A prime example of this is when McMurphy rapes nurse ratched. He uses sex to expose her as a woman, instead of the machine that the ward had viewed her as before, which we’ll go into a bit later. When McMurphy tears her blouse off and reveals her, he shows the fact that she is a woman and therefore weaker, in their eyes, than the men. This cracks the control and authority she had over them prior to this event, because they no longer fear her.
This is further reinforced when “Some of the guys grinned at the sight of it…In spite of it being smaller and tighter…it could no longer conceal the fact that she is a woman.” This is a significant point in the novel because it is after she has been attacked, and though she is trying to hold it together and continue as normal, there is an evident loss of respect, and from the men's grins, we can see that her authority has been completely undermined. This is because before this, Ken Kesey used machine imagery to portray her not as a woman but as a machine, this can be seen in this quote ‘“The Big Nurse tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision-made machine… and that same calm whir coming from her eyes.”
Finally, The machine imagery that portrays the nurse can be summed up in this quote: “she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling too big a load” (p. 5). The connotations that we get from machine imagery relate to something steely, cold, manufactured- basically something that is dehumanising. However, at the end of the novel she becomes a 'woman', and loses all sense of mechanic imagery. The connotations of the word 'woman' completely differ to that of a machine- we think of something warm, motherly and soft; however on the contrary, that is not what she is at all. As well as this, we can infer from her description that her role becomes a more passive one after the incident with McMurphy- instead of having that power, she has turned into a stereotypical woman of that time. She has lost all intimidation and authority over the men because they are no longer scared of her.
These three references from the novel show that McMurphy didn't desire the Nurse sexually, but instead that he used sexual desire to try and undermine her power, due to the fact that she is a woman and therefore "weaker" than the men.
Slide 4: In Engleby by Sebastian Faulks, the underlying theme of power is expressed through Mike and Jen's relationship, or lack thereof. Though Engleby is similar to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest in that sexual desire is a vehicle for the theme of power in both, Engleby differs in that instead of sexual desire, it seems to be the absence of it.
Slide 5: Engleby's power over Jen is clearly portrayed in the night he kills her. Jen said 'What do you want? I'll do what you want" She meant sex, I suppose, but that wasn't what i wanted.' It is evident from this that she assumed that it was his sexual desire towards her that drove him to abduct her. He interpreted what she said as an offer to have sex with him. Due to Engleby’s lack of sexual relationships during the novel, we can infer that he is sexually repressed due to his psychiatric state. It seems unusual that he has no intention of taking advantage of her sexually, because from his obsession towards her it is generally assumed that there would be something perverted and sexual behind it. It could be argued that he killed her because she offered to have sex with him, as we know for sure that he blames her for him having to kill her. This is shown through the quote, "I was filled with fury at her, for what she'd made me do", on page 276. It made him angry because he felt uncomfortable with his lack of sexual libido, it’s as if he felt she had backed him into a wall and there was no way out for him.
Following this, Another event in the novel was Mike Engleby's reaction to the rape scene in the making of the film he helped out in. The quote "'And it didn't upset you to see her being raped'… I laughed, "Not at all, it was fun, it was interesting"' shows a twisted sort of indifference towards a very unsettling scene. From this we can infer an unusual detachment from any sort of universal sexual desire. He seemed undisturbed by watching quote "his friend" and object of his desire, sexually attacked and victimised. Though it was acted, it’s not a scene that someone would normally find fun or interesting, especially if it’s the girl he suppospedly longed for. Overall, this shows Engleby's emotional separation from what would normally be in the mind of a man his age. Faulkes incorporates a blatant lack of sexual desire as a way for Engleby to demonstrate his position of power over Jen, which is shown later in the novel when he tries to kill her.
Finally, This idea is further explored when Engleby says, “Then Jennifer began to cry because…I don’t know why Jennifer cried. Perhaps it was because she felt Alex didn’t desire her anymore.” This occurs as a result of the rape scene. It’s significant because it demonstrates his complete separation from Jen’s emotions, as he’s unable to comprehend that the reason for Jen’s tears is because rape is a traumatizing thing for a woman to act out. Jen is evidently strongly affected by it. His misinterpretation of her crying demonstrates his complete absence of sexual desire, and also indicates his psychopathic tendencies as he is unable to empathize with her.
Furthermore, Sexual desire, is used as a vehicle for the more complex theme of power in Faulkes novel, Engleby's lack of it, despite having a woman as an object of obsession, demonstrates his immaturity in growing as a man and consequently, the insufficiency of this sexual desire is shown to have control over Jen's life and her death.
Slide 6: In One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Engleby, the writers not only use sexual desire to express their power, they also use the act of sexual desire, or lack of it in Engleby's case, as a catalyst for a more tragic event. In Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love, the physicality of sexual desire between Joe Rose and his partner Clarissa Mellon is used to disguise the guilt that Joe is feeling. Close intimacy in a relationship after a tragedy, is a common way to conceal the emotions that people feel. Sexual desire, as a vehicle in the text, is a clear comparison to the two previous texts.
Slide 7: "We've seen something terrible together. It won't go away, and we have to help each other. And that means we'll have to love each other even harder." This quote shows how Joe and Clarissa use sexual desire to comfort one another, because when they say 'love each other harder' they mean that they need to show each other their love, and they do this through sex. They use sexual desire as a way to help them through and recover from, the traumatizing incident, anyhow instead of helping each other overcome the tragic event, it serves merely as a temporary distraction from the guilt that Joe feels. The first few scenes that Joe and Clarissa are alone, they are involved in the act of sex and through Clarissa’s quote, it is clear that she knows the extent of the aftermath that the incident left; the couple therefore look to sexual desire to help overcome the devastation,
Following this, this concealment of guilt is further reinforced when Joe says, "Of course. Why didn't I think of this? Why didn't I think like this? We needed love." Again, we see that Joe means sex when he says love, because he feels the need to further demonstrate the love that already exists between them. This is another example of sex as a distraction from the actual issue at hand- the traumatic event of the balloon that caused Joe to feel so guilty. This realisation is triggered by Clarissa through sexual interaction and the need to feel desired and wanted by someone else.
However it seems that Joe can see that the act of sex at a time like this can be seen as perhaps selfish or improper in regard to the event that took place; the quote ‘“…assuming that affection was inappropriate, an indulgence, an irreverence In the face of death” can be seen to demonstrate this further. Here, Joe sees the shared sense of sexual desire between him and Clarissa is seen as an ‘indulgence’ or selfish although it should be that sex is regular thing undertaken by couples in a relationship but between him and Clarissa it seems almost empty as if it is only being done for the purpose of forgetting the guilt and making themselves feel better because they are being desire by each other.
Lastly, Joe’s suppression of guilt can be seen further by the quote “We had nothing to forgive, unless, I suppose, we were absolving each other of the death, but those were the feelings that broke with each wave of sensation” which was said in regard to sex; it can be seen here that they use it as a diversion and through it they are trying to forget the guilt and pain that they are feeling. This however, is just a temprorary distraction, try as they might to believe otherwise. It is not a permanent solution to the guilt that is deeply embedded in Joe’s conscience.
Slide 8: Next we’ll talk about the relationship between Bonnie Deeds and the professor of logic. This is what we believe McEwan portrayed through this relationship, and it can be seen as controversial and up for debate, however it’s how we interpreted what he was trying to say. In Enduring Love, through the relationship between Bonnie Deedes and the professor of logic, McEwan uses sexual desire to reveal the underling theme of abnormality in this relationship. Although, McEwan doesn’t demonstrably express this sexual longing; he uses body language and descriptions of the interactions between the two characters to portray the sexual desire between them and ho
w this links to society’s view of an abnormal relationship.
Slide 9: The first description we get of Bonnie is from Joe, who says, “It was the kind of prettiness I would have dismissed as a cliché”. Immediately, we get an impression of society’s view of a typical old man/ young girl relationship, based solely, as it seems, on sexual attraction. The word cliché suggests a predictability and a lack of depth or connection between the two. Even before we are properly introduced to the couple, we’ve already formed a judgmental opinion on them based on the age gap. In general, society views the man in a couple such as this to base all his actions on the sexual longing he has for the younger woman; however this can be seen as a male using his more dominant role as a stragery for authoritive power; this can be linked back to the two studied text as in Engleby, he uses his controlling personality over Jen and McMurphy’s generated sexual desire when he attacks the nurse.
Lastly,This point can be moreover backed up by Joe’s quote ‘I could imagine how an older man might risk everything.’ There is an obvious emphasis on the word older, as it wasn’t necessary for McEwan to include that word. This suggests that there is something unusual about it, or at least that society views it as unusual. We can see that because they feel the need to hide their relationship, they know themselves that it is against the norm as if it was love that they had, they wouldn’t feel ashamed to hide it; however they do the opposite thus showing that it is the act of sex and sexual desire involved that they are ashamed by. The quote ‘. “we know soon we are going to have to face all kinds of complications’ can further reinforce the knowledge they have about the wrongness of their relationship however they cowardly hid their affair causing grief amongst people and Jean Logan in particular. The fact that the professor even acknowledges this when he says “we never imagined that our clumsy attempts at concealment would cause such distress” further emphasizes how wrong it was and the implications it had on other people.
In conclusion, the use of sexual desire as a vehicle for underlying themes in society is clearly shown in the three studied texts. The authors incorporate this technique because it asks us to question and consider the deeper meaning behind whats on the surface. These themes are predominant in revealing the message that the author is trying to portray about society.