Equus
EquusThe play Equus is about a young boy who viciously blinds six horses with a metal spike in a stable and the psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, who investigates the boy’s mental state. It is a very complex, multileveled story, with many relationships effecting Allen’s (the stabber) behavior.
The relationship between Alan and Equus is a very complex one. His worship for the horse comes from his mother’s beliefs in God. She is very religious and pushes religion on Alan. His father was the opposite. He would not let Allen keep a picture of God in his room and forced him to replace it with a picture of a horse. Slowly, the horse became God in Alan’s eyes. Alan’s father seems to fear religion and in some instances he fears horses. He becomes belligerent on the beach when the man lets Alan ride the horse with him. He also becomes belligerent when Alan’s mother tries to include religion in Alan’s life. It seems his father has strong emotional reactions to anything he can’t control or understand. Alan sensed that reaction and because of it he turned a horse into a god. It’s almost like Alan was drawn to anything his father did not like because he did not want to be like his father. Allen is driven to all his father hates, such as television and religion. When Alan sees his father coming out of the porno movie theater, he is devastated because he is caught acting like his father....
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