Analysis of the Play Equus Essay

With its minimalistic set design, sm in all cast, and a tier with nearly no lighting, Peter Shaffers play Equus relies to a great extent on a masterfully written script to spread its center with the sense of hearing. The play is neither great theatre nor bad psychology, but it has elements of twain (Witham). With the assistance of the character Martin Dysart, a electric shaver psychologist, the play analyzes the parental, religious, and sexual cerebrate bunghole the heinous act of a sick boy (Alan Strang) and calls for Dysart (along with the audience) to headspring and reevaluate their ideas of passion and immunity.While the discoveries occur slowly throughout the total of the play the largest impact seminal fluids from interaction with Alans parents, Dysarts monologues, and the climactic view of Act II. There is no denying that the interactions with and between a childs parents have a large impact on shaping the childs mind and morals and who that child testament ultim ately plough (Shumaker & Heckel, 39). Sex and godliness were crucial factors in Alans childhood victimisation due in no small part to the incompatibility between his parents.His mother, a Christian from an upper class horsey family who married beneath her, shared religion and fanciful horse stories with her son. His openly atheistic father refuses to accept his sons religious idolize explaining his own views of Christianity as yet bad sex (Equus, localization 530). He further implies connections between religion and sexual desire when he reports to Dysart his observations of Alan A boy spends night afterwards night having this stuff read into him an innocent reality tortured to death- thorns goaded into his head-nails into his hands-a spear jammed through his ribs.It hatful mark anyone for life, that kind of thing. Im not joking. The boy was absolutely fascinated by all that. He was always mooning over religious pictures. I mean tangible kinky ones, if you receive my me aning. (Equus, hole 530). When his religious fixation was blocked, it forced Alan to remove his normal social views of sex and worship onto his pagan, equine religion (Busiel) . His having been denied the freedom of religion by his father and having his image of the crucifixion of Christ replaced with that of a horses head, is the most probably catalyst that began Alans unidentified pagan-like worship of the Horse-God Equus.As strange and twisted as Alans worship of horses may have fulfillmed, Dysart could not deny the raw passion behind it-a passion he both(prenominal) greatly lacked and envied. In the process of appreciation Alan, Dysart is forced to make a painful discovery of his self. He is stuck in a lifeless, childless marriage of antiseptic proficiency, sustained sole(prenominal) by his fascination with Ancient Greek mythology (Rooney). He is made apprised of his hunger to be someone instinctive, passionate, and capable of being transported by worship the way Alan is (Rooney).Dysart tells the audience of a dream he had where he was a chief priest in Homeric Greece sacrificing hundreds of children as a religious rite to bring good fortune to the land, with every child he begins to encounter more nauseous and worried that he may be discovered. He saw Alans face on every victim (Equus, Location 290). peerless could simply deem this a nightmare and be make with it but in truth it brings to light Dysarts fear that by curing Alan he will also be hurting him. One of the final, and arguably most powerful, scenes of the play unfolds as Dysart is finally able to establish from Alan what happened the night he blinded the horses.After a failed attempt to observe a pornographic movie together Alan and Jill (one of the stable hands) returned to the stable for a roll in the hay at Jills request. Feeling the look of Equus upon him, Alan is unable to perform. He can see and feel naught but Equus When I touched her, I felt Him When I shut my eyeball, I s aw Him at onceI couldnt feel her flesh at all (Equus, Location 2300). The ultimately scoreless attempt at a normal relationship with a fille causes Alan to feel not only the shame of having failed as a man but also shame from having desecrated his temple of horses. The horses staring eyes become unbearable.Alan and Dysart both become the voice of Equus, mocking and berating Alan both for his failure and for even attempting to escape from Equus eyes I see you. Always Everywhere Forever Kiss anyone and I will see. lie in with anyone and I will see. And you will fail (Equus, Location 2346). Unable to run it anymore, Alan takes the hoof pick and stabs out the horses eyes with a final let out of Thou-God-Seest-nothing (Equus, Location 2364). In his final speech, Dysart tells that he will cure the boy and erase all traces of Equus from his mind. He will remove Alans pain and give him a normal life.In his farewell to Alan he shows at just how high a cost normalcy comes You wint gallo p any more, Alan. Horses will be quite safe. Youll spell your pennies every week, till you can change that scooter for a car, and place the odd 50p on the gee-gees, quite forgetting that they were ever anything more to you than bearers of little win and little losses. You will, however, be without pain. More or less completely without pain. (Equus, Location 2433). Despite the consequences, Dysart finally accepts his assigned role as a therapist because all of the alternatives are unacceptable (Witham).In the end Equus leaves the audience with the question of whether satisfying the demands of those around us is worth losing important pieces of ourselves much(prenominal) as our passion and freedom in all its forms (religious, sexual, etc. ). True, Alan will be better once he is cured and Dysart may come to terms with his life and learn to appreciate what he has but the full(a) situation could have been avoided had Alans parents allowed him to decide rather than forcing their cont rasting views on him. We can make do one way or we can thrive another.