What Is The Portrayal Of Women In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Statement of Intent: I inteded this text to be an analysis of Nurse Ratched’s depiction in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. I did this using secondary sources such as Reclaiming Big Nurse: a Feminist Critique of Ken Kesey’s Portrayal of Nurse Ratched in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Philip Darbyshire and The Roles of Women in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Hana Kašpárková. My intention was to compare Nurse Ratched against her male counterpart, McMurphy, and to highlight the misogyny with which she was depicted. I did this using evidence from the film and from the secondary texts listed above.

Women have long been subject to a limiting range of stereotypes within media and throughout time. Nurse Ratched, while

While this text discusses the novel, many of the ideas are directly applicable to the film in terms of her appearance and depiction. An example of this on page 207 where Kesey writes: ‘The expression on her face was calm and blank as enamel, but the strain was beginning to show in other ways. By the way she jerked the adhesive tight as she could, showing her remote patience wasn’t what it used to be.’ This is similarly shown in the film with Nurse Ratched’s calm demeanor and control. Kašpárková argues that Nurse Ratched supresses her femininity to be respected and gain control over the men of the ward. An example of this is her costuming, the white, starched nurse’s outfit. We first see this outfit, covered by a black coat when she opens the door to the ward and begins the day. A quote from Kašpárková’s text states, ‘To highlight her machine-like personality, she always wears her snow-white uniform starched stiff…She is in control not only of the patients but herself - she must mask her emotions to stay the authority.’ A film technique that shows this is Nurse Ratched’s white costuming which represents her purity and control needed to keep her uniform clean. This take from Kašpárková emphasises the fact that Nurse Ratched is always in control and fights to stay there. Nurse Ratched is actively working to break out of a shoebox of misogyny and into

The key difference is that Darbyshire argues Nurse Ratched becomes a villain because she respects herself and that she is no more a villain than the men of the film, while Kašpárková argues that she becomes a villain because she reduces her femininity. Kašpárková takes the stance that Nurse Ratched is still a villain, but the hatred is increased because of her actions. The ideas that she puts forward, however, are in many ways parallel with Darbyshire’s essay and my thesis. The Roles of Women in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest fails to take the same critical lens as Reclaiming Big Nurse: a Feminist Critique of Ken Kesey’s Portrayal of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and as such I find it slipping further into the sexist rhetoric of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This text directly tackles the perspective of mental patients - the lessening of her femininity is viewed as an insult to them. An example of this is when Kašpárková writes, ‘McMurphy recognises the roots of the male patients’ mental issues in the repressed sexuality caused by women [Nurse Ratched], consecutively leading to the insecurity about their masculinity.’ The text addresses how Nurse Ratched’s choices directly impact the men. They judge Nurse Ratched as a way to maintain some form of power while they face treatment. This is most evident in McMurphy’s case. Several shots throughout the