When she was speaking to Jimmy at the end she seemed quite pleasant, and less stern than usual. The film is about conformity, so with her experience of being almost strangled to death by Mac, is it implying that she's since conformed to being less strict and more civil with the patients, or am I reading too much into it?
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Also, in the book, during the fight with her, McMurphy manages to rip her dress open down the front and everyone sees her bare breasts, pretty much ruining her superhuman image that she's worked so hard to maintain. The spell is broken.
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She hasn't become nicer, just much weaker in terms of her tyranny. McMurphy proved that she can be brought down, and made her lose her powerful, authoritative voice. This led to the patients not fearing her, and she realizes this.
shareShe hasn't become nicer, just much weaker in terms of her tyranny. McMurphy proved that she can be brought down, and made her lose her powerful, authoritative voice. This led to the patients not fearing her, and she realizes this.
Seconded.
shareShe was never nice! She was a b-tch!
shareI agree!
shareNo she is just trying to regain the power she lost from Mac
shareI personally feel that her spirit had been broken and she has lost her power over the patients. There is an alternate theory that that is the way she always acted towards the patients before McMurphy arrived but I don't buy that because as she is walking in in the first scene she says "good mourning" to Mr. Washington in a rather bitchy, condescending tone.
"I really wish Gia and Claire had became Tanner" - Honeybeefine
I don't think it was bitchy or condescending but not friendly or sweet just robotic and maybe stern.
shareEither way the way she spoke to Seafelt at the end was completely different to the way she talked to the staff before McMurphy even arrived. It's a good alternate theory but I personally am not buying that McMurphy was the reason why there was unrest in the institution. If Ratched really wasn't a bitch and actually thought that McMurphy was causing trouble she would have agreed with the doctor and sent him back to the work farm.
"I really wish Gia and Claire had became Tanner" - Honeybeefine
If Ratched really wasn't a bitch and actually thought that McMurphy was causing trouble she would have agreed with the doctor and sent him back to the work farm.
Maybe your right but the look on her face when she was walking in the first time she had the look of an authoritarian and the way she said "good mourning" seemed rather condescending, I may be looking too far into this. Either way another reason why this "McMurphy was the problem" theory falls flat is because in the very first group therapy session she is calling out Harding about the sexual problems he is having with his wife and allowed the patients to argue with each other. This is even before McMurphy started rebelling against her.
"I really wish Gia and Claire had became Tanner" - Honeybeefine
When she was speaking to Jimmy at the end she seemed quite pleasant, and less stern than usual. The film is about conformity, so with her experience of being almost strangled to death by Mac, is it implying that she's since conformed to being less strict and more civil with the patients, or am I reading too much into it?
Don’t think she felt she had won, Billy had already stood up to her in front of the patients, they saw her belittle Billy and then was attacked by MacMurphy to the point that she had battle damage in the form of her neck brace. She was just broken emotionally and at that point her and MacMurphy were on similar levels, they had both been defeated by what they were fighting and had both suffered battle damage (neck brace, lobotomy) , MacMurphy though in the end won through the chief who was inspired by MacMuprhy to be able to live outside the hospital and in a sense passed on his spirit to him hence flying over the cuckoos nest
shareAlso notice what the patients are doing in that scene: They are gambling like they did with MacMurphy despite the fact that Nurse Ratched had banned the practice earlier. She has lost her authority, she is completely broken and has lost her will to dominate and micromanage the ward like she used to.
shareThe only way for nurse Ratched to be nice is when she dies.
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