Sacrifices to the Normal: Normality as a theme in Equus

By jessi bites, Student

The ‘sacrifices to the Normal’ is an idea explored in Equus, set in a modern ‘plastic’ society where the capacity for worship, passion and pain is lost. This essay explores the theme of normality in Equus by Peter Shaffer

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

The ‘sacrifices to the Normal’ is an idea explored in Equus, set in a modern ‘plastic’ society where the capacity for worship, passion and pain is lost. The cost of normality is explored by Dysart who, as a child psychiatrist, sees himself as a destroyer of passion. The standards of normality are set by this plastic culture that cannot perceive beyond the superficial and the materialistic. This society, decayed by its materialistic values, has lead to the death of passion, worship and pain. The only way to survive in such a culture is to conform. Dysart questions normality, and the cost or sacrifice needed to become acceptable in such a society.

Dysart is desperate to escape from society, which is shown by his desire to leave his job as a child psychiatrist. In this role, Dysart sees himself as a destroyer of passion and he feels that his job is doing more harm than good. His job is to restore children to society’s sense of normality and in doing so an element of individuality is lost in the process of becoming ‘normal’. This desire to escape from his job and his role in society is portrayed strongly by his dream of ‘carving up children’. The golden mask Dysart wears as ‘chief priest’ is symbolic of his conformity and his status in society as being a child psychiatrist: the one who restores troubled children to normality for the good of society. The fact that Dysart is ‘officiating at some immensely important ritual sacrifice, on which depends the fate of the crops’ reflects the importance of his position for maintaining the balance of normality in such a materialistic society. In fact, it is his ‘unique talent for carving’ that has got him to where he is. To make this sacrifice Dysart opens up the child with ‘surgical skill’ and ‘part the flaps, sever the inner tubes, yank them out and throw them hot and steaming on to the floor’. In doing this Dysart effectively rips all worship, passion and spirit from the child for the benefit of the ‘plastic’ world. Realising the consequences of such sacrifices, Dysart begins to feel ‘distinctly nauseous’ with the feeling getting worse with each ‘victim’. Dysart’s mask begins to slip as he sees the flaws in society and has to hide his difference else he will become the next victim. As Dysart’s veil of conformity slips, his perception of himself as the golden priest who is benefiting society is marred as he realises this is not the truth at all. Dysart wishes to escape from his position as ‘chief priest’: which is not a possibility as Dysart will be ‘next across the stone’ before that could happen. Anything apart from the norm is not accepted in society and one has to conform in order to survive in a world where there is no worship or passion. If one does not conform, one is forced to do so.

Sometimes the sacrifice to the normal can be too high a price to pay. In treating Alan Strang, Dysart sees that in him the cost of normality is too great, as Alan has a ‘ferocious… intense’ passion which Dysart himself envies and does not wish to destroy. However, destroying this passion is Dysart’s job and is something which society compels him to do. As a child psychologist Dysart is part of the system, he is the one who makes sure that people conform to social ideals and if they don’t, set them on the ‘right’ track. He wishes to extract himself from this job and from this role in society: the destroyer of passion. In a culture where conformity is of utmost importance, Dysart’s job is seen as crucial in maintaining the conformity and plasticity of society. To extricate himself from this post, and to allow people like Alan to retain their individuality Dysart himself must feel the same passion as Alan. However, Dysart has had to conform and as a part of society he cannot extract himself from it but at the same time can see the flaws in the construction of social expectations and ideals. As a consequence Dysart cannot escape from society and has to remain in his current position: there is no choice.

Dysart cannot escape from society because his conformity and education has kept him blinded from seeing the ‘whole new track of being (he) only suspect(s) is there’. He feels ‘All reined up in old language and old assumptions’, and this stops him seeing beyond the plastic society he is so enveloped in. Dysart’s conformity to social expectations has meant that his involvement with this materialistic culture has lead to his being blinded from anything beyond it. Dysart can see the flaws in society as he himself wishes to escape from it; the fact that Dysart is aware of the flaws allows him to believe there is something apart from the society that he knows. Dysart has his own passion but it is not clear like Alan’s, nor as intense. Dysart cannot experience this intensity of worship ‘because the bit forbids it’; his conformity forbids any alternative to the norm.

The fact that Dysart can see the flaws in society and is not able to do anything about them makes him feel disillusioned and powerless. He wishes to escape from society but cannot. This plastic society is inescapable and he cannot tear himself away from it, no matter how hard he tries. This is illustrated by Dysart’s attempts to escape to the primitive, away from the horrors of modern civilisation. He tells of this ‘fantastic surrender to the primitive’: ‘Three weeks a year in the Peleponnese, every bed booked in advance, every meal paid for by vouchers, cautious jaunts in hired Fiats, suitcase crammed with Kao-Pactate!’ Dysart calls himself a pagan but knows by his cautious expeditions to the ‘womb of civilisation’ that he is not a pagan at all. He says he is something he is not in order to label himself, to make his eccentricities acceptable to society. He is trying to find an element of individuality but it cannot be found as the world has become stripped of all feelings beyond the superficial. Dysart knows that he is no ‘pagan’ but labels himself as one, giving the image that he is something that he is not. Dysart cannot escape from society, as he is irretrievably enmeshed in it.

Dysart perceives Alan as an individual with true spirit and purpose. His complete worship of Equus is what has ostracized him from society and has been the cause of much of his pain, but Dysart sees that to numb this pain and to restore himself to normality would render him a ghost of society. ‘Passion, you see, can be destroyed by a doctor. It cannot be created’. Dysart’s role is to numb Alan’s pain and this is seen by society to be a just cause for destroying passion. Pain is seen to be hand in hand with worship: numb one and the other is destroyed. Pain is the ‘accusation’, society sees that the consequences of Alan’s passion: the blinding of the horses, his lack of communication, friends and education and his displacement from society is classed as ‘pain’. He is described as a ‘cut-off little figure’ by Hesther who sees that to take this away would be beneficial. However, Dysart sees beyond this. He sees that ‘to go through life and call it yours – your life - you first have to get your own pain’. This pain is part of worship and passion: one cannot exist without the other. Alan’s pain is a part of his individuality: it’s ‘His pain. His own. He made it’. To numb the pain, as society compels Dysart to do, Alan’s passion, worship and individuality is lost. As individuality is destroyed, so too is the capacity for worship, passion and pain.

Alan is liberated from society in that he can fully indulge in his worship with a ferocious passion; an impossibility for anyone constrained by the burdens of social ideals and expectations. This worship is beyond the plastic society that Alan lives in and this complete displacement from society is something that Dysart wishes to achieve. This liberation is explained in part by Alan’s lack of education and his distance from society and life:

He can hardly read. He knows no physics or engineering to make the world real for him. No paintings to show him how others have enjoyed it. No music except television jingles. No history except tales from a desperate mother.

Alan knows nothing other than his worship, which is ‘the core of his life’. Dysart aptly describes him as ‘a modern citizen for whom society doesn’t exist’: and this is what allows his passionate worship of Equus. Alan’s worship and passion is not tolerated in society, and Alan has only been able to possess this worship through the complete rejection of the world around him. Alan cannot know anything other than his worship. The nature of the society he lives in means that he can either conform and lose his individuality or completely reject society and retain his immense worship and passion.

Normality ‘sustains and kills’ - and this presents the main conflict with Dysart’s feelings towards normality and restoring people to normality. Normality ‘sustains’ in the sense that one has to conform to function in society, and a failure to do so will result in being ostracized from society and fellow human beings. Alan does not conform to social expectations and as a consequence has no ties or relationships with other people: no ties to anything but his worship of Equus. This is the sacrifice that Alan has to pay for his passion, but the price Alan is to pay for normality is far worse. Normality ‘kills’ passion and worship and eliminates all traces of the individual, leaving only a ghost of society behind. Normality ‘kills’ because in order to be normal you have to suppress your individuality and conform to the constraints of society. Dysart sees that to restore to normality will only result in a soulless and passionless individual who poses no threat to society’s ideals or definition of normality. To restore to the normal will take away the pain, but will take away individuality with it.

Alan’s act of blinding the six horses is symbolic of his need to expunge society to experience freedom. The horse acts as Alan’s god but Equus sees everything that Alan does. This restricts Alan and he is resentful of that. Alan’ s action of blinding the horses, blinding Equus so ‘Though – God – Seest – NOTHING!’. The horse is representative of the restricted passion still existing in society. The horse is the only object of flesh and blood in the drama, the only thing that is not superficial or ‘plastic’: completely devoid of any emotion. The horse, Equus, represents passion, worship and individuality. The horse is restricted by the ‘chinkle-chankle’, which ‘never comes out’. This is true of society where individuality is suppressed and conformity is forced upon all. These values and attitudes whereby everyone is expected to conform are symbolised by the ‘chinkle-chankle’ and the images of the horse in chains. The horses forced conformity to society are represented by Equus’ foes: ‘The Hosts of Jodhpur. The Hosts of Bowler and Gymkhana. All those who show him off for their vanity’. This conformity and restriction enforced by the bit is inevitable. Alan’s blinding of the horses in a vain effort to render them powerless, to stop Equus from having control over him. This is symbolic of the need to blind society from what it sees and deems to be normal and correct. To blind society and render the whole system powerless would be the only way for someone like Alan to experience true liberation. It is ironic that this act of blinding the horses leads the way for his inevitable restoration to ‘normality’ by Dysart.

Different members of society view this cruel act of blinding the horses through varying perspectives. It is clear that the public was shocked by the blinding of the horses and the opinion of the General public is that Alan should be sent to jail. Hesther’s bench wanted a life sentence for the crime, as it was an appalling case. The conviction that Alan should be sent to prison is definitely the opinion of the masses, especially will Jill having a nervous breakdown and Dalton wanting Alan jailed for life. This public outrage is typical and expected from the ‘plastic’ society who cannot see beyond the superficial. Hesther sees that Alan is in ‘pain’ and needs to be treated, to be restored to normality. This is really another side of popular opinion but this view is not conventional, it took her ‘two hours solid arguing’ to get Alan sent to Dysart rather than to prison. Hesther’s wish to have Alan restored to ‘normality’ reflects her compassion and understanding but her view of the solution to Alan’s blinding of the horses is a view not shared by many. She wishes to solve the matter rather than see Alan being locked away and have nothing done about him. However, even though being sent to Dysart is better than being sent to prison the outcome of being sent to the psychiatrist is the elimination of passion and individuality. To Dysart, the act of cruelty itself is not as important as to why he did it. Dysart’s main concern is with the loss of individuality that the restoration of normality that Hesther wishes brings. In the text Dysart is the only character who sees the consequences of the loss of passion, worship and individuality. He can only see this through his own self-doubt and restricted passion. The consequences of ‘normality’ is not grasped, or even considered by the rest of society.

Dysart is left in a dilemma: to restore to normality or not? Dysart’s belief is that there is nothing ‘worse (that) one can do to anybody than take away their worship’. Dysart feels compelled by society to restore Alan to normality but through his treatment of Alan, of discovering his passion and worship, he does not want to destroy his individuality. Dysart comes to realise that the costs of normality far outweigh the ‘benefits’ of conformity: a ‘plastic’, lifeless, ghost of society is created. In a ‘plastic’ society completely devoid of emotion and passion, any alternative to its version of the norm is not tolerated. Conformity is essential to survive in such a society; it is the only mechanism by which one can cope.