Do women really have power, or is it just the patients that make it seem that way? This is a question that was constantly coming through my mind as I was reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The only women that truly take part of the story line are either "cruel" or prostitutes. These women seem to have complete control over men, and seem to be able to get done what they want to get done.
Nurse Ratched has complete power in the ward, all the patients are terrified of her, including some of the doctors and other nurses in the combine. Her power is real. She has somehow manipulated all the patients to think that if they don't behave with her there will be severe consequences. She uses fear for her personal benefit. It serves as a reminder to all of what will happen if they don't to as they are told. She treats the patients as children. She is their mother. Its not until McMurphy arrives that this unfair over rule of Nurse Ratched is challenged. McMurphy teaches the patients that Ratched is not their boss and they should not obey her every order. The patients are beginning to realize that Nurse Ratched's power is strictly mental. If the patients choose to fear her they do, and if they refuse to fear her they have no reason to feel intimidated by her presence.
Unlike Nurse Ratched, the prostitutes McMurphy brings into the ward have a physical control over men. They use their bodies to persuade men into doing what they order. The prostitutes simple request is money and in exchange they will give the male patients something they are deprived of in the ward. This control I believe is not as powerful as Nurse Ratched's but it definitely lasts longer. Their is no risk for the prostitutes to loose control over the male patients because they have something "positive" to give. Nurse Ratched just cause fear and pain and as we all know that won't last very long because someone like McMurphy will come and create a just as strong opposition towards the oppressing power.
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