In the play “Equus”, written by Peter Shaffer, a guy named Alan creates his own god and worships it passionately. Dysart a psychiatrist who lives a life without worship and commitment becomes fascinated and envious of Alan. By living through the treatment of Alan, Dysart realizes he is able to have passion and commitment in his own life. Peter Shaffer is able to gradually show Dysart’s awakening throughout the play with a sense of excitement, suspense, and climax through Alan Strang’s treatment.
Wesker, John Arden, and Peter Shaffer. Peter Levin and his twin brother Anthony were born to Jake Reka and Fredman Shaffer in Liverpool, England on May 15, 1926. Anthony is also a playwright, who’s play Sleuth (1970), has had more performances than all of his brother’s plays combined. Nevertheless, Anthony, who has pursued law, advertising, and television, has not yet embraced the stage as his chief vocation (Smith 452). In 1936 the Shaffer’s all moved to London. This is where Peter attended St. Paul’s
Critiquing Amadeus by Peter Shaffer I believe that there are two ways to critique Peter Shaffer's Amadeus. The first, and the easiest for me, is as an artistic work only. As an artistic endeavor, Amadeus is a triumph. Particularly stunning is F. Murray Abraham's performance as the tortured Court Composer Antonio Salieri. Abraham portrays a talented yet mediocre musician who, having revered God all his life, shows us clearly that "pride goeth before the fall". It is Salieri's greed
“The conflict between virtuous mediocrity and feckless genius took hold of my imagination” (“Shaffer, Peter 1926”). The quote by Shaffer himself, helps to explain the reasoning for his plays; both the good and the bad. Throughout the past few decades, Sir Peter Shaffer has brought numerous plays to the stage, with each challenging society to be open minded to change. Sir Peter Shaffer has forever impacted the theatre world by bringing topics such as sexual choices, religion, and family values to
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
and Untruth in Amadeus by Peter Shaffer The play “Amadeus” by Peter Shaffer was not written in order to be a biography of the great composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, much more than this, Peter Shaffer wrote it as a story, rather than a history. In his story he was free to insert fiction to make the play more interesting to a wide audience, as well as to fulfill his purposes. However, musicologists and historians have written several articles claiming that Peter Shaffer “trashed this immortal”.
attention. In 1973, when this dilemma was first coming into the front of social consciousness, playwright Peter Shaffer wrote the play Equus to explore this theme. To investigate this familiar battle and the consequences if either side prevails, the author uses symbolism as well as drawing a stark contrast between the characterisation between Dysart, a psychiatrist, and one of his patients, Alan. Shaffer invites the audience to consider both sides of this dilemma and encourages the conclusion that a middle
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 where focus of the
In Equus, by Peter Shaffer, and The Stranger, by Albert Camus, both protagonists’ personal family relations produced from overprotection and abandonment result in the disconnection of the primary care givers. In Equus Alan’s parents shelter him from the wrongs of the outside world, which creates an unavoidable obstacle between Alan and his parents. In The Stranger, Meursault’s unloving attitude towards his mother develops the sense of resentment from his childhood. In comparing both novels the
school, passion for another human leads to the next generation, passion for life is what makes each of us get up every morning. However, an extraordinary amount of passion can lead people to rash decisions and actions, which is exactly what happens in Peter Shaffer's play, Equus. Passion of this amount, when expressed, is usually known as insanity, or madness. When first introduced to Shaffer's bo...
strived to blend into their societies and uphold the appearance of normalcy. However, in Act I of his play Equus, Peter Shaffer explores normalcy both the upsides and downsides of normalcy. While Doctor Dysart examines the disturbed child of Alan Strang, Dysart reflects on the detrimental side effects of being normal and his own duties as a doctor. In Dysart’s monologue (Shaffer 62), Shaffer utilizes contrasting diction and antithesis between the good and bad sides of normalcy to emphasize Dysart’s conflict
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
Albert Camus’ The Stranger and Peter Shaffer’s “Equus” reveal the degenerative effects of religion on society through a negative portrayal of characters’ relationships with religion. Both introduce religion as a means of releasing welled up human emotions and as an optimistic distraction from the realities of life. However, both criticize religion as being dangerous to one’s mental stability as well as to society as a whole. Camus and Shaffer each communicate this message through their respective
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
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
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
Peter Shaffer’s play “Equus” reads like a true tragedy blending religion and adolescence while questioning society’s “civilized norms”. Although Alan Strang seemingly suffers the most throughout the story, the true tragic figure in the play is Dysart, Alan’s psychiatrist. Dysart is forced to question everything that he previously accepted and his whole life is thrown out the window upon meeting Alan. Both Arthur Miller’s definition of a tragic figure and the traditional definition provided by Aristotle
from grace due to his continuous sin. After his disappointing encounter with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Salieri comes to realize the true nature of his work and how, despite his virtuous life, he will never be as talented as his counterpart. Within Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus Salieri wages a war against God through His “believed” disciple, Mozart; after Salieri’s discontent he is quickly engulfed by the deadly sins of greed, lust & gluttony, and pride using them to prove that it is possible for Man’s
In the play Equus by Peter Shaffer, a focus is drawn to distraught seventeen-year-old Alan Strang. Alan has a limited education and very few friends; he works at a store on weekdays and at a riding stable on weekends. He had a distant relationship to his atheist father; they did not really get along well. He also grew up under the strong influence of his Christian mother, who only wanted Alan to be happy. Alan’s early religious background has strongly influenced his current religious beliefs; his
The play "Amadeus" is Mainly Concerned With the Destructive Nature of Jealousy This passage is all too true, both in Peter Shaffer's ‘Amadeus' and in life in general. However the play is also concerned with the destructive nature of ignorance and naivety. Salieri is jealous not just of Mozart's talent, but of the fact that God gave the talent to “Mozart … spiteful, sniggering, conceited, infantine Mozart”. He is envious of the vessel of God's laughter at the ‘patron saint of mediocrity' as he had