Chapter 1 Introduction
1.3 Peter Shaffer: A Humanistic Playwright
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Psychoanalytic theories are also favored by scholars who wish to reconstruct the protagonists’ personality in Equus. Chang Shu Mei uses Carl Jung’s theory of
psychological types and comments, “owing to the influence of his culture, man cannot obtain all-sided harmonious development of personality in the histories of societies” (9).
In other words, Chang implies the protagonists are victims of society. Su Shao Wen insightfully, on the other hand, applies Lacanian Gaze to analyze the relationship between Alan and the horse, and the relationship between Alan and Dysart. In her detailed analysis, Su considers that “Equus” is only a narcissistic symbol of Alan, saying that “[Alan] loves his own reflection, Equus, an extension of himself. Equus is the mirror reflection of his own self” (144). Similarly, she also sees Dysart as unable to get rid of his own spiritual loss in treating Alan. Su sees Dysart as “caught up in the process of analysis that he is no longer capable of making choices in life” (156). Likewise, Alan is also presented in the play dealing with spiritual dilemma. Applying Lacanian Unconscious, Pai Chih Hsin in his study argues that Alan has been displaying to construct his own subjectivity. The conclusion of Pai’s study points out that the symbolic chain on Alan’s mouth is, in fact, a manipulating power of language which “controls [his] behaviors” and “speaks through [him] to express its opinions of [his] unconscious” (102). Scholars’ various interpretations have proved the timeless charm of the play.
1.3 Peter Shaffer: A Humanistic Playwright
Great Britain in the Seventies, during which Peter Shaffer’s Equus was completed, can be understood as a time of great social change. C. J Gianakaris perceives the general public at this time as caught in a “basic psychic tension” (Peter Shaffer 105). An
explanation for such a vision is provided by Laurel Forster and Sue Harper in their British Culture and Society in the 1970s: The Lost Decade. Forster and Harper wrote:
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The 1970s in Britain was a decade of immense complexity […] There were numerous contradictions which were, socially and politically speaking, born out of concerns about gender, race, class, living conditions and the workplace.
It was a decade of great early optimism, which slid into a general sense of decline. (3)
In other words, a sense of nostalgia spreads wide in the society since “[people’s] intense feelings were produced by the radical social changes, and such social and emotional trauma is often unsettling to reproduce or recall” (Foster and Harper 2).
As an artist, Peter Shaffer concerns about people in his time. In an interview he bluntly states, “[t]here is a very passionate subject here to me—the way we are pissing on our own culture. We are seeking ways to commit suicide” (A Casebook 30). By displaying his concern about his contemporary society, Shaffer advises people to develop spiritual self-awareness. He explains, “[c]ountries go mad as well as people […it] would be disastrous. We live in a tragic world, because a resounding right course like that is
purchased by the surrender of things that are very valuable: the individuality of a country”
(A Casebook 33). Shaffer believes that “[t]here is nothing unique in acknowledging accomplishment by persons of other races or cultures [because we] all live by things achieved by other cultures, at other times” (A Casebook 31). Writing plays to talk about
“the taboos of the world” (A Casebook 30), according to Shaffer himself, is his way to achieve the goal of peace. In his idea, modern society has influenced human existence in a reductive way. He wishes that the British people, collectively represented by the nation itself, could respect the value of other people’s individuality and recognize the existence of people from other places.
Peter Shaffer’s life is an exemplar of his philosophical character. C. J. Gianakaris points out, “the protagonists of The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Equus, and Amadeus are all
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jealous of rivals whose names begin with the letter ‘A’…’A’ as in Anthony, Peter Shaffer’s twin” (A Casebook 153; emphasis mine). Similarly, Jules Glenn comments on Shaffer’s relationship with his brother Anthony Shaffer as “fraught with anxiety” (A Casebook 153; emphasis mine). Combating with his “twin” brother is a metaphor of fighting against his mirror self, a separate “rival” whose existence relies on the constant struggle between two sides. Shaffer channels such a metaphysical aspect of his life through the portrayals of the two protagonists in Equus, claiming that
There is in me a continuous tension between what I suppose I could loosely call the Apollonian and the Dionysian sides of interpreting life, between say, Dysart and Alan Strang…the inescapable fact that to me a life without a sense of the divine is perfectly meaningless. (qtd. in Walls 314; emphasis mine) Inner conflict is regarded by Shaffer as the drive for self-improvement. By making analogy between Apollo and Dionysus Shaffer suggests that he and the protagonists are both searching for the meaning of life through exploring their own inner conflict. Such inner conflict has been represented by something his inner divinity, which is also a theme illustrated in Equus. Of all his passion to cope with inner conflict, Shaffer is regarded by Gianakaris to be “[a] realist, a philosopher, and a satirist” all at the same time (A
Casebook 3). Gianakaris comments that “[r]egular theatergoers will recognize elements of all these types in Shaffer” (A Casebook 3). Michael Hinden, alternatively, points out the metaphysical aspect in Shaffer’s play: “With Shaffer, the ancient question is posed like this: Was I (emphasis original) born one or two, different or same? What are the
parameters of self, and what does it mean to be separate?” (qtd. in A Casebook 159). This theme of searching for an intact sense of self is at the core of the play Equus, and it will be the topic of discussion in this thesis.