William Carlos William's short story The Use of Force quite a striking piece. The work is narrated by a doctor during an earlier time period who is on a house call and trying to figure out if a little girl has diptheria or not. However, the choice of an internal monologue presents the reader with a darker side to this medical professional's nature.
While at the beginning everything seems normal the tone becomes increasingly sadistic throughout the story. The doctor, once seemingly annoyed, begins to order and take pleasure in the control over this little girl: he angers at her father's reluctance to hurt her while holding her, calls for her wrists to be held, and brutally forces a wooden spoon in her mouth to open it up. He finally admits "I too had gone beyond reason. I could have torn the child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to attack her. My face was burning with it".
One could say that the most frightening part of the story is the contrast in between the doctor's appearance and inner pleasure. Just after admitting his pleasure in fighting her he narrates the outward rationale that the parents (and other logical patients) see: "the damned little brat must be protected against her own idiocy...others must be protected against her. It is a social necessity...but a blind fury, a feeling of adult shame, bred of a longing for muscular release are the operatives. One goes on to the end". Now the reader is fully cognizant of the new sexual tension on the doctor's end, a need to lay claim over his prey. The very act of forcing the spoon down her throat illustrates a prime example of penetration, too. And in the end, it is all the better to him that she resists--he wants the fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment