How and why does the play make the audience identify with McMurphy Essay Example
How and why does the play make the audience identify with McMurphy Essay Example

How and why does the play make the audience identify with McMurphy Essay Example

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  • Pages: 7 (1763 words)
  • Published: October 11, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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The play 'one flew over the cuckoo's nest' is set in the 1950s.

During the 50's there were many patients that were coming back from WWII who was addicted to morphine and suffering what we now call PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder). There were a huge number of the 'old style' mental hospitals that were still applying treatment such as shock therapy, psychotropic drugs and lobotomies. Community care was bought in but it failed to come into many of the hospitals, and the long-term patients were mistreated and undermined. However, the abuse of these patients did not go unnoticed.The government started to make small steps in an effort to help, particularly in 1953 when the government set aside millions to help refurbish the homes that the patients lived in, and they did it again in 1954-1

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957 when the government reconsidered and changed the laws on how mentally ill should be treated and viewed, but few actually made any change.

By bringing out this play the audience had a chance to identify with McMurphy and it gave the audience a unique look into the terrible things that happened behind the closed doors of the institutions.When people watched this play and saw the hospitals through a patient (McMurphy) eyes, their views were influenced by the themes and dramatic devices used in this play. One of the major themes in this play is power. As soon as McMurphy is introduced onto the ward, we see his power by over throwing Harding "well, you tell bull goose loony Harding that R.

P McMurphy is waitin' to see him and this nut-house aint big enough for the two of us". McMurphy

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looks to control the patients and have them all look up to him; however the only person that the patients are influenced by is Nurse Ratchet.This immediately causes a divide between the two characters as we see their personalities will determine a clash. Throughout the play McMurphy's character grows in understanding of the how wrong the institutions are, and he eventually uses his 'power' repeatedly to overthrow Nurse Ratchet in an attempt to save the other patients on the ward.

We even see him pretending to be insane by watching a TV that isn't even on, just so that he can triumph over Nurse Ratchet. The power of laughter echoed throughout the play.McMurphy's laughter is the first genuine laughter heard on the ward in years. McMurphy's first clue that things are strange among the patients is that none of them are able to laugh; they can only smile and snicker behind their hands. Bromden remembers a scene from his childhood when his father and relatives mocked some government officials, and he realizes how powerful their laughter was: "I forget sometimes what laughter can do.

" For McMurphy, laughter is a potent defense against society's insanity, and anyone who can't laugh properly has no chance of surviving.By the end of the fishing trip, Harding, Scanlon, Doctor Spivey, and Sefelt are all finally able to participate in real, thunderous laughter, a sign of their physical and psychological recovery. In the play McMurphy symbolises the audiences' feelings and hopefully how they would react against the cruelty of the patients lives an institutionalised miserable routine. One of the most impacting themes of this play is institutionalisation. The patients that

live in the mental institute have all their rights taken away from them and don't any chance to have independence.

Nurse Ratchet takes away their independence completely and destroys their chance of going back into society. She appears to think that because the patients have a mental illness they can't do anything for themselves. "Warren, you might start by getting poor Mr. Bromden shaved".

As head nurse, Nurse Ratchet should interact with patients and make them feel good, but she looks down on the patients, undermining and breaking them down every chance she gets. McMurphy notices this, and in his first therapy circle and tries to say something to Harding about it, "say buddy, is this the way these leetle meeting usually go?Bunch of chickens at a pecking party? " he sees how Nurse Ratchet picks at the patients opening wounds for the others to dive in and take advantage of, but he cant understand why patients like Harding stand being bullied. Harding definitely stands by Nurse Ratchet and he argues with McMurphy until the saddening realisation becomes reality and he breaks down. "Out miss Ratchet is the kindest, sweetest the most benevolent women I have...

that I have... ever.

.. oh the bitch, bitch".This display of emotions shows the effect of institutionalisation on even the boldest and strongest of characters, their own morals and principles are taken away and replaced by a routine.

The height of institutionalisation is shocking as we see the silliest rules being put into place, such as they are not allowed to brush their teeth when they want to 'we don't open that cabinet (containing toothpaste) till six forty-five. ' The influence

Nurse Ratchet and this routine have on them is unbelievable, they no longer think for themselves, the second Nurse Ratchet calls them; they are at her feet, like trained dogs.We see this symbolised when they are playing a game of cards. Nurse Ratchet calls over the loud speaker that there is a group meeting and like programmed robots in the middle of the game of cards, they get up and move the tables aside, they carry their chairs across the room while McMurphy sits angry and confused. In this part of the play, the play makes us identify with McMurphy through an emotional bond that slowly develops between the audience and McMurphy.The audience sympathises in this instant and can feel his anger at the treatment that these patients are given, and how blind they are to it.

The play uses dramatic devices such as the electric box to symbolise freedom and how McMurphy strives for it. As he fails to pick up the box and free the patients his pain can be felt in the words, 'at least I tried goddamit, at least I tried' as we see that McMurphy is truly trying to help these patients and give them a reason to fight against the cruelty they are suffering.Since the 1950's mental institutions have been decreasing in numbers, and today we have care in the community organisations and support groups to enable them to live independently outside an institution. During the whole of this play we see McMurphy symbolising Jesus and referring to himself as Jesus 'now I see why you are looking at me like Jesus Q Christ'. One of the times he

used Jesus was when we saw that Ruckly, he acts like he has been 'crucified' after his lobotomy 'he won't move until you pull out the nails'.

He again represents Jesus before having shock treatment '... do I get a crown of thorns'.He even represents Jesus in death, after his lobotomy treatment, he's dead inside, which reflects Jesus being crucified and dying, maybe undermining Nurse Ratchet power, so he doesn't have to live under it anymore, which reflects Jesus rising from the dead and rescuing man kind from their sins.

McMurphy's rebellion against the ridiculuos rules that govern the ward throws everybody into an uproar. Patients respond with warmth as they suddenly realize they've been dead all these years, supressed into a false sense of security by allowing others to control every minute of their lives.Rebellion turns out not to be all fun, just dissobeying rules, but a serious struggle in a life or death situation. McMurphy's rebellion is used as a dramatic device because the audience sees his will to rebel through betting and fighting, followed by his attempt to act when he believes.

But in the end his heart overrides his selfishness and he gives all he can to save the ward, even his life. Seeing this show of compassion makes the audience identify with McMurphy because his decision to give his life wasn't as we would expect.This decision seems to give McMurphy a whole different level; he is the wards saviour, and to the audience maybe even a hero. Another one of the themes that is raised in this play is human rights. The mental institute is a place where all the

human rights and equalities are stripped, all the nurses are women, all the helpers are black and the mentally ill are imprisoned from society and punished instead of treated.

'I have observed a definite deterioration of discipline since he arrived. Perhaps... another form of therapy..

. ' again we see Nurse Ratchet attempting to punish rather than treat.We also see how Nurse Ratchet takes their freedom of speech 'if you wish to speak you must first be recognised' and Nurse Ratchet bullies them into saying things. By standing up for himself against Nurse Ratchet, McMurphy is the person who stands up to the bully, and the audience can identify with McMurphy because they might look up to him as if they were a child again and getting inspiration from someone who stood up to the school bully. Each time McMurphy tries to get his human rights, something that should be treated as treatment according to the institute, Nurse Ratchet treats as punishment.

This also brings up the theme of treatment vs. punishment, whether the patients are being treated or punished for the illnesses they have. There is a fine line that can be drawn between treatment and punishment. This play made me identify with McMurphy because I could see these patients from a same level of perspective as McMurphy; because he is sane, I can relate him and his feelings, looking at patients get bullied and having first hand experience of the wrong that these mental homes were doing to these people that have illnesses, maybe being punished for there illnesses, therefore allowing me to see the world through their eyes.

This play put the scale of institutionalisation

in to perspective for me and maybe for the rest of the audience as well, taking peoples self-esteem away and own ability to think for themselves shocked me a lot, it made me feel angry and I completely understand where Mc Murphy is coming from. I'm glad to hear that the number of mental institutions have been reduced and instead of treating the patients with no respect they are now looking after patients and treating them like human beings, with the power of freedom.

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