Analysis of the Play Equus Essay

With its minimalistic set design, small cast, and a stage with nearly no lighting, Peter Shaffer’s play Equus relies heavily on a masterfully written script to spread its message with the audience. The play is â€Å"neither great theatre nor bad psychology, but it has elements of both† (Witham). With the assistance of the character Martin Dysart, a child psychologist, the play analyzes the parental, religious, and sexual reasoning behind the heinous act of a sick boy (Alan Strang) and calls for Dysart (along with the audience) to question and reevaluate their ideas of passion and freedom. While the discoveries occur slowly throughout the entirety of the play the largest impact comes from interaction with Alan’s parents, Dysart’s monologues, and the climactic scene of Act II. There is no denying that the interactions with and between a child’s parents have a large impact on shaping the child’s mind and morals and who that child will ultimately become (Shumaker & Heckel, 39). Sex and religion were crucial factors in Alan’s childhood development due in no small part to the incompatibility between his parents. His mother, a Christian from an upper class â€Å"horsey† family who married beneath her, shared religion and fanciful horse stories with her son. His openly atheistic father refuses to allow his son’s religious worship explaining his own views of Christianity as â€Å"just bad sex (Equus, Location 530)†. He further implies connections between religion and sexual desire when he reports to Dysart his observations of Alan: â€Å"A boy spends night after night having this stuff read into him: an innocent man tortured to death- thorns driven into his head-nails into his hands-a spear jammed through his ribs. It can mark anyone for life, that kind of thing. I’m not joking. The boy was absolutely fascinated by all that. He was always mooning over religious pictures. I mean real kinky ones, if you receive my meaning. (Equus, Location 530)†. When his religious â€Å"fixation† was blocked, it forced Alan to transfer his â€Å"’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 horse’s head, is the most probably catalyst that began Alan’s strange pagan-like worship of the Horse-God Equus. As strange and twisted as Alan’s worship of horses may have seemed, Dysart could not deny the raw passion behind it-a passion he both greatly lacked and envied. In the process of understanding Alan, Dysart is forced to make a painful discovery of his self. He is stuck in a lifeless, childless marriage of â€Å"antiseptic proficiency†, â€Å"sustained only by his fascination with Ancient Greek mythology (Rooney)†. He is made aware 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 ritual to bring good fortune to the land, with every child he begins to feel more nauseous and worried that he may be discovered. He saw Alan’s face on every victim (Equus, Location 290). One could simply deem this a nightmare and be done with it but in truth it brings to light Dysart’s 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 draw from Alan what happened the night he blinded the horses. After a failed attempt to see a pornographic movie together Alan and Jill (one of the stable hands) returned to the stable for a â€Å"roll in the hay† at Jill’s request. Feeling the eyes of Equus upon him, Alan is unable to perform. He can see and feel nothing but Equus: â€Å"When I touched her, I felt Him†¦ When I shut my eyes, I saw Him at once†¦I couldn’t feel her flesh at all! (Equus, Location 2300)†. The ultimately unsuccessful attempt at a normal relationship with a girl 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: â€Å"I see you. Always! Everywhere! Forever! Kiss anyone and I will see. Lie with anyone and I will see. And you will fail! (Equus, Location 2346)†. Unable to stand it anymore, Alan takes the hoof pick and stabs out the horses’ eyes with a final cry of â€Å"Thou-God-Seest-nothing  ! (Equus, Location 2364†). In his final speech, Dysart tells that he will â€Å"cure† the boy and erase all traces of Equus from his mind. He will remove Alan’s pain and give him a â€Å"normal† life. In his farewell to Alan he shows at just how high a cost normalcy comes: â€Å"You won’t gallop any more, Alan. Horses will be quite safe. You’ll save your pennies every week, till you can change that scooter for a car, and put the odd 50p on the gee-gees, quite forgetting that they were ever anything more to you than bearers of little profits 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 healer 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 such 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 entire situation could have been avoided had Alan’s parents allowed him to decide rather than forcing their contrasting views on him. We can make do one way or we can thrive another.