Isolated Characters in Peter Shaffer’s Equus and Albert Camus’s The Stranger

In Equus and The Stranger, authors Peter Shaffer and Albert Camus create an absence of passion and love for their characters of Dysart and Meursault through characterization and overall tone of the text, which creates isolated characters. Camus and Shaffer manipulate the characters relationships with women to prove the lack of love. The authors also demonstrate the lack of passion throughout the text, and later it confirms the overall affect it has on both of the characters lives, even though they end results are different.

Camus and Shaffer develop relationships with women that lack real love to show how the characters of Meursault and Dysart have no real affection in their lives. The relationships of the characters, when carefully observed are very different. Dysart has a loveless relationship with his wife. Throughout the play Dysart will mention his wife and explain how they have no affection towards each other, and how they never really had a relationship to begin with. He mentions, “We were brisk in our wooing, brisk in our wedding, brisk in our disappointment” (Shaffer, 57). Dysart tells the audience that, “My wife doesn’t understand me, Your Honour” (57), speaking to another female friend about his wife. Shaffer creates a sort of irritation in Dysart because he doesn’t have love from his spouse. At a one point he states, “I watch that woman knitting, night after night-a woman I haven’t kissed in six years…” (81). Shaffer creates this hopeless love because it increases the lack of passion felt by Dysart; it frustrates him to a level where he can’t really comprehend.

Meursault’s careless attitude affects the people around and his relationship with those characters. When he and Marie begin their romance, he doesn’t reall...

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... cries of hate.”(123). He believes that this will make his living worthwhile and that he will die a happy man if this is accomplished. In comparison to Dysart, Meursault chose lack of love and passion for himself and was content with it.

In the end, the readers of both the texts can see that there are similarities between the texts, yet the differences are also visible. In the texts, the authors create a lack of passion and love for their characters of Dysart and Meursault through characterization and overall tone of the text, which created isolated characters. This aids the readers of to better understand why the authors placed certain techniques throughout the texts and why they were important.

Works Cited

Camus, Albert. The Stranger. Trans. Matthew Ward. New York: Vintage International,

1988.

Shaffer, Peter. Equus. New York, Scribner, 1973.