The Use of Force

I thought The Use of Force was a rather eerie piece. A part of the dark atmosphere, besides the topic of disease, is  how Williams use of no quotation marks in the dialogue makes the point of view of the doctor seem much more real, almost like a sort of stream of consciousness style of prose. It also makes it feel like the parents and their daughter are merely tokens in the doctor's eyes, a "Just another job" type of attitude. Williams' structure in this short story also ties in to the plot arc idea we touched on in our last class. He invents the setting in the beginning, followed by the conflict (sick daughter), the rising action (her struggle), and the climax (the doctor being forceful). His gradual escalation of the parents and doctor growing impatient was perfectly executed in my opinion. I thought Williams did a really great job of painting a portrait of the setting. The only thing I would critique is that the daughter's age is rather ambiguous, and I can't tell whether or not she's not talking because of her ailment, her age, or just her overall disregard for the doctor. Williams almost makes the daughter character seem feral to some extent, or at least that's how I read it. I think this story is a great mold that we can look on in terms of crafting a setting (the house), and how it's better to show, not tell, and to have characters move and have action, as opposed to just merely stating what's happening. The gradual rise to frustration with the daughter can also be looked at for writers  as a means of giving a conflict substance, and developing on that conflict to reach a climax.