Force: Symbolic Rape in William Carlos William\'s

¶ … Force:

Symbolic rape in William Carlos William's short story

William Carlos William's "The Use of Force" is a strange, uncomfortable short story to read about a seemingly very simple subject. A doctor is trying to force a resistant young girl to open her mouth so he can see if she has diphtheria. The girl, not knowing the doctor is trying to help her, bravely but foolishly resists him and he must act forcibly towards her, ostensibly to save her life. There is an uncomfortable suggestion of rape in this act of physical violation on a symbolic level, even though on a literal level the reader can likely relate to the struggles the doctor is undergoing with a young child unwilling to do something for his or her own good. The use of force, the story suggests, is a complex issue, and cannot merely be construed as good or bad. On one hand, the girl is sick and the doctor is trying to treat her, although questions remain about his manner and motivation in seeking to diagnose her.

The little girl is not described as delicate, despite her physical sickness, but regarded by the doctor as kind of a formidable adversary. She is "as strong as a heifer in appearance." She is also very beautiful, as he notes "she had magnificent blonde hair, in profusion. One of those picture children often reproduced in advertising leaflets and the photogravure sections of the Sunday papers." Even while he attempts to treat the girl, the doctor is sizing up her beauty, half-admiring her, half-mistrusting her. She stands in stark contrast to her ordinary-looking father and mother and the poor setting of the household.

The parents also do not regard the doctor with full trust at first, heightening the mystery surrounding Mathilda's mysterious antipathy to him. "As often, in such cases, they weren't telling me more than they had to, it was up to me to tell them; that's why they were spending three dollars on me." The parents are not particularly helpful when the doctor begins to ask them relevant questions which could indicate that the girl has diphtheria. This sense of guardedness increases the atmosphere of menace in the short story, even though the doctor's presence should be welcome and a sign that things are getting better for the little girl. The girl is described as almost hostile and seductive at once, 'eating up' the doctor with her "cold, steady eyes."

The doctor regards the parents as his adversaries in his designs upon the girl, and as unhelpful in winning the girl's trust. "If only they wouldn't use the word 'hurt' I might be able to get somewhere." The girl tries to claw at him to resist him and claws off his eyeglasses, although she does not succeed in harming them or him because of her size. Her parents scold her as being 'bad' because she is not compliant with the strange man's intentions. But at first, they even seem to be complicit in the girl's refusal of treatment. "No . . . No, she says her throat don't hurt her," they say when asked at first. This angry and dismissive view of the parents further highlights his passionate feelings for his young patient which fuse anger and a desire to have his way with his admiration for her. "In the ensuing struggle they grew more and more abject, crushed, exhausted while she surely rose to magnificent heights of insane fury of effort bred of her terror of me."

The doctor's anger at her takes on a personal character, and at times it sounds as if he is convincing himself that his violence is justified. "I had to do it. I had to have a throat culture for her own protection. But first I told the parents that it was entirely up to them. I explained the danger but said that I would not insist on a throat examination so long as they would take the responsibility." Although he says the hospital is a possibility, in his mind he has already resolved he will 'have his way' with the girl

The reader, looking at the story through the perspective of the doctor naturally assumes that the reason for her fury against him is her youth and the fact that she is so sick. Yet the girl does not seem so young that she is utterly ignorant of the consequences of her situation. She is old enough to go to school, and when she finally speaks she can form words. "Stop it! Stop it! You're killing me!" she says to her father. She is not delirious and clearly seems to know where she is and what she is doing. The simple act of opening her mouth takes on a kind of terrifying significance it might not otherwise, based upon the girl's reaction. On a second reading, the reader may wonder if there is something about the doctor's manner that is off-putting.

While it may seem like an overstatement to call the probing a 'rape,' it is not insignificant that Williams chooses an attractive female child as the protagonist, rather than a male child. There is also a complicated history of how doctors, usually males, have treated women patients, often dismissing their concerns or using their position of power to administer unacceptable treatments to make women compliant (like mother's little helper pills in the 1950s) or to control their sexuality. However, to complicate the reader's feelings about the action, the behavior of the doctor does seem necessary, even though he may inwardly feel excessively gleeful over triumphing over Mathilda. The language used to express his conquest is clearly sexual: "She fought, with clenched teeth, desperately! But now I also had grown furious -- at a child. I tried to hold myself down but I couldn't." The doctor seems to be acting in an out-of-control manner, just like the child, rather than feeling and behaving like a cool and distanced professional. He seems less and less concerned about her survival and more and more concerned about his own ego and determination to be correct.

There are hints that the doctor could behave differently, but he justifies his final, successful action in prying open the child's mouth with a spoon as warranted because she could die, just like many of her schoolmates. The reader is simultaneously relieved and horrified by the doctor's angry, overpowering actions. But because the reader sees the child through the doctor's perspective he or she is initially inclined to agree that the action was necessary, if not the intention behind the action. There are, after all, many instances in everyone's life where a child must be forcibly compelled to do something he or she does not want to do, such as going to bed on time or eating vegetables.