Equus By Peter Shaffer

In both, Equus, By Peter Shaffer, and Bacchae, By Euripides, there were many differences that were displayed. In Addition, to both having different endings and different ways of teaching a lesson to the audience. One play being about a boy and his obsession with horses and trying to get cured and the other play dealing with the gods to represent varies aspects of human personalities. In Equus, By Peter Shaffer, Equus argues that normal is not always ideal, and that madness is constructed by society

You’re mine! I am yours and you are mine… I see you. Always! Everywhere! Forever!” (Shaffer, pg. 105). Equus is his God, therefore when Alan is about to commit a sin he knows Equus will be disappointed and jealous. He was conscious of this, so in order to prevent the disappointment from happening, he blinded the horses so they would not watch him any longer. Alan being conscious of

Equus by Peter Shaffer: A Critical Analysis Equus was written by Peter Shaffer in the 1970s, a time for great change in both culture and the field of psychiatry. In his play, Shaffer explores the conflict between social responsibility and individual desire, and the difficulty of finding a balance between the two. The playwright contrasts the characters Martin Dysart, an unsatisfied child psychiatrist, and Alan Strang, his seventeen year old patient, to explore the two extremes of the spectrum of

One definition, the most common one, says that passion is a “strong and barely controllable emotion.” However when you look right below it there is another definition that reads, passion is “the suffering and death of Jesus.” In the play Equus by Peter Shaffer, you see how intertwined the ideas of passion, worship and religion are. A schizophrenic 17 year old boy named Alan lives his life in the grey area between these two definitions and ultimately combines them to make one. Dysart, a psychologist

and individual desire? In the 1973 play, Equus by Peter Shaffer uses the literary techniques of contrasting characterisation to explore the conflict between social responsibility and individual desire. The play was written in a time of great change and Shaffer explores the universal issue of breaking societal bounds. Shaffer contrasts psychologist, Dysart, and patient, Alan, to question the boundaries of social responsibility and individual desire. Shaffer creates symbols in an attempt explore the

In the play, Equus, by Peter Shaffer, Dysart speaks to “both the large in the theatre and the smaller one on stage”about his concerns. There the concerns that he addresses are that he feels as if he is “lost” and cannot reach his goals, like a “bit forbids it, and [his] own basic force…is too little” to overcome it.(18) Dysart is a commendable psychiatrist who works in a psychiatric hospital, and he is not completely . Dysarts initial speech has several effects such a establishing Dysart as a character

Through the incorporation of figurative language in both Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and Equus by Peter Shaffer, they set the characters in isolation during the experience of hiding emotions and focusing on other’s needs in order for the undergoing of self-discovery and peace within self. Therefore analyzing the behavior that occurs during the process and the aftermath of their seclusion will determine the success of their accomplishment with the breakthrough of peace. When comparing the two texts

the beginning of ‘Equus’ one considers the character of Martin Dysart to be normal as he rarely strays outside of societies boundaries. However, as we move through the play one discovers there is much more to Martin Dysart than once thought. In reality the themes dealt with in ‘Equus’ challenges our own sense of what is normal. They are as equally as shocking to Dysart, yet made justifiable by Alan Strang’s worship for Equus, the god of horses. This is why ‘Peter Shaffer’ uses ‘Equus’ as a sort of device

“The Good Smile in a Child’s Eye”: The Threat of Normalization in Peter Shaffer’s Equus The analysis of Equus by Peter Shaffer reveals one challenge facing mankind: the effect maturation has on normalcy. Shaffer states in his novel that, "The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eyes” but also as “the dead stare in a million adults” (Shaffer 62). Maturation plagues the eyes of the youth with the normalcy of adulthood. As aging occurs, desires are stigmatized by normalcy. Alan challenges the ideas

Alfred Hitchcock in the film Psycho and Peter Shaffer in his stage production Equus both explore the true nightmares that manifest from sexual and emotional repression. The writers emphasise the motives and the reason for the characters actions opposed to how the causations of this repression occurred. Conversely, both works draw on the common theme of the disturbed human psyche, offering a critical perspective on the upbringing of each individual with regards to their early development, each characters

Peter Shaffer and Franz Kafka, the authors of Equus and Metamorphosis, reveal through their main characters’ struggles how society’s oppression causes a loss of identity. This oppression is caused by society’s obsession with what it believes to be normal and how society’s beliefs drive it to conform those who don’t fit its normal image. The two authors use their characters to symbolize the different views and judgments of society. And based on these judgments, the authors use two different types

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

Copyrighted in 1973, Equus by Peter Shaffer, authenticity is a main topic throughout the play and production in all setting, character and between dialogues. In existentialism; for one to live in an authentic life, the individual has to choose the distinction between the right and the wrong and must not make excuses in the outcome of their actions. Not only this, but in relation to John Fowles’s interview, an existential hero is considered one of “the Few” who are described to be “the good, the intelligent

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

Peter Shaffer’s Equus and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho explore Freud’s psychological theory that suggests unexpressed emotions will remain buried alive until they are brought forth in malevolent ways. The main characters of both texts have unusual relationships with their parents that influence them to develop a twisted view of ‘normality’. The unsightly acts displayed in Equus and Psycho reflects the protagonists’ inability to resolve conflict from childhood fixations thus driving them into a state