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Allegory
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Part One
Explanation and Analysis—Dr. McMurphy:
In Part One, McMurphy vies with Harding for the unofficial position of lead patient. Harding uses an allusion and verbal irony to poke fun of McMurphy:
"As you see, all these natural talents certainly qualify you as a competent therapist and render you quite capable of criticizing Miss Ratched’s meeting procedure, in spite of the fact that she is a highly regarded psychiatric nurse with twenty years in the field. Yes, with your talent, my friend, you could work subconscious miracles, soothe the aching id and heal the wounded superego. You could probably bring about a cure for the whole ward, Vegetables and all, in six short months ladies and gentlemen or your money back."
McMurphy has just suggested that Harding shouldn't have to put up with the way Nurse Ratched leads the other patients in analyzing and criticizing him. She calls it "therapeutic" for Harding, but McMurphy isn't so sure it accomplishes anything except emasculating Harding. Harding defends Nurse Ratched, and by extension his own willingness to put up with the criticism. Here, he alludes to the Freudian concepts of the "id" and the "superego" as he sarcastically suggests that McMurphy is better qualified than the hospital staff to treat the patients on the ward. According to Freud, the id is the part of the psyche that gives us animal instincts and desires. The superego, meanwhile, is the part of the psyche that gives us morals. The ego is the third part, the self that tries to balance the warring interests of the id and superego. Harding states that of course McMurphy can "work subconscious miracles" on the id and superego, miracles the likes of which Nurse Ratched could only dream.
Of course, Harding means exactly the opposite of what he says: McMurphy has no qualifications to treat mental illness. He borrows the line "six short months ladies and gentlemen or your money back" from the language of snake-oil salesmen who peddle fake cure-alls to carnival audiences. This reference makes it abundantly clear that Harding believes McMurphy is all talk. Who is he to criticize Nurse Ratched's tactics, Harding obliquely suggests, if he has no better solution to the patients' struggles? The verbal irony makes McMurphy look laughably foolish.
Harding's tone is light and mocking, but his allusion to Freud betrays deeper-seated turmoil. Freud's theories, which have been more and more regarded as oversimplifications of human psychology, were especially forced onto gay men like Harding in the mid-20th century. Society told gay men that they needed to master their "urges," bringing the id under control of the superego to live a heterosexual life. This self-denial was incredibly harmful, leading to what Harding characterizes as an "aching id" and a "wounded superego." Notably, Harding does not mention the ego, which in Freudian term is the real, decision-making self. Harding has spent his life torn between the person he is and the person everyone wants him to be. In that struggle, he has lost his sense of self and his sense that he has control over his own life. He believes that Nurse Ratched is trying to help him, but really she is tearing him further apart. The idea that McMurphy could come in and soothe this pain in one fell swoop is inconceivable to Harding.
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Explanation and Analysis—Punch and Judy:
In Part One, Bromden recalls how Nurse Ratched has always run the hospital ward. He uses a simile and an allusion to convey the way she exerts power through a vicious hierarchy:
The technicians go trotting off, pushing the man on the Gurney, like cartoon men—or like puppets, mechanical puppets in one of those Punch and Judy acts where it’s supposed to be funny to see the puppet beat up by the Devil and swallowed headfirst by a smiling alligator....
The man on the gurney in this memory is Maxwell Taber, a former patient who often resisted taking medication. Bromden recalls how Nurse Ratched ordered the hospital technicians to force Taber into electroshock therapy over and over until it altered his personality, making him docile and obedient. Bromden compares the technicians and Taber alike to "mechanical puppets in one of those Punch and Judy acts." Punch and Judy are characters in a traditional puppet show that has been especially popular at English seaside carnivals since the 17th century. A married couple, the Punch and Judy puppets get up to any manner of violent exploits. Sometimes they fight adversaries like the Devil or an alligator, and sometimes they fight each other. There are recurring themes and characters in Punch and Judy shows, but what happens in any given show is up to the puppeteer. The show has faced criticism for the way it depicts violence, especially domestic violence. Puppeteers still put on the show, but many have attempted to turn Punch and Judy's violence toward societal issues rather than each other.
By comparing Taber and the technicians to Punch and Judy, Bromden highlights the repetitiveness of the power struggle between the hospital staff and the patients. The same fights play out over and over again, just as they have in Punch and Judy acts for the past several centuries. Taber refuses his medicine, the technicians try to force him to take it, and they end up in a physical fight all the way to the electroshock therapy room. At the same time, the comparison highlights that neither Taber nor the technicians are in charge of the situation. Ultimately, Nurse Ratched is behind the whole show. She is the puppeteer pulling the strings, enforcing the hierarchical power struggle. She wants to put on a show for the other patients not to make them laugh, but to warn them not to refuse their medication lest they end up held down on a gurney.
The comparison furthermore highlights the fact that Nurse Ratched is not acting on her own to enforce hierarchy on the ward. A puppeteer inherits the characters of Punch and Judy from generations of Punch and Judy shows. They are somewhat in control of what happens in their own show, but they must abide by the basic rules that make for a Punch and Judy show. Nurse Ratched, likewise, has inherited societal ideas about what a psychiatric ward should look like. She is in charge of how hierarchy is enforced on her own ward, but she is ultimately serving a system that is much larger than herself.
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Part Four
Explanation and Analysis—Crown of Thorns:
In Part Four, Nurse Ratched sends Bromden and McMurphy to receive electroshock therapy. McMurphy goes first, using verbal irony and an allusion to make light of the scary situation:
He don’t look a bit scared. He keeps grinning at me.
They put the graphite salve on his temples. “What is it?” he says. “Conductant,” the technician says. “Anointest my head with conductant. Do I get a crown of thorns?”
They smear it on. He’s singing to them, makes their hands shake.
McMurphy, who is lying on a cross-shaped table to receive the treatment, is referring to the Christian story of Jesus Christ's crucifixion. Before Jesus was crucified, Roman soldiers supposedly dressed him in purple (a color associated with royalty) and placed a crown made out of thorns on his head. They mocked him for being "king of the Jews." The outfit was meant to parody a true royal outfit and to disempower Jesus and his followers by making clear that he would never be a "real" king. However, the parody backfired. Jesus is often depicted wearing a crown of thorns, and the crown itself has become a major symbol of Jesus's power and martyrdom.
McMurphy often uses humor, especially verbal irony, to stand up to power and cruelty, which is what he does in this scene. The hospital staff is about to pin McMurphy down and inflict brain damage on him. Though he doesn't show fear, McMurphy knows he has lost his power struggle with the hospital staff in almost every way that counts. He is utterly at their disposal, and practically no one cares what they do to him. By using faux-Christian language (i.e. "annointest") and asking if he is going to be given a crown of thorns, he absurdly suggests that he is as powerful, important, and righteous as Jesus. He does not actually believe any of this. However, his verbal irony lets the hospital staff know that they cannot take away his laughter or swaggering attitude.
Even though McMurphy does not believe he is Jesus, there is a way in which he does serve as a Christ-like figure to Bromden and the other men on the ward. McMurphy shows the men that they can take their dignity back, and that there is a world beyond the hospital that they might like to rejoin. Like Jesus, he ultimately dies so that his "followers" can live outside the oppressive regime of Nurse Ratched.
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