Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Nurse Ratched

At times, it can seem as if Nurse Ratched is only interested in providing her patients with a calm and safe life inside the mental hospital. But that's exactly what she wants you to think.

Still, there are a few telling instances where you realize that she's actually more interested in telling the men what to do than she is in their mental health. For example, she dishonestly rigs the vote when McMurphy and the other patients want to watch a baseball game. On top of that, she brutally shames Billy Bibbit about having sex with a woman until Billy is so overcome with guilt that he kills himself. Yikes.

Rather than getting emotional, Nurse Ratched responds to Billy's death by telling the other patients to get back to their daily routine. She believes in order above everything else, even if that means destroying a person's sense of self-esteem. She'll do whatever it takes to stay in charge of things, and she nearly gets killed for it by McMurphy. But at the end of the movie, she's the one still standing and McMurphy isn't. Hey, no one ever said this one has a happy ending.