William Carlos Williams The Use Of Force

William Carlos Williams wrote a short story called “The Use of Force”. In this story a doctor tries to determine what’s wrong with a child named Mathilda, that ultimately refuses to be examined and refuses to communicate with both the doctor and her parents. The doctor goes from a professional to as then uses force complete Mathilda’s examination. Going from professional to sadist in a short while after Mathilda refused to be examined. Thus, the title “The Use of Force” plays an important role in this story. The significance of the title is weather the use of force is acceptable. I would normally say there is no way to justify the use of force but a young childs life was at risk and she was not willing to cooperate. Therefore, i feel like the use of force by the doctor but it is questioned because of his enjoyment of his use of force.
The use of force is a legal concept, a principle that allows authorities to exercise physical force against another person if such force is deemed justifiable to protect the individual or to protect society from the individual. The doctors use of force may seem cruel and almost brutal, but the doctor felt like it was the necessary way to examine Mathilda’s throat to determine if she had diphtheria.The doctor states “it was up to me to tell them; thats why they were spending three dollars on me” referring to
The doctor has already seen two children lying in bed dead because of not being diagnosed and he felt like it was now or never to get the diagnosis. One would also think why would the parents not step in and stop him from inflicting more pain on the child. Mathilda's parents did not want to harm their child, but felt like it was necessary to protect their daughter from death. The doctor himself could not justify his motivation for forcing the examination other than the other children's