Similarities Between Hamlet And One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

“People with mental health problems are almost never dangerous. In fact, they are more likely to be the victims than the perpetrators. At the same time, mental illness has been the common denominator in one act of mass violence after another,” Roy Blunt, a United States senator, had said. Some individuals who are mentally ill are able to achieve their goals because they have the qualities associated with being a leader, such as having confidence typical of narcissism or willing to use others like psychopaths. The characters of Hamlet and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest focused on these states of mental health and how it tied into the people and setting. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, characters

In a study conducted in Berkeley, “In a study of more than 600 young men and women conducted at Berkeley, researchers concluded that one’s perceived social status — or lack thereof — is at the heart of a wide range of mental illnesses,” (Anwar). The head nurse, Miss Ratched, used her words and knowledge of the mental patients to weaken their confidence and force them into submission. She made them feel small in society, resulting in the men believing that they don’t belong. Harding had even compared Miss Ratched to Adolf Hitler. Regardless of the evilness associated with these two people, there is the fact that they both accomplished gaining power, which is something a majority of people want. Another form of sadism shown in the novel was the electric shock therapy (EST) and lobotomy, both of which were used to “cure” mental patients. McMurphy and Bromden were subjected to a series of electric shock therapies and later on, McMurphy undergone lobotomy. “The procedure was not reserved for the most hopeless cases but instead applied to ‘difficult’ patients, becoming a way to control behavior rather than to relieve symptoms of mental disorder,” (Haycock and Cataldo). Although the morality of these treatments are questionable, these helped establish power in the asylum by using fear. A person would need to have no regret to force a person to have psychosurgery and with the actions of the hospital workers, this borders on sadistic and psychotic behavior. However, this raises the question of whether people labeled as psychopaths are the only ones who accomplish their