Sociological Perspective In William Carlos Williams The Use Of Force

In "The Use of Force", by William Carlos Williams, one can induce a sociological perspective in response to the scrutinizing of the relationship between a doctor and his patient. The tale describes the visit of a doctor to a family home, and upon his stay, he is met by Mathilda Olson, a young girl determined in making the doctor's task of diagnosing her go uncompleted. Throughout the account, the doctor, kept nameless throughout the story's telling, is shown to have the most power within the setting of the narrative.One such instance of this, was when upon his arrival, the parents of the patient almost immediately delegates their power over the situation to him. This is supported when the doctor motions the father not to bother standing up to greet him; a gesture that greatly diminishes the parent's role as

Lastly, one might come to the conclusion that no such power was handed to the doctor at all, due to Mathilda's defiance, but contrary to that notion, her defiance only further proves the original argument. In a regular situation between a doctor and his patiant, the power of control would be delegated to the doctor, but due to Mathilda's resistance, the archetypal doctor, quite so in a literal sense, retained dominance over her through means of physical force. This was acceptable to her parents because society promotes the idea of giving the care of one's family over to a professional when in dire circumstances. This allowed the doctor to do the very things he did to her because to society, such things were acceptable due to the doctor's legitamized right to diagnose her. In culmination, the short story relates the notion that in society, power is given to the doctor because of the legitimalization of his right to define the reality of the medical