Confiding in the Confidant
...cy and the pleasure he feels for Equus and his made-up deity. It would be easy for Dysart to leave Alan be and let him continue with his equine obsession, however, his behavior is neither socially acceptable, nor is it harmless. Dysart struggles with the idea of curing Alan. He vents to Hesther, “All right! I’ll take it away! He’ll be delivered from madness. What then? He’ll feel himself acceptable! What then? Do you think feelings like his can be simply re-attached, like plasters? ... My desire might be to make this boy an ardent husband ... my achievement, however, is more likely to make a ghost! ... and send him puttering off into the Normal world, “‘You ever tell anyone where animals are treated properly: made extinct, or put into servitude, or tethered all their lives in dim light, just to feed it! I’ll give him the good Normal where we’re tethered beside them - blinking our nights away in a non-stop drench of cathode-ray over our shriveling heads!” (107-108) Shaffer’s reason for concluding the play with this speech is to show how the obsession with finding normality has destroyed our lives. Human beings no longer have anything to live for. Alan, a simple boy who had his unorthodox beliefs and rituals, was sublimely happy when he was surrounded by his equine gods, and Dysart is frustrated that he is forced to painfully remove all passion and fervor from Alan’s mind leaving him personality-less. One infers that Alan has difficultly interacting with other people of his age. Alan is seventeen, and the reader does not see him interacting with anyone his age besides the girl, Jill. The reader can tell that he is not comfortable with her nor does he trust her when he threatens her, “‘You ever tell anyone. Just you tell ... ‘” (103). When she replies, “‘Who do you think I am? ... I’m your friend - Alan ... Listen: you don’t have to do anything. Try to realize that. Nothing at all. Why don’t we just lie here together in the straw. And talk.’”(103) the reader knows that either, Alan is not accustomed to being with people his age, and does not know how friendships work, or, he is extremely paranoid. He does not seem to go out with people his age but spends his weekends working in an electrical shop, and cleaning up the stables. Even though Alan has committed a most heinous crime, the reader ends up having sympathy, and some sort of understanding for Alan and his motives. Shaffer’s writing evokes certain feelings of pity and disgust. At the beginning of the play, one feels as if Alan is annoying, unruly, and disrespectful. He only speaks in commercial jingles, and i...