Themes and Meanings
Although Equus ends with Dysart believing that he can make Alan normal, he also paradoxically believes that to be normal is to be spiritually dead, unoriginal, and homogeneously predictable. This latter belief is a source of great tension in the play, and Dysart’s struggle between his personal conviction and his professional duty allows Peter Shaffer to explore his central concern: the ways human life is shaped by spiritual belief, as well as the extent to which it can or should be shaped by such belief. Indeed, Dysart’s life becomes profoundly complicated when, in the process of uncovering the reasons Alan blinded the horses, he discovers that he envies Alan’s passion and religious fervor.
At the play’s beginning, Dysart tells the audience that he is “reined up in old language and old assumptions, straining to jump clean-hoofed on to a whole new track of being I only suspect is there.” He doubts the worth of what he does professionally (he is experiencing, he says, “professional menopause”), and he leads a boring life without passion or spiritual engagement of any kind. His longstanding and childless marriage to a dentist is one of mutual convenience and a shared domicile. His wife finds “repulsive” his abiding interest in ancient Greece, its art and religion, and he wishes he had one “instinctive, absolutely unbrisk person” with whom he could share Greece and “stand in front of certain shrines and sacred streams and say ‘Look! Life is only comprehensible through a thousand local Gods.’ And not just the old dead ones . . . no, but living Geniuses of Place and Person! And not just Greece but modern England!” While Dysart prides himself on his knowledge of ancient gods, he is—despite his high-sounding rhetoric—exactly what he calls his wife: worshipless.
Dysart does, nevertheless, serve a god—the “murderous God of Health” and normality. He regrets having—as a “priest” of his society—“cut” from children “parts of individuality repugnant to this God.” Alan’s god Equus, as well as the boy’s intensely passionate religiosity, shatters Dysart’s static complacency over the habitual shaping of young psyches; the doctor imagines the equine god saying, “Account for me. . . . First account for Me!” By example, Alan exposes Dysart to his own spiritual vacuity; he exposes him as being Barabbas-like in the realm of the human spirit. Dysart believes there is nothing “worse one can do to anybody than take away their worship,” but professionally he does exactly that. He exposes him, in short, to the blatant and apparently inescapable hypocrisy of his life. Alan “has known a passion more ferocious than I have felt in any second of my life,” Dysart says near the play’s end. “And let me tell you something: I envy it.” The similarities between what Alan does to the horses and what was done to Christ physically are rendered as a provocative motif in Equus; nevertheless, the similarities drawn ironically between Dysart and Alan are even more unnerving in their implications: Dysart describes himself as standing “in the dark with a pick in my hand, striking at heads!”
Themes
Last Updated September 17, 2024.
FreedomEquus delves into an ethical gray area, examining the clash between two notions of what is right. The individual's freedom to act as they wish must always be weighed against society's need to restrict this freedom when someone's actions harm others. This is clearly evident in Alan’s disturbing crime; society's primary concern here is to either incarcerate Alan or treat his psychological issues to prevent future harm. Dysart understands that he can't permit Alan to act solely on his impulses, yet...
(This entire section contains 1009 words.)
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he is hesitant to administer a treatment that might suppress or extinguish the boy's creativity and passion. The doctor also fears that the force behind Alan’s actions might be more instinctual than a mere psychological issue. He worries that stifling these impulses could strip Alan of his identity. Nonetheless, society's broader concerns take precedence; if Alan's actions go unchecked, they will ultimately impede the freedom and happiness of others.
God and Religion
Religion is a central theme in Equus and has been a significant element
throughout Shaffer’s career. Shaffer is intrigued by the human need to believe
in a deity and to find a fitting form of worship. In this play, the main
theological contrast is between Christianity and paganism (represented by a
horse-god). Alan was raised in the Christian faith by his mother, but the
gruesome stories of Christ’s crucifixion disturbed him. He invents his own
religion, redirecting Christian beliefs and rituals into the worship of the god
Equus, a horse figure that he finds more comforting than the bloodied
Jesus. Dr. Dysart, with his love for classical culture, draws parallels between
Alan’s beliefs and the ancient, pagan Greek society, which is often seen as
highly influential to Western civilizations (Greek culture embraced multiple
gods who were believed to influence various aspects of life; they developed a
system of arts and governance that is frequently cited as a model for modern
society). Dysart intellectually understands (and begins to genuinely feel)
that, as he says, "life is only comprehensible through a thousand local
gods."
Growth and Development
Horse imagery plays a crucial role in Alan's growth. The play is filled with
horse symbols, fitting for a figure with significant historical and cultural
ties. Dora Strang recalls how young Alan was captivated by a historical fact
about the Americas' conquest: when Christian cavalry arrived, the indigenous
people often saw horse and rider as one entity, a god-like four-legged
creature. This story profoundly shapes Alan's personal mythology of
Equus. As he grows and begins his naked midnight rides, this mythos
takes on sexual elements as well. This is vividly shown in the final scene of
Act One, where Alan, in a near sexual/religious ecstasy, rides the horse,
shouting, "Bear me away! Make us One Person!"
Other interactions with horse imagery and real horses also significantly impact Alan's development. These include the storybook his mother repeatedly read to him, the peculiar photograph of a horse that replaced the crucifixion portrait, and the traumatic incident when his father pulled him from a horse after an exhilarating beach ride. Horses' cultural associations—their speed, strength, and noble presence—make it believable to a modern audience that a boy could find divinity in the equine image.
Memory and ReminiscenceEquus employs reminiscence—the reenactment of past scenes—to create its dramatic structure. Memory, especially repressed memory that needs to be uncovered, is also a key theme in the play. Following a classic Freudian model, Alan has buried certain memories in his subconscious, leading to nightmares and other mental disturbances. Dr. Dysart uses techniques like hypnosis and a placebo "truth drug" to lower Alan's psychological defenses, allowing these suppressed memories to emerge, where they can be addressed and treated. This results in abreaction, a release of psychic pain, which manifests as theatrical performance and provides an expressionistic climax to each act (Alan on one of his midnight rides at the end of Act One; his recollection of blinding the horses near the end of Act Two).
Sanity and Insanity
Much like the theme of religion, the concept of sanity versus insanity is
explored on multiple levels throughout the play. Dysart is faced with a young
boy who is psychologically disturbed, has committed an act of violence deemed
insane by society, and whose suffering could be alleviated through treatment.
The drama of the play unfolds as Dysart successfully uncovers Alan's suppressed
memories, leading to the suggestion that Dysart might be able to cure Alan's
anguish. However, as he treats Alan, Dysart starts to question these labels of
sanity and insanity, seeing them as social constructs that seem stable but
actually vary greatly over time and across different cultures. Dysart fears
that by curing Alan and making him 'sane' in a socially accepted way, he might
strip Alan of a profound passion for life—a passion that Dysart himself
secretly envies.
Sex
Sex and religion are likely the two most significant and interwoven themes in
the play. Both play crucial roles in Alan’s childhood development, where he
transfers what society considers "normal" forms of sex and worship onto his
pagan, horse-centered religion. The play suggests sexual undertones in many of
Alan's childhood experiences. Frank Strang’s remark that Christianity is "just
bad sex" to him, and his description of a particularly graphic depiction of
Christ’s crucifixion as "kinky," indicate a link between sexual desire and
religious ecstasy that Frank may have imparted to Alan during his youth. Alan’s
ride with the Horseman is also imbued with sexual undertones, a pleasure he
tries to replicate during his naked, midnight rides with Equus.
Essentially, Alan has turned a masturbatory act into a religious ritual. At the
climax of the play, Alan becomes confused when he feels sexually aroused by
Jill Mason, leading to intense shame due to his perceived "infidelity" in front
of Equus and his failure to engage in intercourse with Jill. Therefore,
sex is a major influence on Alan’s development and is central to the violent
act that sets the play’s dramatic events into motion.