Passion in Peter Shaffer's Equus

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 always wanted to believe in something greater

than himself. He wants to be connected to a greater power and meaning.

As he tells Hester on page 82, "The finicky, critical husband looking

through is art books on mythical Greece. What worship has he ever

known? Real worship! Without worship you shrink, it's as simple as

that I shrank my own life." He is criticizing himself on not trying to

achieve that dream of passion he has always had. In this dream he

plays the high chief in the ritual. He is the most important person in

the ritual, signifying a psychiatrist. Slicing open children and

ripping out their intestines. This signifies taking out what makes a

person unique. This dream personifies what psychiatry is, its fitting

everyone into one mold, taking out their originality and destroying

their passion.

The next day he starts his investigation of Alan. Trying to piece

together his life to find out how he got to the breaking point. He

learns of the religion that Alan created around Equus. His mother had

brought him up to be very religious by reading to him from the bible

and Alan drew a connection between horses the Jesus. That was the

foundation for his religion. The picture of a horse had even replaced

a picture of J...

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...ther's

stories. The Chinkle Chankle in the horses' mouth was a reaction to

the memory of Trojan on the beach. All these things that Alan could

comprehend made sense in Equus. Dysart admits this on page 81 "I only

know that it's the core of his life. What else has he got? Many men

have less vital with their wives" Equus is the core of Alan's life,

and Dysart knows that. Equus is that heart of Alan's body. If the

heart is removed the body cannot continue to live.

Dysart was wrong to remove Equus from Alan. He was wrong to kill the

passions that he envied so much. All this for what? Normalcy. Dysart

did not heal Alan he ravaged him. In a world devoid of passion, it is

the most important thing one can have. Every day people go about their

ways passionless and now Alan joins them.

Work Cited

Shaffer, Peter. Equus. 1973. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.