A Sharp Chain in the Mouth... Wider Reading (Drama) 10: Equus

When a deranged boy, Alan Strang, blinds six horses with a metal spike he is sentenced to psychiatric treatment. Dr Dysart is the man given the task of uncovering what happened the night Strang committed his crime, but in doing so will open up his own wounds. For Dysart struggles to define sanity, and justify his marriage, his career, and his life of normality; ultimately he must ask himself: is it patient of psychiatrist whose life is being laid bare? The most shocking play of its day, Equus uses an act of violence to explore faith, insanity, and how the materialism of modern life can destroy humanity's capacity for pain and passion.

In his play, Peter Shaffer explores many themes which can be related to the struggle for identity. The foremost of these is the struggle for religious identity experienced by Alan Strang. Alan and his family's relations are primarily influenced and disturbed by their very different points of view concerning religion and divinity. His mother is very religious, and effectively forces Alan to accept it by reading the Bible to him every night. In contrast, his father shuns religion. Alan himself subscribes to neither of these beliefs; his own occupy him far more. Indeed, many of his actions, including those concerning horses, resemble rites of passage.

While Alan's obsession with horses and "Equus" borders on the fanatically religious, a sexual element is also present. It seems that his worship of the equine is an attempt to placate his own muddled feelings, such as his inability to perform sexually with his girlfriend. This failed encounter in the stable is primarily what leads to his attack on the horses, blinding them as he believes they condemn him for his sexual activity. Sexuality in this play represents passion, and it is this passion for life which Alan gains in his worship, which differentiates him so greatly from his psychiatrist Dysart, who is ensnared by society. Dysart realizes the barenness of his life, but it is only when faced with Alan as a passionate worshipper that he understands what he does not possess.

Equus - Identity Quotations