Substituting Pain for Passion in Peter Shaffer’s Equus

700 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Mental illness and oppression in literature

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 hospital because he has blinded six horses with a hoof pick. Dysart, a psychiatrist, works to “normalize” the boy, feeling that as he makes the boy “safe” for society, he is taking away his worship and sexual vitality, both of which are missing in the doctors own personal life. Dysart actually envies Alan and the sexual worship he has experienced. In spite of his own hang-ups, the doctor does help the boy work through his obsession, in which he identifies the horse Equus with God.

Shaffer is expressing to his audience that taking away the atypical aspects of this boy would take away part of the person he is, part of the character he has developed and most important, the God he worships.

When Equus leaves - if he lives at all - it will be with

your intestines in his teeth...I’ll give him the good, normal

world...and give him normal places for his ecstasy...

Passion, you see, can be destroyed by a doctor it cannot

be cr...

Show More
Related

  • Stephen King Why We Crave Horror Movies Essay

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ing horror movies. Stephen King’s “Why We Crave Horror Movies” is a well written essay with convincing analogies, comparisons, and urban humor. With the use of logos, ethos and pathos in unison he easily wins his argument persuading his audience to believe his thesis, convincing normal people they are mentally ill. Kings argument convinces his readers not only that mental illness lies within us all, but that without horror movies we wouldn’t have a way to fix our mental state. If sanity is being normal, and insanity is madness, then how is it that being normal is watching insanity repeatedly?

    Read More

  • Suffering and Struggle in Sonny´s Blues by James Baldwin

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story opens with a crisis in their relationship. The narrator reads in the newspaper that Sonny has been taken up in a drug raid. He learns that Sonny is addicted to heroin “horse,” and that he will be sent to a treatment facility to be "cured." Unable to believe that his once gentle and quiet brother could have so abused himself:

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Film Madness: A History

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    The film gives a historical overview of how the mentally ill have been treated throughout history and chronicles the advancements and missteps the medical community has made along the way. Whittaker recounts the history of psychiatric treatment in America until 1950, he then moves on to describe the use of antipsychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia. He critically summarizes that it is doctors, rather than the patients, who have always calculated the evaluation of the merits of medical treatment, as the “mad” continue to be dismissed as unreliable witnesses. When in fact it is the patient being treated, and their subjective experience, that should be foremost in the evaluation. The film backs up this analysis with interviews of people, living viable lives in the town of Geel, Belgium. I would recommend this film to anyone interested in the history of medicine and specifically to those examining mental illness. It provides a balanced recounting of historical approaches to mental illness, along with success stories of the people of Geel, Belgium. And although I had to look away during the viewing of a lobotomy procedure, I give credit to the power of the visual impact the footage

    Read More

  • The Monstrosity Within

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...usion, we find that from this essay we have a better understanding of why Stephen King believes all of us are mentally ill in some way, just maybe not to as high a degree as “Jack the ripper”. That we all enjoy the hunt either on the big screen or in a field, it’s part of our primal instincts. We see that humans crave things they are not supposed to and that’s ok as long as you are letting those emotions out in a healthy way. Stephen King has done a brilliant job of carrying out his thesis in this essay proving his theory that we are all mentally ill. We all need some way to release the dark feelings within us, we have all known this for many years, and movies seem to be the most current form of treatment. So treat yourself to a horror movie if you dare its great therapy.

    Read More

  • Elyn Saks: Heroic Triumph Over Schizophrenia

    1366 Words  | 3 Pages

    The two texts emphasized in this essay include Elyn R. Saks’ The Center Cannot Hold : My Journey Through Madness and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. “There were many days when I believed I was nothing more than the Lady of Charts - a crazy woman who’d faked her way into a teaching job and would soon be discovered for what she really was and put where she really belonged - in a mental hospital” (Saks 263). Saks entire life was a struggle because of the mental illness she had since a young age, schizophrenia. Most of her younger years were lived being misunderstood by her parents and peers alike. She turned to options like substance abuse and self harm to cope with her deteriorating situation in life. There came a point where she realized that she was better than her illness and was able to overcome it with the help and guidance of a few mentors. Now, Saks is a very successful assistant dean, as well as a professor of law, psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School. Saks also went on to receive the award for MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and write her book. Joseph Campbell was also very successful in the same way because he wrote a book that is very complex and still relevant in this day and age. Campbell made the mold and Saks’ life fits it

    Read More

  • In the Fall, by Alistair Macleod

    1297 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Mother is among a family of four who lives on a small farm and takes immense pride in what interests her, however her passion does not particularly lie in her two children; James and David; nor in her husband and their interests; but instead lies within her chickens. Though chickens bring the most joy to the Mother, they are not the sole animals that live on the farm. The animal that draws the most interest from the father, James and David is their horse, Scott. At a young age, Scott was used as a working mule for the family and grew up alongside the Father and two Sons. To the father, Scott was like one of his own sons, and to James and David, Scott was like their brother; but according to the Mother, “He’s been worthless these last few years”(Macleod, 267). Ever since Scott was young, he was a burden on the Mother’s lifestyle; she never took a liking to the horse even when he served as a source of profit for the family. The Mother had never appreciated the sentimental value that Scott possessed because he had never been a particular interest to her. Once Scott had aged and was no longer able...

    Read More

  • The Strange Case by Robert Louis Stevenson

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    The functioning of the average human mind has intrigued and plagued philosophers and thinkers over centuries, one of the most curious and fascinating studies have been made into personages with dual personalities, schizophrenia being one of the factors. Similarly, in the book, The Strange Case, as well as in the film, Psycho, the books are taken place in late Victorian London, but Psycho is in late 60’s in the USA. The respective authors in these two texts portray that duality of human nature exists in society and humanity through the use of characterization and setting.

    Read More

  • The Standard for Insanity

    1502 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since Pat Barker's Regeneration is set in a mental hospital, it seems fitting that questions about mental disease and the definition of sanity should be raised. At the very start of the book, Rivers and Bryce are discussing the case of Siegfreid Sassoon, a dissenting officer of the British army. As they discuss his diagnosis of "neurasthenia," Barker is laying the groundwork for one of Regeneration's many themes: no one is completely qualified to judge the sane from the insane, for insanity finds its way into us all. The ambiguity surrounding the definition and treatment of neurasthenia offers just a glimpse into the ever-changing and highly subjective world of mental evaluation.

    Read More

  • Salvation

    1456 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...fighting his feelings about not seeing Jesus. He feels that he is lying to God and himself by getting up and being saved even though he cannot see Jesus. Even though the reader knows that he truly is being saved from sin. He is doing something good for himself. Therefore, we can see that he truly does not understand the meaning of God. He is a child on the verge of adulthood. He has every right to be confused and misinterpret religion because he is learning. Religion is metaphorical and imaginative; it is what you believe it to be.

    Read More

  • The Stranger by Albert Camus

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...able option. Camus’s main character, Meursault, embodies this third option; by accepting his circumstances and being indifferent to them, Meursault is able to break free of all possible causes of anxiety and find happiness. Furthermore, Meursault’s rejection of religion as belief, his acceptance of the “benign indifference of the universe”, and his acceptance of his circumstances all leading to happiness personifies Camus’s take on Absurdism, the philosophy that Camus is trying to depict in The Stranger (76). By using foil characters to contrast Meursault in actions or personality, Camus creates several polarizing situations, making Meursault the extreme epitome of Absurdism in every contrasting relationship and thus, shining light on his ideology in the process.

    Read More

  • Dissociative Identity Disorder

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...scover each of their personality states. To work through the aftermath of traumatic memories, achieve greater self-acceptance, and reduce self-damaging behavior (www.ISSD.com). Hypnosis may help a person control the spontaneous switching of personalities. Many people with this disorder suffer from depression and benefit from antidepressant medication such as Zoloft and Paxil.

    Read More

  • Dissociative Identity Disorder

    1290 Words  | 3 Pages

    My topic of choice for this research paper is Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID. This appellation is rather new; therefore, most are more familiar with the disorder's older, less technical name: Multiple Personality Disorder or MPD. When first presented with the task of selecting a topic on which to center this paper, I immediately dismissed Dissociative Identity Disorder (which for the sake of brevity will be referred to as DID for the remainder of this paper) as a viable topic due to the sheer scope of the disorder. However after an exhaustive examination of other prospective topics, I found myself back at my original choice. There are several reasons why I chose DID. The foremost of which is the widespread fascination of this disorder by many different types of people; most of whom otherwise have no interest in psychology or its associated fields. One would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t been captivated at one time or another by the extraordinary, all too well known symptoms of this disorder. This fascination… dare I say ‘allure’ to this disorder is exemplified by the myriad of motion pictures that have been produced based on cases, real or fictitious, of DID. Another reason for my choice is what I feel is the insufficiency of effective treatments for DID. Despite what is known about this disorder, (which is relatively a lot) there are only two chief treatments for DID; the first and most prevalent is psychotherapy; also known as ”talk therapy”, the second is medication. The third and final reason for my choice is my own enchantment with DID. I must admit that ever since I read about Sue Tinker, a woman who was diagnosed with over 200 different personalities. In writing this paper I hope to discover more about this disorder and perhaps be able to identify a few areas that I feel might require more research on the part of psychologists specializing in DID.

    Read More

  • Themes in James Joyce's Araby

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the story, the boy went through a variety of changes that will pose as different themes of the story including alienation, transformation, and the meaning of religion. The themes of this story are important to show the growth of the young boy into a man. Without alienation, he wouldn't have understand the complexity of his feelings and learned to accept faults. With transformation, he would have continued his boyish games and wouldn't be able to grow as a person and adolescence. And finally, without understanding the religious aspects of his life, he would go on pretending he is somebody that he's not. He wouldn't understand that there is inconsistency between the real and ideal life (Brooks et al.).

    Read More

  • Multiple Personality Disorder Case Study

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the course of the evolution of Psychology, there has been countless theories involving personality. The focus started off as how personality came to be and during what stages of the human life the self becomes fully self realized. As personality theories came to popularize, it became easier to understand certain phenomenon’s that were often seen as demonic possessions or gender biases. However, even with all the psychological advances we’ve made with personality disorders, there are still a few that have very little research behind them. These disorders are typically multiple personality disorder, especially Dissociative Identity Disorder. It’s become an interesting field to study and explore, but because it is so difficult

    Read More

  • Mental State In Hamlet

    1402 Words  | 3 Pages

    In William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, Charlotte Gilman 's “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and Ken Kesey 's One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest, the poor treatment of primary characters labeled insane by secondary characters results in the deterioration of the primary characters mental state. All three of these works take place in a time where mental instability is frowned upon. The way in which society views those with mental instabilities influences the view and treatment of the mentally unstable by the people around them.

    Read More

More about Substituting Pain for Passion in Peter Shaffer’s Equus

Open Document