One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a classic novel, written by Ken Kesey in 1962. Set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, the novel tells of the barbaric, psychologically disrupting practices that Nurse Ratched, renowned tyrannical yet competent worker, uses against the patients within the institution for their rehabilitation. Daily procedures and mind-numbing medication plagued the Acute and Chronic patients, living life without substance and concord. One repetitious morning, a larger-than-life man, Randle McMurphy enters the institution, altering the monotony forever. This self-confessed ‘Bull Goose Looney’ is an outlaw who refuses to conform. This rebellious anti-authoritarian makes his mission to disobey Ratched’s dominion and and liberate
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Achilles was an infamous Greek warrior during the Trojan War, and the central character of Homer’s Iliad. Achilles, like McMurphy, lead their lives by the human condition of mortality, with all ordeals defining heroic life(3). Both men possessed hubris, monolithic personalities. Achilles refused to allow his values to be compromised - he was individualistic and persistent, like McMurphy, who refused to let Nurse Ratched alter his values - for example, McMurphy debated Ratched during meetings until he received luxuries. In the Iliad, Achilles often expressed his anger passively by withdrawing his presence- comparable to McMurphy, who calmed his demeanour after realising the fate of disobedience. This left Cheswick to fend for himself, ending in suicide. Achilles passiveness translated into success of the enemy, causing the ‘destructive fire unleashed by the thunderbolt of Zeus’(3) - similarly, during McMurphy’s inactivity, Ratched strengthened and when McMurphy rebelled, she used electric shock therapy to assert dominance. Towards the end, Achilles ‘doomed and ruinous’ behaviour degrades him to the depths of bestiality until he understood his fate and died in seclusion. McMurphy’s identical behaviour causes him to assault Ratched, receive a lobotomy, and end in his isolated death. …show more content…
At his end, Macbeth feels the sorrow of his wrong decisions and dies as a guilt-ridden anti-hero. McMurphy’s heroism is similar to that of Macbeth, as he fought for his king to become a hero, whilst McMurphy fought Nurse Ratched to become a hero amongst the patients. Macbeth intentionally killed his king out of ambition, whilst McMurphy unintentionally caused two deaths due to his venture for power against the Nurse, which is why he felt little sorrow before his death. Both men possessed several anti-heroic qualities which ended in their
Achilles was an infamous Greek warrior during the Trojan War, and the central character of Homer’s Iliad. Achilles, like McMurphy, lead their lives by the human condition of mortality, with all ordeals defining heroic life(3). Both men possessed hubris, monolithic personalities. Achilles refused to allow his values to be compromised - he was individualistic and persistent, like McMurphy, who refused to let Nurse Ratched alter his values - for example, McMurphy debated Ratched during meetings until he received luxuries. In the Iliad, Achilles often expressed his anger passively by withdrawing his presence- comparable to McMurphy, who calmed his demeanour after realising the fate of disobedience. This left Cheswick to fend for himself, ending in suicide. Achilles passiveness translated into success of the enemy, causing the ‘destructive fire unleashed by the thunderbolt of Zeus’(3) - similarly, during McMurphy’s inactivity, Ratched strengthened and when McMurphy rebelled, she used electric shock therapy to assert dominance. Towards the end, Achilles ‘doomed and ruinous’ behaviour degrades him to the depths of bestiality until he understood his fate and died in seclusion. McMurphy’s identical behaviour causes him to assault Ratched, receive a lobotomy, and end in his isolated death. …show more content…
At his end, Macbeth feels the sorrow of his wrong decisions and dies as a guilt-ridden anti-hero. McMurphy’s heroism is similar to that of Macbeth, as he fought for his king to become a hero, whilst McMurphy fought Nurse Ratched to become a hero amongst the patients. Macbeth intentionally killed his king out of ambition, whilst McMurphy unintentionally caused two deaths due to his venture for power against the Nurse, which is why he felt little sorrow before his death. Both men possessed several anti-heroic qualities which ended in their