waist and his underwear
Mcmurphy's true character was lost in the writing of the screenplay, his. intelligence and cunning is lowered greatly by changes made by the screen. writers. The.. & nbsp; Ms. Ratched is a powerful woman in both the book and the movie. She knows how to play with people's minds and manipulate groups. She keeps a tight grip on the ward using subtle methods which cannot be ignored.
In the novel, Ms. Ratched just removed the tub room, which was used as a game room, from the patients, this angered McMurphy, so he decided to do something subtle to get revenge on Ms. Ratched. In the novel, it says, “The Big Nurse’s eyes swelled out as he got close . . . He stopped in front of her window and he said in his slowest, deepest drawl how he figured he could use one of the smokes he bought this mornin’, then the ran his hand through the glass . . . He got one of the cartons of cigarettes with his name on it and took out a pack . . . ‘I’m sure sorry ma’am,’ he said ‘Gawd but I am. That window glass was so spick and span I com-pletely forgot it was there’” (201). This quotation demonstrates that, even though Ms. Ratched has more power than McMurphy, she is still frightened of him, and that he might do something to either take away her power, or he might do something to hurt her physically. This also demonstrates how much power McMurphy has gained so far over Ms. Ratched. In the novel, Ms. Ratched tries to take away all of the power that McMurphy has gained over her by blaming McMurphy for making the lives of the hospital patients worse, and that McMurphy was the cause for the deaths of patients William Bibbit and Charles Cheswick. This angers McMurphy, and causes him to choke her with the intent to kill
They both realize that in order to get their own way, they must gain control over their rival and the ward. McMurphy and Nurse Ratched have different methods of attaining and using what control they have. They have different motives for seeking control over others. They also have different perceptions of the amount of control they possess. Throughout the novel, these two characters engulf themselves in an epic struggle for the most control.
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) The character McMurphy as played by Jack Nicholson, McMurphy’s is a criminal who is troubled and keeps being defiant. Instead of pleading guilty, McMurphy pleads insanity and then lands inside a mental hospital. Murphy reasons that being imprisoned within the hospital will be just as bad as being locked up in prison until he starts enjoying being within by messing around with other staff and patients. In the staff, McMurphy continuously irritates Nurse Ratched. You can see how it builds up to a control problem between the inmates and staff. Nurse Ratched is seen as the “institution” and it is McMurphy’s whole goal to rebel against that institution that she makes herself out to be.The other inmates view McMurphy like he is god. He gives the inmates reason to
The nurse-patient relationship is one that is built on a mutual trust and respect that fosters hope and assists in a harmonious healing process. A nurse has the professional duty to the patient to provide physical, emotional, and spiritual care to avoid injury. Any negligence in rendering care to the patient is direct disregard and results in malpractice. This is the crux of the problem with Nurse Ratched. In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched is guilty of malpractice due to the cruel medical treatments she practiced, mental anguish inflicted by her on the patients, as well as the undue authority she had in the hospital that she consistently misused.
McMurphy is an individual who is challenging and rebelling against the system's rules and practices. He eventually teaches this practice of rebellion to the other patients who begin to realize that their lives are being controlled unfairly by the mental institution. When McMurphy first arrives at the institution, all of the other patients are afraid to express their thoughts to the Big Nurse. They are afraid to exercise their thoughts freely, and they believe that the Big Nurse will punish them if they question her authority. One patient, Harding, says, "All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees...We need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place" (Kesey 62).
Nurse Ratched does not abuse authority. She only tries to keep everything in order. Nurse Ratched exclaims when the patient's escaped the ward,
Nurse Ratched gains much of her power through the manipulation of the patients on the
There were no heroes on the psychiatric ward until McMurphy's arrival. McMurphy gave the patients courage to stand against a truncated concept of masculinity, such as Nurse Ratched. For example, Harding states, "No ones ever dared to come out and say it before, but there is not a man among us that does not think it. That doesn't feel just as you do about her, and the whole business feels it somewhere down deep in his sacred little soul." McMurphy did not only understand his friends/patients, but understood the enemy who portrayed evil, spite, and hatred. McMurphy is the only one who can stand against the Big Nurse's oppressive supreme power. Chief explains this by stating, "To beat her you don't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as sson as you loose once, she's won for good. And eventually we all got to lose. Nobody can help that." McMuprhy's struggle for hte patient's free will is a disruption to Nurse Ratched's social order. Though she holds down her guard she yet is incapable of controlling what McMurphy is incontrollable of , such as his friends well being, to the order of Nurse Ratched and the Combine.