Nurse Ratched Essay

Nurse Ratched is the main source of power and authority in the ward. She has complete control over all of the patients and staff. Although she is technically under the supervision of Doctor Spivey, she still possesses the ability to control him as well. When McMurphy is first admitted to the hospital, his confident, stubborn attitude poses a threat to the Nurse. This threat only motivates her more, showing her representation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s theory, the will to power. Nietzsche believes that everything and everyone is driven by power and that anything else is sick and decadent. Nietzsche says that “The world is the will to power-and nothing besides! And you yourselves are also this will to power- and nothing besides!” During a therapeutic meeting in the hospital, McMurphy is able to attract
“She’s too big to be beaten… She’s lost a little battle today, but it’s a minor battle in a big war that she’s been winning and that she’ll go on winning” (96). Once again, the word ‘big’ is used in a metaphorical sense to encompass the extent of Nurse Ratched's power. Since she has already achieved such a great amount of jurisdiction, the Nurse is primarily motivated to maintain what she already possesses. In order to do so, she has to defeat McMurphy. After all of the power struggles between the two, Nurse Ratched eventually comes out on top. Once she has finally had enough of their games, the Nurse uses her authority and sends McMurphy away. After McMurphy has been gone three weeks, she make her “last play” (274). When he returns, it is obvious what has occurred. The other patients find him lying in a gurney labeled, “MCMURPHY, RANDLE P. POSTOPERATIVE,” and below that is written, “LOBOTOMY” (274). She had sent him off to be lobotomized, which left him brain dead. His body is still alive and breathing, yet he no longer poses a threat to the Nurse and her