One of Dysart's biggest inner conflicts is his inability to possess passion for something, as he has seen in Alan. This conflict is first presented on pg 58, Act 1, Scene 18. Dysart says, "I wish there was one person in my life I could show," indicating that he wishes to feel something greater than what he has. When Hesther says he is supposed to restore Alan to "a normal life," Dysart even ponders what normal is. This is further emphasized in Act 2, Scene 35, pg 109. Dysart says, "I'll give him the good Normal world where we're tethered besides them," revealing that he's been tied down by normalcy. He also continues to explain how he will cure Alan, but that Alan will lose his passion, as evidenced when Dysart says, "Passion, you see, can be destroyed by a doctor. It cannot be created." This stresses Dysart's longing to have passion for something.
My question about the play's themes is something that we've been talking about in class.
Can passion for something be truly dangerous? Besides the night Alan blinded the horses, were his "rituals" actually harmful to anyone? How can we qualify what is dangerous and what is not in terms of someone's passion for something?
One of Dysart's biggest internal conflicts is debating whether or not to take away Alan’s worship away from him. Dysart states that “I only know it’s the core of his life” ( Act II Scene 25) Dysart knows that Equus is the only worship and the only purpose that Alan has to live. The problem that Dysart has is that he knows if he takes this away from Alan he will be normal but empty. Alan will no longer have any really purpose and his existence will be pointless. He argues with Hesther about what is conventional or not in terms of what the norm is. Hesther believes in “curing” Alan but Dysart knows that if he were to do that, Alan will just be another empty body that has no meaning. He can either cure Alan in society’s eyes or keep him insane and thus allow him to truly live.
When it comes to theme I wanted to know what is right ? Should we always go by what society says in terms of what we deem to be holy or is that a personal choice? Who really identifies the higher being that influences our lives?
I think one of the most important internal conflicts for Dysart is his belief that he's only hurting the children he treats. Reflected in his graphic dream of disfiguring a mass of children in Ancient Greece, this inner conflict speaks bounds of his own self consciousness as to being a "good" doctor. By the end of the play he realizes that despite his best efforts he can never replace the passion that Alan has felt for Equus and he second guesses the purpose of his treatment all along. I love how this internal conflict adds another layer of understanding to the play in regards to Alan's life and how Dysart fits into that.
In regards to the theme how do we feel about the role of Apollo and Dionysus and how do their elements of passion and reason fit into the play as a whole?
Dysart’s major inner conflict is the fact that he feels guilty about “treating” his patients. Although he knows he is easing their pain and agony, he despises the idea of making them simply “normal”. As he says in the play, he feels he is stripping a piece of their “individuality” from them as he nurtures them towards a very average, mundane, and prosaic life. He speaks very intensely about the passion that lives inside his patients – how they are able to feel something so profoundly and give true emotion to something in their life, just like Alan. Dysart even admits that he is jealous of this ability, as he goes through the realization that his own life is very dull and repetitive. This brings us to another inner conflict that he struggles with – the disappointment that accompanies his knowledge that he has never truly “lived”, done anything adventurous, or had any profound passions. It is clear that he similarly struggles in his relationship with his wife, whom we can infer he hasn’t made love to or shared intimacy with in a long while. It is also made clear that they do not quite see eye to eye – him being infatuated with Ancient Greece history and her being disinterested and unappreciative of its beauty.
What does the play suggest about the connection between passion and madness? Does having an intense passion for something abstract in this world make one viewed as “mad” or “not normal”?
One of Dysart's biggest conflicts, to me, is the fact that he is continuously questioning whether he is really helping or hurting is patients. He has this horrible dream where is is cutting children and I think that is his doubts telling him that he is not helping at all. Treating Alan made this doubt grow larger because he realized that "curing" him from this mental instability would be taking away his worship and passion. He even envies this passion that Alan has because he realizes that he has never encountered something so majestic and overwhelming. He compares the moments that Alan share with Equus to the ones that he has with his wife and truly sees how dead his marriage is. The fact that he has not even kissed her in the past 6 years shows how unattatched and uninterested he is with her. He eventually tells himself that he cannot help Alan because his case is just as bad if not worst. Hesther convinces him to continues helping Alan and even when Alan has the breakthrough and reveals what happened the night he blinded the horses, Dysart still believes that he is not completely helping him because he might be "normal" but that means that the passion will be gone.
Are religious and sexual feelings intertwined? If these two were confused than would that result in a dangerous situation such as the one displayed in this play?
Some of Dysarts inner conflicts include is his growing regret with particular elements of his life including his work and marriage, underscoring his envy of Alan. Dysart is struggling with being sterile and yet having to face Alan who is the complete opposite of him. Alan who has "galloped", whereas Dysart has not and cannot. He battles with his jealousy that every morning he has to go into his office and treat Alan, who has the freedom and the passion that he lacks. Dysart also struggles with allowing Alan to act entirely on his own and with just giving him drugs to kill Alan's passion and spirit.
Why is it that the freedom of an individual must be limited when their actions inflict harm on others? Is Alan really "mad" just because he has a deep passion, or is it his parent's lack of passion that portrays him as being "mad"?
Dysart constantly struggles with his own unhappiness. His main inner conflict revolves around the fact that he treats children for their mental incapacities, but he is robbing each of them of the things that give them the most passion in life. He finally realizes how mundane his life is when he meets Alan and learns of Alan's worship of horses. He feels as if in his entire life, he has not experienced a passion deep enough to call his own. He also is unhappy with his wife and the fact that they are clear opposites and she has become a "shrinks shrink." Ultimately, Dysart has nothing of extreme value to worship, which causes him to be jealous of Alan and his freedom of worship. He also wonders if his job is hurting the patients and not helping them, because he feels he is robbing them of the things that make them unique.
...Why does Alan's mother believe that the Devil came upon Alan?
Dysart is a key character in the play. He has many inner conflicts which are revealed when he meets and starts to treat Alan. Dysart spends a lot of his time studying Greek mythology and believing that he is a real worshiper. However, after he discovers Alan's true passion he realizes that his own worship was fake and meant nothing. He is very upset about this. Another inner conflict is that he is simply not happy with the way his life is going. He is simply living an ordinary life and has let go of his dreams. He states this when he tells Alan that "Gods die". He is having a hard time with his wife who he has not even kissed in six years and has no children. These things make him very unhappy. He envy's Alan because Alan has such a strong passion and is so happy about it. Dysart wishes he could have the same feelings about something.
My question is, why does Alan want to escape his worship that he has had with the horses if it has made him so passionate and they have become so important to his life? Did he suffer during his worship? It seems as if he does want Jill and that the horses or "God's" were in his way and he didn't like that.
One major problem for Dysart is that he is irritated with himself. He has spent a majority of his own life getting inside the minds of children and trying to help them, or “carve them open”, instead of looking within at himself. He now really realizes this, with the dream he has after beginning Alan's treatment, so Dysart wishes that someone would take away his “knife”. So his inner conflict would be his happiness, or lack thereof in his workplace.
How would the play be different without dreams, and what effect do they have on Alan, and Dysart?
Dysart’s inner conflicts include his guilt at believing he has a lackluster ability to treat children the way they want to be treated medically, rather than just following basic psychological procedures to erase any pain – and passion – from their minds. He envies the passion that his patients sometimes have, and realizes that the fall to adulthood really does leave a person with a dull outlook on all that they do. The individuality he wants to be able to pride himself with is actually ruining his marriage and crushing his fantasies of becoming ever more familiar with Greek mythology.
Does Dysart’s decision to treat Alan as he does all his patients positively represent the theme of preserved individual passion that he longs for, or does it contradict it?
Dysart suffers from his own normality. In total contrast to Alan, Dysart lacks passion, questions the purpose of his work, lacks fertility and sexual connection (“The lowest sperm count you could find.”), and is void of worship and faith in a belief system. Alan, on the other hand is intensely passionate, knows his work’s purpose in his relations to the Godslave Equus, is the epitome of fertility and sexuality, and is enveloped with his deep spiritual connections. Though Dysart’s situation is evidently characterized as negative and Alan’s as generally positive, Dysart is still considered “normal” and Alan “not normal.” Dysart is subject to depression by the reality of his inability to affect change in his patients’ lives, his inability to have children, and his inability to be passionate. He takes deep interest in Greek Mythology, which is interesting considering it is a mythical, or “dead,” belief system. Dysart is also dealing with his passivity in contrast to Alan’s activity, as illustrated in his quote “I sit looking at pages of centaurs trampling the soil of Argos-and outside my window he is trying to become one. “
What are the themes surrounding what is considered “normal?” Are the themes suggesting that there is no legitimate interpretation of normal, that it is merely a subjective term? or are the themes indicating that normal tendencies are real and are set out by what is considered to be socially acceptable.
One of Dysart's inner conflicts would be the lack of passion he has. Alan has this deep devotion for Equus, and Dysart feels mediocre as he touches “his reproduction statue of Dionysus.” Oddly enough, Dionysus represents passion and emotion in the concept of Apollonian and Dionysian. His sense of having Equus watching him, shows how he feels trapped and yearns for some sort of escape.
Are Alan's parents at fault for his actions? If so, to what extent? Dysart mentions “passion can be destroyed by a doctor” and “passion cannot be created,” can passion really not be created?
One problem Dysart faces is differentiating between what is normal and acceptable and what is not normal concerning his patients and society as a whole. When Hesther points out that Dysart is trying to “restore” Alan to a “normal life”, Dysart is taken aback by the word. In his eyes Alan is fairly normal; he is merely a boy with an intense passion for religion and horses. When Hesther emphasizes the “normal smile in a child’s eyes” opposed to “one that isn’t”, Dysart creates his theory about the normality of children and adults: the “normal is the good smile in child’s eyes”, but it is also the “dead stare in a million adults.” This problem leads to another internal conflict of Dysart’s concerning whether or not he should take Alan’s worship away. Now that Dysart realizes his form of worship of ancient Greece is mediocre compared to Alan’s intense form of worship, Dysart does not want to destroy the boys compassion in order to turn him into a “normal” emotionless drone like the rest of society. Dysart does say, “Life is only comprehensible through a thousand local Gods”, so taking away Alan’s worship would make his life meaningless, but it could also save him.
Why is society so concerned with making everyone “normal”? Is there even a correct definition for the word? Is Alan actually causing harm to society by not being normal? Does having an overwhelming passion for something classify a person as not normal or even mad?
Dysart is unsure if he should conform Alan to society, making him "normal", or if he should leave Alan alone, allowing him to keep his passion. Dysart is jealous of Alan's pain because he has never experienced a true passion for anything. Dysart has always been fascinated with ancient Greece, but he doesn't realize the pointlessness of this interest until he meets Alan. He comes to realize that he has never "galloped" like Alan. Dysart sees the uselessness of devoting his life to ancient gods, filling his home with photos of Greece and fake statues. When he tells Alan that gods do die, he is admitting that his fascination has no real meaning or passion, unlike Alan's worship of Equus.
What really is considered normal? Why are people who have different views than the rest of society considered to be strange? Why did Alan stab the horses' eyes? What caused Alan to have this worship for horses?
I think one of Dysart's inner conflicts is his lack of social connection. Throughout the play it's evident that he envies Alan's passion for the horses and wanted such a binding relationship with something as Alan did. Dysart struggles with his job as someone that's supposed to be helping these people with issues and psychiatric problems when he has internal issues of his own, such as his marriage. Dysart's job to "normalize" his patients brings up the question in his mind as to what exactly "normal" is and whether he himself would be considered normal or just as conflicted as his patients.
Was it the heavy dedication to religion from his mother or the atheist attitude of his father that caused Alan's devotion and passion for horses to go to the extreme?
Dysart suffers from many internal conflicts that are revealed throughout the play through his interaction with the other characters. One of the more noticeable conflicts is that he struggles with the ability to have passion for things. He has never been truly passionate about anything and envies Alan because of it. Dysart feels that to have true passion for something is a beautiful thing that cannot be taught. He not only struggles with having passion for something himself, but also has difficulties deciding whether or not to take the passion Alan has away from him. Dysart believes that once you take the passion away from someone, it can never be regained. Dysart is distressed about treating his patients. He feels that making his patients normal is a horrible action. He despises the fact that he is turning his patients into “normal” citizens. Alan attacks the horses due to the religious aspects he associates with them, how does this relate to how religion causes violence in society?
Dysart does not connect with anything, not his marriage, or his worship. His job allows him a glimpse of someone's pain and passion. IT creates a circular conflict because he sees how he hasn't let his passions be revealed and because of that he does not feel adequate to help his patients. Dysatr's obsession with ancient Greece parallels his "primitive" behavior which he feels doesn't compare to how " that freaky boy tries to conjure the reality!"
Question: How is it understood that religion and sex are not completely conflated when Alan says " I couldn't feel her flesh at all! I wanted the foam off his neck. His sweaty hide. Not flesh.Hide! Horsehide!
Dysart's biggest conflict is whether or not what he is doing is helping is patients or making them worse. Throughout the play, he questions if he is making Alan a normal kid or taking away from his ability to be happy through his worship of Equus. So, does Dysart have a method of worship that makes him happy?
I think that the biggest conflict Dysart faces is probably his jealousy for Alan. Dysart, lonely and trapped in a loveless marriage, yearns for excitement and love, things that Alan has experienced, and with a horse for all creatures! Dysart is faced with more conflicts while he treats Alan, including his own personal ability to help and "fix" people. He questions his own responsibility and his own actions while dealing with children and his patients, yet he feels that he hasn't truly "helped them" in the way they truly needed help. His constant dilemmas and conflicts arise with Alan's introduction as Alan seems to be the trigger for Dysart's realization of his work and duty.
I believe that Dysart's major conflict is his sudden realization that he's unhappy with his life . He begins to feel as though he isn't truly helping his patients but is actually harming them . This makes him feel as though he's a danger to his patients and makes him reluctant in his treatment of Alan . More so , he realizes that maybe his unhappy marriage is his own fault . All his education and these "amazing" things that he has collected and seen may not be so amazing after all . He seems to be feeling as though he hasn't truly lived his life. These thoughts seem to have derived after encountering someone like Alan . Alan made his own happiness and pleasure , and experienced true worship . While things may have come to a terrible ending for him , Dysart can't help but be jealous by the boys experience . Before , he was the great psychologist , able to help cure people and make changes for the greater good , and now he realizes maybe it's not that meaningful . He has to take away Alan's worship in order to take away the pain . He has to make him normal , just like himself . Being that he's not happy with his "normal" self , he's not to thrilled by the idea .
My biggest question pertains to Alan stabbing out the eyes of the horses . First, why would he do such a thing ? Second , if he hadn't committed that crime and was brought to Dysart because of his worship , would he feel the need to "fix" him ?
I feel that Dysart's biggest inner conflict, is his inability to fix himself. Dysart states that he helps all these patients lives out, but is unable to fix his love life, passion, and worship, at various points in the play. Dysart is living a hypocritical lifestyle, when he asks questions to his patients, but would not be able to answer them himself.
My question is, is it possible to raise your children without being a hypocrite ? Can you live your life without having hypocritical aspects within it ?
Dysart's inner feelings lie with his emotions and his career. He himself has so many problems with his wife, and his whole life in general. Yet his job is curing others around him and has no time to cure himself. He is very damaged in how he has no passion in his life. There is nothing for him to look forward to or for him to look up to. He has no religious beliefs, as he has nothing that he worships with such passion. When he states that "Doctors destroy passion" it is right to say that he himself has killed his own passion. He enys Alan's passion, no matter how obscure it may be. He lacks such devotion but there's nothing he can do to fix it as proven when he says "passion cannot be created." It can also be said that he never had any passion for anything in the first place. In either reason, he can be considered just as emotionally hurt as Alan, the only difference being that Alan can be cured. Dysart however, has a long path that he must go through.
My question lies with Alan. What makes Alan so different from other families that suffer through the same situation? Other families have parents that have conflicting beliefs, what makes them different from Alan?
I think Dysart’s biggest inner conflict is his inability to be passionate. Aside from the fact that it is a truly tragic for someone to not be able to truly feel, really and humanly feel, it makes for such a contrast for the plays two main characters to enter each other’s world. Dysart cannot emotionally reach the level that Alan has in his worship of Equus. Alan gives himself to his worship and Dysart envies Alan for it. But not because he finds the concept of worshipping a horse to be normal, but because Alan is devoted unwaveringly to “God”- whatever his god may be. Dysart’s inner conflicts manifest into problems with his wife, obviously his inability to passionately love her. They spill over to his job because he, passionless, robs these supposed crazy people of their passion. He finds himself disgusting because of it and that the things he does are “irreversible, terminal things” because he makes shells of people who once believed they were living. It’s horrifyingly sad, but Dysart may actually hate himself for making people normal, and the “sharp chain” in his mouth is the constant reminder that he will never achieve such feeling in his life.
I want to know a broader question about the play: religion whether it be Dora worshipping Jesus or Alan worshipping Equus serves a huge centrifugal force in the conflict of the play. Is this a metaphor for worship in general? That worshipping something will drive humans away from each other and that is why the characters in this tragedy are so doomed?
One of Dysart’s major inner conflicts is he inability to treat Alan without taking away his passion. He feels like he will metaphorically kill Alan, or take way his innermost “ness” if he were to take away the pain that Equus is causing him. This conflict can be seen in Dysart’s dream about the mass of children he was slaughtering. He feels, like in the dream, that he is dismembering the children that he treats, and is taking away the true aspects of their personalities. Dysart also knows that if he were to treat Alan and make him “normal” he would never be able to give Alan his passion back, Alan would never be able to “gallop” again. The process of treating Alan made Dysart realize that he no longer believe in what he is doing, and that he will always be haunted by Equus and the “sharp chain” in his mouth.
and my question: What does Dysart mean when he says his head is being held in the wrong direction? What might be holding his head the wrong way? What might this be preventing him from seeing?
One of Dysart’s inner conflicts is his want for passion. Dysart and Alan can be compared to Apollo and Dionysian. Dysart’s position as a psychiatrist reflects the qualities of an apollonian, his career requires reason, order, analysis, and research. Alan, who is driven by passion, intuition, imagination, and ritual, holds all of the Dionysian qualities Dysart wishes to possess. Dysart is jealous of Alan because he can “gallop”, being trapped inside his voice of reason and confined in the four walls of his office treating and essentially “curing” passions that he wishes he had. In doing so, it does not give him the freedom that Alan and the rest of his patients have. Alan is at a thriving, youthful, and fertile stage in his life, unlike Dysart who cannot reproduce, have a lull in his relationship with his wife, and wants to be anywhere but where he is now. Dysart’s internal conflict has to do with the struggle he has with being who he wants himself to be, yet refraining from deviating from his psychiatric work. What is the borderline, if any, between passion and worship? Which would you describe Alan as having?
Dysarts inner conflict revolves around his inability to truly feel any degree of passion. Something that Alan, his PATIENT, feels a great deal of. This leads to his second conflict which is the conflict he feels with his job in which he feels he takes the purity and true emotion from his patients and instead of treating them for being abnormal he is treating their purest and most unadultarated being.
Question: Where is the irony in Dysart treating Alan so that he can become a normal member of society.
Dysart's conflict stems from his total lack of passion. He is frustrated by the idea that everything that he does is bland and purposeless. He understands the job that he's devoted most of his life too as little more then forcing people who deviate from the expected social and moral codes back on to the path that society deems "good," that being the normal. Dysart realizes that the things he does are total, ultimate things, but he can't justify, even to himself, why he does them. Thus Equus's incessant question "why me?" and and his demand that Dysart "account for me." In Dysart's mind, he is severing, as in his graphic dream, the children from fundamental parts of their person, from fundamental experiences that he himself has never had. Dysart has never galloped, and he is tormented by the knowledge that Alan has, and that he must eliminate that crucial part of Alan's being.
My question is along the same lines of what our lit circle talked about; what is the true meaning of the word worship? Does it solely imply some sort of reverence, or can it be more broadly interpreted as desiring either freedom or beauty? And in that same vein, how does Dysart's definition of worship differ from Alan's?
Dysart seems to have several inner conflicts from his infertility to his role as a doctor. The ability to create life is a powerful capability, traditionally we see reproduction as the burden of the woman, but the man's role is instrumental. Dysart must feel inferior as he cannot perform his natural duty. This leads to his other inner conflict of lacking passion. He loves Ancient Greece and yet cannot truly embrace and experience his passion like Alan can. He is torn by this even more once he comes to the realization that as a psychiatric doctor he takes away the very passion he desires to have. This is perhaps the main inner conflict as he believes that every person should be allowed to worship as many gods as possible and to explore their passions. All of these problems are tearing him apart, pushing him to have his own nightmares.
My Question: What are the limits of true passion? If one's passion harms society (blinding horses) or harms the individual (Alan's trauma) can passion truly be limitless?
Dysart’s inner conflicts include mainly his jealousy of the passion that Alan has. Though Alan is passionate about something that society would deem abnormal, Dysart is able to look past that and his passion for Equus gives his life a greater deeper meaning. Dysart is jealous of that because he does not have passion for anything. And now he feels as if taking away these children’s mental issues, he rids them of their passion and he says that “I stand in the dark with a pick in my hand, striking at heads! I need—more desperately than my children need me—a way of seeing in the dark. What way is this?” In this statement the darkness represents the passionless life Dysart leads. And striking at heads represents, Dysart using his studies to rid these passionate people of their madness.
How do society deem what is acceptable and what is madness? And is Dysart right to think he is in the dark because even though he lacks passion, but unlike Alan he is able to think rationally?
Dysart struggles with his marriage, and with living his life. Day after day he sees "looney" people, people that have been deemed emotionally unstable by society but he becomes jealousy of these patients. He even suggests that Alan's judging eyes are saying to him "I've galloped, why haven't you?" There is this dichotomy within him, one, he is married to an average women, has a good job, and fixes people so they can become normal, while the other part of him wants to become like his patients, free, free to act however, worship however. He's haunted everyday by the fact that he takes a part of these children away from them by "fixing" them a part of their personality and what makes them, them. Its like the Freudian Id, and Ego, and Superego. He wants to fulfill his desires and indulge, but can't because he must uphold societies standards. The dream Dysart has when he is cutting open children, thats him taking a piece out of them, so they are never the same, suggesting that he is actually damaging them. What a burden to hold on to!
What is the "darkness" that is inside of Dysart? And who decides who has passionate pain and who doesn't? We discussed in class that passion is associated with pain, and the play suggests only few every reach that level of passion for something, but why do some experience that and others don't? Dysart who is completely aware of great passion for something, and knows what he is missing in his life but yet cannot have that passion, why?
One of Dysart's major inner conflicts is when it comes to "fixing" ill, or like Alan, passionate patients. Hester sees normal as "the smile in a cholds eye" while Dysart questions his ability and the morality of determining what he is acctually doing to these children. Dysart feels, by taking away a childs passion or worship, that this is the epitamy of determining what is "normal". A prime exeplification of this questionaing comes in the form of a dream when Dysart invisions disecting and cutting apart children. By taking "there entrails" he is taking away these childrens lives essentialy.
Dysart's main inner conflict throughout the play is the dichotomy he feels toward his societal obligation as a psychologist and the feelings that he is taking away Alan's system of worship. He feels that by performing his duties, he will succeed in making Alan a more functioning member of society, and probably even make him happier. The downside of this is that by doing this, he would be taking something fundamentally important away from him. Alan's system of worship will be replaced by a mainstream, and dispassionate version that is not unique to him and therefore not nearly as potent as his original system of worship.
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ReplyDeleteOne of Dysart's biggest inner conflicts is his inability to possess passion for something, as he has seen in Alan. This conflict is first presented on pg 58, Act 1, Scene 18. Dysart says, "I wish there was one person in my life I could show," indicating that he wishes to feel something greater than what he has. When Hesther says he is supposed to restore Alan to "a normal life," Dysart even ponders what normal is. This is further emphasized in Act 2, Scene 35, pg 109. Dysart says, "I'll give him the good Normal world where we're tethered besides them," revealing that he's been tied down by normalcy. He also continues to explain how he will cure Alan, but that Alan will lose his passion, as evidenced when Dysart says, "Passion, you see, can be destroyed by a doctor. It cannot be created." This stresses Dysart's longing to have passion for something.
ReplyDeleteMy question about the play's themes is something that we've been talking about in class.
Can passion for something be truly dangerous? Besides the night Alan blinded the horses, were his "rituals" actually harmful to anyone? How can we qualify what is dangerous and what is not in terms of someone's passion for something?
Holly Denton
Block 4
"for there is nothing
ReplyDeleteeither good or bad, but thinking makes it so" (Hamlet)....apt?
One of Dysart's biggest internal conflicts is debating whether or not to take away Alan’s worship away from him. Dysart states that “I only know it’s the core of his life” ( Act II Scene 25) Dysart knows that Equus is the only worship and the only purpose that Alan has to live. The problem that Dysart has is that he knows if he takes this away from Alan he will be normal but empty. Alan will no longer have any really purpose and his existence will be pointless. He argues with Hesther about what is conventional or not in terms of what the norm is. Hesther believes in “curing” Alan but Dysart knows that if he were to do that, Alan will just be another empty body that has no meaning. He can either cure Alan in society’s eyes or keep him insane and thus allow him to truly live.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to theme I wanted to know what is right ? Should we always go by what society says in terms of what we deem to be holy or is that a personal choice? Who really identifies the higher being that influences our lives?
I think one of the most important internal conflicts for Dysart is his belief that he's only hurting the children he treats. Reflected in his graphic dream of disfiguring a mass of children in Ancient Greece, this inner conflict speaks bounds of his own self consciousness as to being a "good" doctor. By the end of the play he realizes that despite his best efforts he can never replace the passion that Alan has felt for Equus and he second guesses the purpose of his treatment all along. I love how this internal conflict adds another layer of understanding to the play in regards to Alan's life and how Dysart fits into that.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the theme how do we feel about the role of Apollo and Dionysus and how do their elements of passion and reason fit into the play as a whole?
Maria Savarese Block: 4
Dysart’s major inner conflict is the fact that he feels guilty about “treating” his patients. Although he knows he is easing their pain and agony, he despises the idea of making them simply “normal”. As he says in the play, he feels he is stripping a piece of their “individuality” from them as he nurtures them towards a very average, mundane, and prosaic life. He speaks very intensely about the passion that lives inside his patients – how they are able to feel something so profoundly and give true emotion to something in their life, just like Alan. Dysart even admits that he is jealous of this ability, as he goes through the realization that his own life is very dull and repetitive. This brings us to another inner conflict that he struggles with – the disappointment that accompanies his knowledge that he has never truly “lived”, done anything adventurous, or had any profound passions. It is clear that he similarly struggles in his relationship with his wife, whom we can infer he hasn’t made love to or shared intimacy with in a long while. It is also made clear that they do not quite see eye to eye – him being infatuated with Ancient Greece history and her being disinterested and unappreciative of its beauty.
ReplyDeleteWhat does the play suggest about the connection between passion and madness? Does having an intense passion for something abstract in this world make one viewed as “mad” or “not normal”?
Piper Miller
Block 4
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOne of Dysart's biggest conflicts, to me, is the fact that he is continuously questioning whether he is really helping or hurting is patients. He has this horrible dream where is is cutting children and I think that is his doubts telling him that he is not helping at all. Treating Alan made this doubt grow larger because he realized that "curing" him from this mental instability would be taking away his worship and passion. He even envies this passion that Alan has because he realizes that he has never encountered something so majestic and overwhelming. He compares the moments that Alan share with Equus to the ones that he has with his wife and truly sees how dead his marriage is. The fact that he has not even kissed her in the past 6 years shows how unattatched and uninterested he is with her. He eventually tells himself that he cannot help Alan because his case is just as bad if not worst. Hesther convinces him to continues helping Alan and even when Alan has the breakthrough and reveals what happened the night he blinded the horses, Dysart still believes that he is not completely helping him because he might be "normal" but that means that the passion will be gone.
ReplyDeleteAre religious and sexual feelings intertwined? If these two were confused than would that result in a dangerous situation such as the one displayed in this play?
Vashti Powell
Block 4
Some of Dysarts inner conflicts include is his growing regret with particular elements of his life including his work and marriage, underscoring his envy of Alan. Dysart is struggling with being sterile and yet having to face Alan who is the complete opposite of him. Alan who has "galloped", whereas Dysart has not and cannot. He battles with his jealousy that every morning he has to go into his office and treat Alan, who has the freedom and the passion that he lacks. Dysart also struggles with allowing Alan to act entirely on his own and with just giving him drugs to kill Alan's passion and spirit.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that the freedom of an individual must be limited when their actions inflict harm on others? Is Alan really "mad" just because he has a deep passion, or is it his parent's lack of passion that portrays him as being "mad"?
Danielle Malcolm
Block 4
Dysart constantly struggles with his own unhappiness. His main inner conflict revolves around the fact that he treats children for their mental incapacities, but he is robbing each of them of the things that give them the most passion in life. He finally realizes how mundane his life is when he meets Alan and learns of Alan's worship of horses. He feels as if in his entire life, he has not experienced a passion deep enough to call his own. He also is unhappy with his wife and the fact that they are clear opposites and she has become a "shrinks shrink." Ultimately, Dysart has nothing of extreme value to worship, which causes him to be jealous of Alan and his freedom of worship. He also wonders if his job is hurting the patients and not helping them, because he feels he is robbing them of the things that make them unique.
ReplyDelete...Why does Alan's mother believe that the Devil came upon Alan?
Izzy Szura
ReplyDeleteBlock 2
Dysart is a key character in the play. He has many inner conflicts which are revealed when he meets and starts to treat Alan. Dysart spends a lot of his time studying Greek mythology and believing that he is a real worshiper. However, after he discovers Alan's true passion he realizes that his own worship was fake and meant nothing. He is very upset about this. Another inner conflict is that he is simply not happy with the way his life is going. He is simply living an ordinary life and has let go of his dreams. He states this when he tells Alan that "Gods die". He is having a hard time with his wife who he has not even kissed in six years and has no children. These things make him very unhappy. He envy's Alan because Alan has such a strong passion and is so happy about it. Dysart wishes he could have the same feelings about something.
My question is, why does Alan want to escape his worship that he has had with the horses if it has made him so passionate and they have become so important to his life? Did he suffer during his worship? It seems as if he does want Jill and that the horses or "God's" were in his way and he didn't like that.
One major problem for Dysart is that he is irritated with himself. He has spent a majority of his own life getting inside the minds of children and trying to help them, or “carve them open”, instead of looking within at himself. He now really realizes this, with the dream he has after beginning Alan's treatment, so Dysart wishes that someone would take away his “knife”. So his inner conflict would be his happiness, or lack thereof in his workplace.
ReplyDeleteHow would the play be different without dreams, and what effect do they have on Alan, and Dysart?
Brandon Richards
Blcok 2
Dysart’s inner conflicts include his guilt at believing he has a lackluster ability to treat children the way they want to be treated medically, rather than just following basic psychological procedures to erase any pain – and passion – from their minds. He envies the passion that his patients sometimes have, and realizes that the fall to adulthood really does leave a person with a dull outlook on all that they do. The individuality he wants to be able to pride himself with is actually ruining his marriage and crushing his fantasies of becoming ever more familiar with Greek mythology.
ReplyDeleteDoes Dysart’s decision to treat Alan as he does all his patients positively represent the theme of preserved individual passion that he longs for, or does it contradict it?
Matt Brown
Block 2
Dysart suffers from his own normality. In total contrast to Alan, Dysart lacks passion, questions the purpose of his work, lacks fertility and sexual connection (“The lowest sperm count you could find.”), and is void of worship and faith in a belief system. Alan, on the other hand is intensely passionate, knows his work’s purpose in his relations to the Godslave Equus, is the epitome of fertility and sexuality, and is enveloped with his deep spiritual connections. Though Dysart’s situation is evidently characterized as negative and Alan’s as generally positive, Dysart is still considered “normal” and Alan “not normal.” Dysart is subject to depression by the reality of his inability to affect change in his patients’ lives, his inability to have children, and his inability to be passionate. He takes deep interest in Greek Mythology, which is interesting considering it is a mythical, or “dead,” belief system. Dysart is also dealing with his passivity in contrast to Alan’s activity, as illustrated in his quote “I sit looking at pages of centaurs trampling the soil of Argos-and outside my window he is trying to become one. “
ReplyDeleteWhat are the themes surrounding what is considered “normal?” Are the themes suggesting that there is no legitimate interpretation of normal, that it is merely a subjective term? or are the themes indicating that normal tendencies are real and are set out by what is considered to be socially acceptable.
One of Dysart's inner conflicts would be the lack of passion he has. Alan has this deep devotion for Equus, and Dysart feels mediocre as he touches “his reproduction statue of Dionysus.” Oddly enough, Dionysus represents passion and emotion in the concept of Apollonian and Dionysian. His sense of having Equus watching him, shows how he feels trapped and yearns for some sort of escape.
ReplyDeleteAre Alan's parents at fault for his actions? If so, to what extent? Dysart mentions “passion can be destroyed by a doctor” and “passion cannot be created,” can passion really not be created?
Cinthya Castro
Block 4
One problem Dysart faces is differentiating between what is normal and acceptable and what is not normal concerning his patients and society as a whole. When Hesther points out that Dysart is trying to “restore” Alan to a “normal life”, Dysart is taken aback by the word. In his eyes Alan is fairly normal; he is merely a boy with an intense passion for religion and horses. When Hesther emphasizes the “normal smile in a child’s eyes” opposed to “one that isn’t”, Dysart creates his theory about the normality of children and adults: the “normal is the good smile in child’s eyes”, but it is also the “dead stare in a million adults.” This problem leads to another internal conflict of Dysart’s concerning whether or not he should take Alan’s worship away. Now that Dysart realizes his form of worship of ancient Greece is mediocre compared to Alan’s intense form of worship, Dysart does not want to destroy the boys compassion in order to turn him into a “normal” emotionless drone like the rest of society. Dysart does say, “Life is only comprehensible through a thousand local Gods”, so taking away Alan’s worship would make his life meaningless, but it could also save him.
ReplyDeleteWhy is society so concerned with making everyone “normal”? Is there even a correct definition for the word? Is Alan actually causing harm to society by not being normal? Does having an overwhelming passion for something classify a person as not normal or even mad?
Amy Marshall
Block 2
Dysart is unsure if he should conform Alan to society, making him "normal", or if he should leave Alan alone, allowing him to keep his passion. Dysart is jealous of Alan's pain because he has never experienced a true passion for anything. Dysart has always been fascinated with ancient Greece, but he doesn't realize the pointlessness of this interest until he meets Alan. He comes to realize that he has never "galloped" like Alan. Dysart sees the uselessness of devoting his life to ancient gods, filling his home with photos of Greece and fake statues. When he tells Alan that gods do die, he is admitting that his fascination has no real meaning or passion, unlike Alan's worship of Equus.
ReplyDeleteWhat really is considered normal? Why are people who have different views than the rest of society considered to be strange? Why did Alan stab the horses' eyes? What caused Alan to have this worship for horses?
Eric Marshall
Block 2
I think one of Dysart's inner conflicts is his lack of social connection. Throughout the play it's evident that he envies Alan's passion for the horses and wanted such a binding relationship with something as Alan did. Dysart struggles with his job as someone that's supposed to be helping these people with issues and psychiatric problems when he has internal issues of his own, such as his marriage. Dysart's job to "normalize" his patients brings up the question in his mind as to what exactly "normal" is and whether he himself would be considered normal or just as conflicted as his patients.
ReplyDeleteWas it the heavy dedication to religion from his mother or the atheist attitude of his father that caused Alan's devotion and passion for horses to go to the extreme?
Dysart suffers from many internal conflicts that are revealed throughout the play through his interaction with the other characters. One of the more noticeable conflicts is that he struggles with the ability to have passion for things. He has never been truly passionate about anything and envies Alan because of it. Dysart feels that to have true passion for something is a beautiful thing that cannot be taught. He not only struggles with having passion for something himself, but also has difficulties deciding whether or not to take the passion Alan has away from him. Dysart believes that once you take the passion away from someone, it can never be regained. Dysart is distressed about treating his patients. He feels that making his patients normal is a horrible action. He despises the fact that he is turning his patients into “normal” citizens.
ReplyDeleteAlan attacks the horses due to the religious aspects he associates with them, how does this relate to how religion causes violence in society?
Dysart does not connect with anything, not his marriage, or his worship. His job allows him a glimpse of someone's pain and passion. IT creates a circular conflict because he sees how he hasn't let his passions be revealed and because of that he does not feel adequate to help his patients. Dysatr's obsession with ancient Greece parallels his "primitive" behavior which he feels doesn't compare to how
ReplyDelete" that freaky boy tries to conjure the reality!"
Question: How is it understood that religion and sex are not completely conflated when Alan says " I couldn't feel her flesh at all! I wanted the foam off his neck. His sweaty hide. Not flesh.Hide! Horsehide!
jalina Pittman
Blk 2
Dysart's biggest conflict is whether or not what he is doing is helping is patients or making them worse. Throughout the play, he questions if he is making Alan a normal kid or taking away from his ability to be happy through his worship of Equus. So, does Dysart have a method of worship that makes him happy?
ReplyDeleteI think that the biggest conflict Dysart faces is probably his jealousy for Alan. Dysart, lonely and trapped in a loveless marriage, yearns for excitement and love, things that Alan has experienced, and with a horse for all creatures! Dysart is faced with more conflicts while he treats Alan, including his own personal ability to help and "fix" people. He questions his own responsibility and his own actions while dealing with children and his patients, yet he feels that he hasn't truly "helped them" in the way they truly needed help. His constant dilemmas and conflicts arise with Alan's introduction as Alan seems to be the trigger for Dysart's realization of his work and duty.
ReplyDeleteEvan Jackson
Block Two :D
I believe that Dysart's major conflict is his sudden realization that he's unhappy with his life . He begins to feel as though he isn't truly helping his patients but is actually harming them . This makes him feel as though he's a danger to his patients and makes him reluctant in his treatment of Alan . More so , he realizes that maybe his unhappy marriage is his own fault . All his education and these "amazing" things that he has collected and seen may not be so amazing after all . He seems to be feeling as though he hasn't truly lived his life. These thoughts seem to have derived after encountering someone like Alan . Alan made his own happiness and pleasure , and experienced true worship . While things may have come to a terrible ending for him , Dysart can't help but be jealous by the boys experience . Before , he was the great psychologist , able to help cure people and make changes for the greater good , and now he realizes maybe it's not that meaningful . He has to take away Alan's worship in order to take away the pain . He has to make him normal , just like himself . Being that he's not happy with his "normal" self , he's not to thrilled by the idea .
ReplyDeleteMy biggest question pertains to Alan stabbing out the eyes of the horses . First, why would he do such a thing ? Second , if he hadn't committed that crime and was brought to Dysart because of his worship , would he feel the need to "fix" him ?
I feel that Dysart's biggest inner conflict, is his inability to fix himself. Dysart states that he helps all these patients lives out, but is unable to fix his love life, passion, and worship, at various points in the play. Dysart is living a hypocritical lifestyle, when he asks questions to his patients, but would not be able to answer them himself.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, is it possible to raise your children without being a hypocrite ? Can you live your life without having hypocritical aspects within it ?
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ReplyDeleteDysart's inner feelings lie with his emotions and his career. He himself has so many problems with his wife, and his whole life in general. Yet his job is curing others around him and has no time to cure himself. He is very damaged in how he has no passion in his life. There is nothing for him to look forward to or for him to look up to. He has no religious beliefs, as he has nothing that he worships with such passion. When he states that "Doctors destroy passion" it is right to say that he himself has killed his own passion. He enys Alan's passion, no matter how obscure it may be. He lacks such devotion but there's nothing he can do to fix it as proven when he says "passion cannot be created." It can also be said that he never had any passion for anything in the first place. In either reason, he can be considered just as emotionally hurt as Alan, the only difference being that Alan can be cured. Dysart however, has a long path that he must go through.
ReplyDeleteMy question lies with Alan. What makes Alan so different from other families that suffer through the same situation? Other families have parents that have conflicting beliefs, what makes them different from Alan?
Francheska Periche
Block 4
I think Dysart’s biggest inner conflict is his inability to be passionate. Aside from the fact that it is a truly tragic for someone to not be able to truly feel, really and humanly feel, it makes for such a contrast for the plays two main characters to enter each other’s world. Dysart cannot emotionally reach the level that Alan has in his worship of Equus. Alan gives himself to his worship and Dysart envies Alan for it. But not because he finds the concept of worshipping a horse to be normal, but because Alan is devoted unwaveringly to “God”- whatever his god may be. Dysart’s inner conflicts manifest into problems with his wife, obviously his inability to passionately love her. They spill over to his job because he, passionless, robs these supposed crazy people of their passion. He finds himself disgusting because of it and that the things he does are “irreversible, terminal things” because he makes shells of people who once believed they were living. It’s horrifyingly sad, but Dysart may actually hate himself for making people normal, and the “sharp chain” in his mouth is the constant reminder that he will never achieve such feeling in his life.
ReplyDeleteI want to know a broader question about the play: religion whether it be Dora worshipping Jesus or Alan worshipping Equus serves a huge centrifugal force in the conflict of the play. Is this a metaphor for worship in general? That worshipping something will drive humans away from each other and that is why the characters in this tragedy are so doomed?
Tatiana Becker
Block 4
One of Dysart’s major inner conflicts is he inability to treat Alan without taking away his passion. He feels like he will metaphorically kill Alan, or take way his innermost “ness” if he were to take away the pain that Equus is causing him. This conflict can be seen in Dysart’s dream about the mass of children he was slaughtering. He feels, like in the dream, that he is dismembering the children that he treats, and is taking away the true aspects of their personalities. Dysart also knows that if he were to treat Alan and make him “normal” he would never be able to give Alan his passion back, Alan would never be able to “gallop” again. The process of treating Alan made Dysart realize that he no longer believe in what he is doing, and that he will always be haunted by Equus and the “sharp chain” in his mouth.
ReplyDeleteand my question:
What does Dysart mean when he says his head is being held in the wrong direction? What might be holding his head the wrong way? What might this be preventing him from seeing?
One of Dysart’s inner conflicts is his want for passion. Dysart and Alan can be compared to Apollo and Dionysian. Dysart’s position as a psychiatrist reflects the qualities of an apollonian, his career requires reason, order, analysis, and research. Alan, who is driven by passion, intuition, imagination, and ritual, holds all of the Dionysian qualities Dysart wishes to possess. Dysart is jealous of Alan because he can “gallop”, being trapped inside his voice of reason and confined in the four walls of his office treating and essentially “curing” passions that he wishes he had. In doing so, it does not give him the freedom that Alan and the rest of his patients have. Alan is at a thriving, youthful, and fertile stage in his life, unlike Dysart who cannot reproduce, have a lull in his relationship with his wife, and wants to be anywhere but where he is now. Dysart’s internal conflict has to do with the struggle he has with being who he wants himself to be, yet refraining from deviating from his psychiatric work.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the borderline, if any, between passion and worship? Which would you describe Alan as having?
Cassie
Dysarts inner conflict revolves around his inability to truly feel any degree of passion. Something that Alan, his PATIENT, feels a great deal of. This leads to his second conflict which is the conflict he feels with his job in which he feels he takes the purity and true emotion from his patients and instead of treating them for being abnormal he is treating their purest and most unadultarated being.
ReplyDeleteQuestion:
Where is the irony in Dysart treating Alan so that he can become a normal member of society.
Dysart's conflict stems from his total lack of passion. He is frustrated by the idea that everything that he does is bland and purposeless. He understands the job that he's devoted most of his life too as little more then forcing people who deviate from the expected social and moral codes back on to the path that society deems "good," that being the normal. Dysart realizes that the things he does are total, ultimate things, but he can't justify, even to himself, why he does them. Thus Equus's incessant question "why me?" and and his demand that Dysart "account for me." In Dysart's mind, he is severing, as in his graphic dream, the children from fundamental parts of their person, from fundamental experiences that he himself has never had. Dysart has never galloped, and he is tormented by the knowledge that Alan has, and that he must eliminate that crucial part of Alan's being.
ReplyDeleteMy question is along the same lines of what our lit circle talked about; what is the true meaning of the word worship? Does it solely imply some sort of reverence, or can it be more broadly interpreted as desiring either freedom or beauty? And in that same vein, how does Dysart's definition of worship differ from Alan's?
Nari Kretschmer
Block 4
Dysart seems to have several inner conflicts from his infertility to his role as a doctor. The ability to create life is a powerful capability, traditionally we see reproduction as the burden of the woman, but the man's role is instrumental. Dysart must feel inferior as he cannot perform his natural duty. This leads to his other inner conflict of lacking passion. He loves Ancient Greece and yet cannot truly embrace and experience his passion like Alan can. He is torn by this even more once he comes to the realization that as a psychiatric doctor he takes away the very passion he desires to have. This is perhaps the main inner conflict as he believes that every person should be allowed to worship as many gods as possible and to explore their passions. All of these problems are tearing him apart, pushing him to have his own nightmares.
ReplyDeleteMy Question: What are the limits of true passion? If one's passion harms society (blinding horses) or harms the individual (Alan's trauma) can passion truly be limitless?
Ayanna Spencer
Block 4
Dysart’s inner conflicts include mainly his jealousy of the passion that Alan has. Though Alan is passionate about something that society would deem abnormal, Dysart is able to look past that and his passion for Equus gives his life a greater deeper meaning. Dysart is jealous of that because he does not have passion for anything. And now he feels as if taking away these children’s mental issues, he rids them of their passion and he says that “I stand in the dark with a pick in my hand, striking at heads! I need—more desperately than my children need me—a way of seeing in the dark. What way is this?” In this statement the darkness represents the passionless life Dysart leads. And striking at heads represents, Dysart using his studies to rid these passionate people of their madness.
ReplyDeleteHow do society deem what is acceptable and what is madness? And is Dysart right to think he is in the dark because even though he lacks passion, but unlike Alan he is able to think rationally?
Georgette Taluy
Block 4
Dysart struggles with his marriage, and with living his life. Day after day he sees "looney" people, people that have been deemed emotionally unstable by society but he becomes jealousy of these patients. He even suggests that Alan's judging eyes are saying to him "I've galloped, why haven't you?" There is this dichotomy within him, one, he is married to an average women, has a good job, and fixes people so they can become normal, while the other part of him wants to become like his patients, free, free to act however, worship however. He's haunted everyday by the fact that he takes a part of these children away from them by "fixing" them a part of their personality and what makes them, them. Its like the Freudian Id, and Ego, and Superego. He wants to fulfill his desires and indulge, but can't because he must uphold societies standards. The dream Dysart has when he is cutting open children, thats him taking a piece out of them, so they are never the same, suggesting that he is actually damaging them. What a burden to hold on to!
ReplyDeleteWhat is the "darkness" that is inside of Dysart? And who decides who has passionate pain and who doesn't? We discussed in class that passion is associated with pain, and the play suggests only few every reach that level of passion for something, but why do some experience that and others don't? Dysart who is completely aware of great passion for something, and knows what he is missing in his life but yet cannot have that passion, why?
Block 2
Sarah Hall
One of Dysart's major inner conflicts is when it comes to "fixing" ill, or like Alan, passionate patients. Hester sees normal as "the smile in a cholds eye" while Dysart questions his ability and the morality of determining what he is acctually doing to these children. Dysart feels, by taking away a childs passion or worship, that this is the epitamy of determining what is "normal". A prime exeplification of this questionaing comes in the form of a dream when Dysart invisions disecting and cutting apart children. By taking "there entrails" he is taking away these childrens lives essentialy.
ReplyDeleteDysart's main inner conflict throughout the play is the dichotomy he feels toward his societal obligation as a psychologist and the feelings that he is taking away Alan's system of worship. He feels that by performing his duties, he will succeed in making Alan a more functioning member of society, and probably even make him happier. The downside of this is that by doing this, he would be taking something fundamentally important away from him. Alan's system of worship will be replaced by a mainstream, and dispassionate version that is not unique to him and therefore not nearly as potent as his original system of worship.
ReplyDeleteRev. Mack Kennedy