Connotative Language In The Use Of Force

In “The Use of Force” Williams shows us the variety of emotions felt by a doctor during a house call. Williams uses situational irony and connotative language to convey a conflict that he faces with diagnosing a child. Despite the fact that her parents and the doctor make and attempt to reason with the girl, she continues to defy them in their efforts to help her. Williams illustrates the true definition of what makes someone a hero. The fact that the doctor is determined to help the young girl, who makes every attempt to refuse help, may seem like simple task, but when the outcome could be death, the main character becomes to show true qualities of a doctor and hero. In a situation as this, it was important for the doctor to be persistent
“Look how kind he is to you…he won’t hurt you”, even the mother tried to say nice things about the doctor, but only made matters worse and made Mathilda builds up her defense even further. Many doctors know their boundaries and limitations when they are dealing with patients, but when it’s a life threating disease they have to do whatever they can to be able to make a diagnosis. Eventually the doctor gives up and tells the patients she has two options, open her mouth herself or he will. “ I had to do it. I had to have the throat culture for her own protection”(Williams 138). The doctor knew that this had to be done not just for the safety of Mathilda but also for the safety of others. Since the doctor had already seen two children die from diphtheria without treatment he didn’t want to see a third. “But I’ve seen two children lying dead the week of diphtheria because of neglect, I was not about to let that happen so it was diagnosed now or never” (Williams 1138) The doctor understands what the family is going through and he simply wants to help. It’s a known fact that doctors want to diagnosis patients in the most efficient and simplest way. Doctors don’t want to have to use force on their patients to figure out what is