In Peter Shaffer's Equus, A psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, is conducting an investigation on Alan Strang. He is learning, through his investigation of Alan's horrific crime, about what it really means to make someone "normal" and what a psychiatrist really does. It is the job of Dysart to find the motive of Alan's actions, but he is not prepared for what he learns. After meeting Alan, Dysart has a dream. This dream is of a ritual sacrifice in Greece. Dysart's passion lies in Greece. He has
Humans in the past and present have always strived to blend into their societies and uphold the appearance of normalcy. However, in Act I of his play Equus, Peter Shaffer explores normalcy both the upsides and downsides of normalcy. While Doctor Dysart examines the disturbed child of Alan Strang, Dysart reflects on the detrimental side effects of being normal and his own duties as a doctor. In Dysart’s monologue (Shaffer 62), Shaffer utilizes contrasting diction and antithesis between the good and
In the play “Equus”, written by Peter Shaffer, a guy named Alan creates his own god and worships it passionately. Dysart a psychiatrist who lives a life without worship and commitment becomes fascinated and envious of Alan. By living through the treatment of Alan, Dysart realizes he is able to have passion and commitment in his own life. Peter Shaffer is able to gradually show Dysart’s awakening throughout the play with a sense of excitement, suspense, and climax through Alan Strang’s treatment.
insignificance presented is accidental. Both Peter Shaffer’s Equus and Albert Camus’ The Stranger approach different ways in presenting the truths of Alan Strang and Meursault to the audience/jury, but one thing remains clear; intentional or unintentional manipulation of these characters leads to the eternal distrust of the reliability of their presenters, Martin Dysart and the members of the law. Through Dysart’s self-diagnosis given throughout Equus, Shaffer directly conflicts with where focus of the story
Albert Camus’ The Stranger and Peter Shaffer’s “Equus” reveal the degenerative effects of religion on society through a negative portrayal of characters’ relationships with religion. Both introduce religion as a means of releasing welled up human emotions and as an optimistic distraction from the realities of life. However, both criticize religion as being dangerous to one’s mental stability as well as to society as a whole. Camus and Shaffer each communicate this message through their respective
Equus is as complex as the human mind. Exploring psychological questions such as what does it mean to be normal, and should individuality be sacrificed for the sake of normality? Whilst propelling a mystery, crime story, and a psychological thriller, Peter Shaffer’s Equus examines the minds of a young stable boy who has blinded several horses and the aging psychiatrist asked to “cure” him. But would a “cure” really normalize the teenager? A seventeen year old boy, Alan is brought to a psychiatric
another human leads to the next generation, passion for life is what makes each of us get up every morning. However, an extraordinary amount of passion can lead people to rash decisions and actions, which is exactly what happens in Peter Shaffer's play, Equus. Passion of this amount, when expressed, is usually known as insanity, or madness. When first introduced to Shaffer's bo...
Peter Shaffer’s play “Equus” reads like a true tragedy blending religion and adolescence while questioning society’s “civilized norms”. Although Alan Strang seemingly suffers the most throughout the story, the true tragic figure in the play is Dysart, Alan’s psychiatrist. Dysart is forced to question everything that he previously accepted and his whole life is thrown out the window upon meeting Alan. Both Arthur Miller’s definition of a tragic figure and the traditional definition provided by Aristotle
deceives some people into thinking that the one genus was somehow the target of all the evolution. Instead, that one genus is merely the last surviving branch of a once mighty and sprawling bush. Tracing a line of descent from Hyracotherium to Equus reveals several apparent trends: reduction of toe number, increase in size of cheek teeth, lengthening of the face, and increase in body size. But these trends are not seen in all of the horse lines. On the whole, horses got larger, bu...
symbolism in his play ‘Equus’. Shaffer uses foreshadowing to discreetly point out events that are yet to happen and uses symbolism to convey subtle messages in the play to elaborate on the ideas he wishes to portray. The author suggests that the value of individual desire can be affected by society. The author creates the arguable question of whether one should be ‘normal’ towards society’s standards or to have the freedom
Equus is a play which was written by Peter Shaffer in 1973. The play won many awards for its controversial topics and revolutionary performance. During the time of the plays publication, consumerism was on the rise, causing what Shaffer referred to as a “worshipless” life. In Equus contrasting points of view around worship are utilized to demonstrate the effect of worship on the individual’s life. Alan is a 17-year-old boy who worships horses instead of God. Religion plays a strong role in Alan’s
Equus {What techniques does the author of a prescribed text use to explore the conflict between social responsibility and individual desire?} In our highly commercialized world, the continual choice between completing social responsibilities and succumbing to individual desires increasingly demands our attention. In 1973, when this dilemma was first coming into the front of social consciousness, playwright Peter Shaffer wrote the play Equus to explore this theme. To investigate this familiar battle
The Horse also known as the “Equus Caballus”, has had many meanings over the years. People today believe that horses are only meant to be pets or live on farms. Horses have been around for 55 million years and have been involved in some of this world’s most famous history. Did you know that horses could be used for many broad things in everyday life? For example, have you ever been to New York City and you seen a carriage being pulled by a horse while you were walking down the street? Or have
In the play Equus by Peter Shaffer, a focus is drawn to distraught seventeen-year-old Alan Strang. Alan has a limited education and very few friends; he works at a store on weekdays and at a riding stable on weekends. He had a distant relationship to his atheist father; they did not really get along well. He also grew up under the strong influence of his Christian mother, who only wanted Alan to be happy. Alan’s early religious background has strongly influenced his current religious beliefs; his
In the play Equus worship and passion are seen in many contrasting lights. In the example of Alan, the boy in the centre of the play, worship and passion are the same thing. What he is devoted to inspires excitement in him, in this case the God Equus. With his parents, it is the same, but in different ways of worship. Alan’s mother is a devout Catholic, and also has worship with a passion, but she is so devoted to this single cause she is unable to experience passion for anything else. With
Equus is a play written by Peter Shaffer in 1973. It tells the story of a psychiatrist called Dysart who is trying to help Alan Strang, a young teenager who has established that horses are his main religion. Equus explores different themes who are relatable to all of us as human beings. One of those themes is suffering, condensed in the following quotation; “Look...to go through life and call it yours - your life - you first have to get your own pain”. We need to understand our individual pain in
Personal judgment in Peter Shaffer’s Equus and Albert Camus’ The Stranger, though internal in the first and external in the latter, mirrors society’s judgment of those who differ from the norm. The two postmodernist authors both use judgment as a tool to promote the postmodern idea that society oppresses and criticizes people who are not like everyone else. Camus and Shaffer place specific motifs and elements into their novels in order to push the idea of societal judgment on the reader. However
In Camus’ The Stranger and Shaffer's’ Equus, the main Characters Meursault and Alan both can be classified as insane. Both authors show contrasting characters in the area of religion. While Alan believes in a higher power and does rituals, Meursault has no connection with a higher power and doesn’t have the intentions too. Although Meursault and Alan contrast in the area of religion they both can be seen as insane. Their actions display a behavior that isn’t normal for the average human being. Insanity
In Equus, by Peter Shaffer, and The Stranger, by Albert Camus, both protagonists’ personal family relations produced from overprotection and abandonment result in the disconnection of the primary care givers. In Equus Alan’s parents shelter him from the wrongs of the outside world, which creates an unavoidable obstacle between Alan and his parents. In The Stranger, Meursault’s unloving attitude towards his mother develops the sense of resentment from his childhood. In comparing both novels the
Through psychological realism in Equus and The Stranger, Peter Shaffer and Albert Camus alienate both characters to show the power of religion through their perceived personal realities. Through the setting, Shaffer emphasizes Alan’s accepted reality. Worshipping a horse in your room seems very insane to most people, but to Alan it changes his life. This quote needs to be incorporated. “I look through the door, and he was standing in the moonlight in his pajamas, right in front of that big photograph…