Nurse Ratched's Stereotypes

Words: 1173
Pages: 5
Open Document
Nurse Ratched’s establishment of supreme jurisdiction over the patient's reveals the submission to uncustomary female dominance due to futility of surpassing implemented emasculating tactics. By referring to themselves as submissive to authority, Harding claims:
“The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. And he endures, he goes on. He knows his place. He most certainly doesn’t challenge the wolf to combat. . .We need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place.” (Kesey 57-58)
Through the comparison of the patients to rabbits, Harding recognizes the emasculating domination of …show more content…
In an effort to shame her husband's femininity, Vera Harding inquires, “You know the type, don’t you, Mack?” she says. “The hoity-toity boys with the nice long hair combed so perfectly and the limp little wrists that flip so nice.” Harding asks her if it was only him that they were dropping around to see, and she says any man that drops around to see her flips more than his damned limp wrists” (Kesey 159). Vera Harding’s judgement of Dale’s friends stereotypically feminine characteristics allows her to establish domineering control by creating self consciousness regarding coveted masculinity. Dale Harding’s apprehension of whether or not his friends desire his wife creates creates her accessible control over him as he is aware of the possibility of decreased masculinity in a case of his wife favoring others. Vera’s confirmation that she is in fact sought after, allows her to uphold her matriarchal power at the expense of her husband’s diminishment of masculinity due to his insecurity over not being adequate. In a similar fashion, Dale’s actions are impacted by fear of …show more content…
Harding’s self consciousness upon realizing his wife’s gaze shows the formation of female power stemming from emasculation of men based on their identifying attributes. By deeming her husband’s voice “mousy,” Vera Harding institutes the atypical feminine authority through the diminishment of male masculinity as she compares his speech to that of a female. As affirmed by Fick, Vera also, “embodies the dual threats of regimented society and is the focus of a conventionally ghoulish misogyny. Yet women can also serve the cause of freedom, at least when they do not demand the commitments of adult relationships or marriage.” By referring to Vera as the embodiment of regimented society, it is affirmed that she, as a woman, is the epitome of dominating authority through the control she asserts over her husband. Through stating that women can be the cause of freedom, it reveals that without matriarchal control, men would be granted the ability to exist without fear and submission to women. Commitments of marriage by men, being referred to as confining, demonstrates the commanding authority that Vera, as wife, exercises over her
Show More

Related Documents: Nurse Ratched's Stereotypes

One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest

He releases his attitude of sexual freedom onto Nurse Ratched, ripping open her clothes, revealing her breasts. This final act of McMurphy’s rebellion ultimately leads to his lobotomy and eventually his death, but it is also what saves the rest of the men at the ward. Kesey shows that when these characters succumb to their gender stereotypes, it leads to their own destruction: with Ratched finally being attacked, assaulted, and cracked and with…

Words 872 - Pages 4

How Is Chief Bromden A Hero

As stated in the article Ken Kesey’s Indian Narrator: A Sweeping Stereotype, by Peter Beidler, “The murder of the father is in this case highly complex, for Chief Bromden suffocates the recently lobotomized McMurphy in a murder that is at the same time an expression of his love for McMurphy, a demonstration of his revenge against Big Nurse, and an assertion of his independence from both.” This part of the novel solidifies Chief Bromden as the hero, as…

Words 1293 - Pages 6

Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

things as emotions and social interactions with patients (Laffey 1285). One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest shows the mental hospital as a small world of regulations, routine, and discipline ruled over by Nurse Ratched. Unlike in the outside world, Nurse Ratched has just about absolute control over her ward. Nurse Ratched is a tool of society, used to exercise order and control. This she achieves less by direct confrontation and more by subtle means such as playing on and maintaining character weaknesses,…

Words 805 - Pages 4

Head Nurse Ratched Essay

The first of the seemingly unnecessary material is the number of sexual implications in this book. One of these instances is when Head Nurse Ratched has her breasts described as ‘badges of femininity’ with protagonist Ralph McMurphy taunting her about their exact length (Kesey 138). While this appears to be harassment, readers need to contextualize the emasculating themes of this book. According to Manning, defining male behaviors as ‘toxic’ versus ‘healthy’ confuses males on what their expected…

Words 1259 - Pages 6