Analysis Of The Nurse In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Randle McMurphy, the protagonist, is introduced to break down the nurse’s oppressive ways. McMurphy, a con man who was sentenced to a work farm, was diagnosed as a psychopath and sent to the mental hospital, which he much preferred. Serving as a savior figure to the patients of the ward who have already been battered by the Big Nurse, McMurphy causes interference to the nurse’s control. He supports the men as they are ridiculed in meetings and supports their attempts to change policy. Although he does help other patients, he first looks out for himself. He cons the patients out of their money and then follows the nurse’s rules for awhile because of the threat of being kept on the

As a man who pretends to be deaf and mute, Bromden is considered to be a relatively unbiased character, yet he even displays strong feelings of hatred towards Nurse Ratched, proving just how evil she is. As Nurse Ratched enters the novel for the first time, she brings with her a noticeably ominous atmospheric change with, “A gust of cold,” (4) that represents her complete control over every aspect of the mental ward, even the weather. At the pinnacle of Kesey’s totalitarian society, Nurse Ratched represents the tendencies of an oppressive government or what Bromden calls, The Combine. For example, she suppresses the patients’ free will because regardless of the patients actual sanity, she is undeniably in control of their fates at the hospital. Besides McMurphy, the majority of the patients could leave on their own, but Nurse Ratched has been able to brainwash them into thinking that they are not suited to assimilate with others outside of the ward. Billy Bibbit says to McMurphy when he asks why they do not leave, “You think I wuh-wuh-wuh-want to stay in here? You think I wouldn’t like a con-convertible and a guh-guh-girl friend? But did you ever have people l-l-laughing at you? No, because you’re so b-big and so tough!” (162-163). Just like an oppressive government, Nurse Ratched convinces its people that they are worthless so they never feel powerful enough to retaliate. Like an alcoholic, Nurse Ratched needs her fix of power that makes her drunk and

As soon as McMurphy arrives on the ward, he challenges Nurse Ratched’s abusive regime in hopes of restoring humanity and the rights of the individual. It didn’t take long

The nurse, Miss Ratched is undoubtedly a villain from most reader’s perspective, but there is much more to being a villain that simply being a “ball-cutter” on the surface. In fiction, typically a villain is someone who follows a certain set of motives in order to gain what they are trying to achieve. Whether this is money, power, or something they just do for the sake of the act, all villains possess a motive. Though the reasons behind her actions are not explicitly clear in the novel, it is obvious that one of Nurse Ratched’s main motives is the implied fact that she wants to break down the men in her ward. The reason behind this is that she wants to degrade and force them into the mould of not only society’s, but her own twisted imagery of the way a person should look and act as well. The nurse is an established authoritarian figure in the novel, and presents herself in such a way that her patients not only fear what she may do to them on any given day, but merely her presence as well. She keeps the men sedated with drugs they may not ask about, abuses them and manipulates them with her words and the power of suggestion, and makes self-admitted patients feel as though they are too “sick” to sign themselves out. Out of all the heinous acts she commits in the novel, one of the most villainous is probably the group “therapy” sessions she holds. The men

McMurphy tried to challenge her power and failed, but it was interesting because when he damaged her vocal cords she lost some of her power. So there I found that it's not really what Nurse Ratched does to scare these people they are really influenced by her voice. An allusion would be like sirens from greek mythology or the snake in the Garden of Eden. Her voice and words are her most dangerous weapon for she can make these men confess to acts of wrongdoing they did not commit.

“She aint honest … She likes a rigged game” (Forman One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Film). Power can be used as a source of evil or heroism. It has the capacity to control and manipulate people. However, it also has the capability to champion freedom and rights for others. In the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratchet’s controlling power came from her ability to emasculate the male patients and maintain a sexless façade. She also held in place an extensive system of rules and regulations, as well as an ordered routine. McMurphy’s liberating power derived from his rebellion against the ward rules and his open sexuality which granted him confidence.

Although Nurse Ratched’s guidelines and procedures have the ability of putting all of the members of the ward into a “fog,” a state of mind numbing acquiescence, this has not occurred since McMurphy has arrived. In fact, McMpurphy makes it his mission to break Nurse Ratched once and for all after witnessing her manipulation of his colleagues during a group therapy session. He comes to the final conclusion that Ratched a “ball buster, and even though Harding was the center piece of humiliation during the meeting, he struggles to admit that Nurse Ratched is a “bitch.” Eventually, McMurphy is able to persuade Harding to admit his true feelings about the wretched nurse. The spectacle she had made of Harding’s sexual inadequacies in regards to his wife causes him to finally snap. With this,

Through his efforts, he realized that in spite of his hatred of the Big Nurse, he would have to give in to her wishes for the situation to end up beneficial to his friends. McMurphy’s effort to help out the other patients-his closest friends- show how he is willing to risk everything and go against the system just to aid others. For instance, “McMurphy is protagonist and hero, and the viewer's sympathy is engaged by the character's roustabout charm and apparently sacrificial motive to "cure" the other patients of their respective ailments.” (Zubizarreta 1). Although Nurse Ratched has the power to strip McMurphy of who he is, he is willing to stand up for himself and others.

Nurse Ratched is the head nurse at the mental ward. The way she uses power is pretty obvious, manipulation. She uses

The novel describes the inner workings the the mental institution of how the patients are emasculated and mistreated by terrifying big nurse Ratched, who will go to any length to control them. “We do not impose certain rules and restrictions on you without a great deal of thought about their therapeutic value…….for your own good that we enforce discipline and order.” (page 171) The patients are unaware of their surroundings and they all depend on the big nurse for their well-being’s. Beginning of the novel when

Kenneth Elton Kasey also referred to Ken Kesey (1935-2001) was an American author, best known for his novel “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” which was published on 1962 by Viking Press & Signet Books. It is believed that Ken Kasey got the inspiration to write the novel after his use of experimental drugs and experiences in working at a Veteran's Hospital, there he witnessed plenty of rebellious figures there helping him to inspire “One who flew over the cuckoo’s” nest protagonist Randle Patrick McMurphy. Ken second and last novel “Sometimes a Great Notion” received far more critical praise than his first novel “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest”. Despite “Sometimes a Great Notion “ receiving more praise, “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” will

Inside the hospital, conformity is not an option unless patients want to face the wrath of the Big Nurse and her machines. Big Nurse operates the ward on a strict schedule and ultimately sets out to achieve submissiveness by any means necessary. “Ellis is Chronic came in an Acute and got fouled up bad when they overloaded him in that filthy brain-murdering room that the black boys call the ‘Shock Shop,” (16). “A cheery atmosphere” is the exact opposite of what citizens would juxtapose with a “brain-murdering” machine. Yet, strangely enough, the inhumane treatment such as what Ellis endured goes entirely disregarded by the Public Relations man in order to maintain a strong reputation. The corrupt values of society lead the Big Nurse and all of her patients to believe that the only way to succeed is to become a robotic copy rather than being an individual. “The Big Nurse tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision-made machine,” (28). Through the concrete

In ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’, the patients in the asylum are emasculated by the presence of a powerful woman who controls their fate. These men are not celebrated for their madness as they would have been during the renaissance (Foucault) but rather they are dominated by the “ball breaker’’ Nurse Ratched. Hence gender and identity in Kesey’s ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ is the premise for conflict within the asylum and the eventual rebellion against Nurse Ratched or “big nurse’’. However Nurse Ratched’s power is automatically diminished

Randle McMurphy’s shift in personality advanced the plot because it created the main conflict of the novel. The downtrodden patients of the hospital ward were too afraid to rise against the oppressive and power-hungry Nurse Ratched, but from the very beginning

Nurse Ratched was a former Army Nurse, and is the main antagonist of this story. She was dubbed “Big Nurse” by the inmates after her oppressive, strong characteristics. These characteristics, as well as her hatred for the inmates, and micromanagement make her the enemy of all the men on the ward.