Another device is showing you that Ken cannot do anything for himself. For example at the beginning Kay and sister are massaging Ken’s feet or John shaving Ken. This make you feel sorry for Ken, as he cannot do anything for himself.
Another device is Ken repeatedly trying to get the doctors to admit that Ken won’t get better. For example when Ken is pressuring Dr. Emerson to admit that Ken will never walk again. I think this shows you that Ken is not depressed because he says thank you to Dr. Emerson for telling the truth when he could have been suddenly broken down and started crying.
Another device is the selection and omission of scenes. For example, when Ken receives some weak coffee- ‘What you have there is coffee flavoured milk’, the next scene could be of Kay coming in with stronger coffee. This is trying to show you that hospital treats him like a baby.
A main device in the play is repetition. There are quite a lot of things repeated: -
- Sex is repeated quite a lot – For example, when Ken says about Dr. Scott’s breasts, also he says that he has ‘a piece of knotted string between his legs’. Ken’s endless wit about sex and endless affairs, John wanting to go out with Kay and Mr. Hill with Dr. Scott (slightly). This makes us feel sorry for Ken because he can’t have sex.
- He thinks he is useless- For example, banging his head against the wall would make no difference or the part where he says he was a skateboard. This is trying to show us that Ken knows that even if he stays alive it will make no difference.
The main reason the author uses repetition is to get a point into our head, which will make it stick with you. If something keeps happening, you feel more sorry for Ken because it is not just happening once but over and over.
A device is showing that Ken has lost the will to live. Ken asks and persuades Mr. Hill to represent him about wanting to be discharged, ‘It is quite simple. I can’t exist outside the hospital so they got to. This shows that Ken is able to face the truth as he talks to people about being discharged calmly, not shouting and screaming at Dr. Emerson, just calmly asking to be discharged.
Ken is in a catch 22 situation. If Ken chooses to live he is sane, if he decides that he wants to die that is proof he is insane. Therefore he would be committed under the Mental Health act and kept until he becomes sane again. The doctors think that the major proof that he has recovered is if or when he
decides that wants to live.
A branch off from the last point, is that Ken seems to be sane. For example, the comment about the ‘monstrous regiment’- the monstrous regiment was the name given to a pamphlet made by a person who die not like the idea of there being three women in charge. These women were Elizabeth I (of England), Catherine DeMedeci (of France) and Mary Queen of Scots (of Scotland). He thought this was horrible as they were all against men! I think this shows that he is not insane. It also shows that he has intellectual fitness to decide, i. e he is clever, otherwise he might not have remembered what he learnt in school.
Ken knows what's best but Dr. Emerson still does things Ken doesn't want. For example, when Dr. Emerson injects Ken even though he doesn't want it. This shows that Dr. Emerson is the biggest figure in the hospital.
A branch off from the last point is language, i.e. when Ken says, ‘Don’t stick that f***ing thing in me’. This makes that part stand out because Ken hardly swears in the play. If he only said don’t ‘Don’t stick that thing in me’, it would not show as much feeling and it would not stand out.
Seen as Dr. Emerson is disagreeing about Ken wanting to die, it makes the play more realistic, even though Dr. Emerson eventually agrees with Ken, if he agreed from the beginning the play would just be extremely boring because Ken would just be released at the beginning of the play.
Ken knows that he will not be able to do anything for the rest of his life. Ken and John know this but no one else does. John, jokes about jobs he can be, i.e. when he's says Ken could be a tennis umpire. This brings light to the fact that if Ken is released, he will die. John is trying to make Ken laugh to see the funny side of things.
I think that too many opposition points are omitted. For example, Mrs Boyle, who offers as an entice Ken to live “a comptometer” and who seems squeamish at the prospect of taking her bikini off-‘Dr. Emerson tells me you don’t want anymore treatment’, while she could have more attractive ideas.
One other device is the way in which Dr. Barr says he doesn’t think that Dr. Barr thinks that Ken has made the wrong decision-
Eden: ... ‘do you think Mr. Harrison has made the right decision’.
... Dr. Barr: ‘No, I thought he made the wrong decision.
The reason this is done in the play is that Dr. Barr could have lied to the judge to keep him in the hospital but because he thinks Ken is wrong, it shows that he is more honest.
Therefore I believe that Ken was right about being discharged and that the play uses every device to show you Ken is right.
