Monday, April 16, 2018
The Use Of Force
This short story is about a doctor's visit to a stubborn child, who gets treated by a doctor seemingly just as stubborn as she is.It is narrated from a first-person view and conveyed through technical dialogue and seems to pose the questions in ethics, a position of power and the assertion of such. Although Mathilda has been hiding the sore throat from her mother for some time, it can be argued that it wasn't out of defiance but out of the fear of being treated. There are apparent sexual undertones within his pleasure in exercising violence on the young girl, this somewhat brings about the duality of helping Vs harming the sick child. I'll go out on the limb and say the dialogue reads like a subtle psychological rape if that makes any sense.Given that the plot revolves around the doctor's dominance being asserted on the young girl, this would be the most apparent theme. There is a progression of his dominance as he initially presents himself and a king and gentle doctor, in wake of the young child's defiance to being treated. Ultimately it boils down to a little girl needing treatment for potentially having a deadly disease and the necessary evil her parents fell they have no choice to allow her to endure for the sake of her wellness.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The dominance that you mention could also be seen as a conflict between male and female. The male (the doctor who represents science and technology) and the female (Matilda who is seems as the person who is challenging science and technology).
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty deep outlook , and being that Mrs Olson starts the story off apologizing for her home,shows a social disparity that separates from the start.
DeleteI always wonder when sexual imagery is used if its merely a subset of a greater conflict. As she resists his authority as a doctor, strikes at his tools, actively uses force to resist him, and opposes him at every instance, a young girl being a match for a cultured doctor. Could this be the breakdown of the doctor from his structured, controlled, and composed life. Using such force on a child, deriving satisfaction from overpowering her physically and justifying his actions. Where he admits that he should have stepped back once she bit and shattered the tongue depressor, he knows he’s abandoning his training, his logic and reason for an emotional and physical state. Or am I trying to make this story something it’s not, is this about sexuality, and I’m looking at it from such a different standard?
ReplyDelete