Normality In Peter Shaffer's Equus

"The normal is the good smile in a child's eyes—all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults. It both sustains and kills—like a God" (Shaffer 62). Normality exists in a medical textbook; weight of this number, intelligence quotient of this quantity, social functioning of this quality. Alan Strang and Victor of Aveyron fail to meet standards of normality. In Peter Shaffer’s Equus, Dr. Martin Dysart attempts to normalize his patient Alan. In François Truffaut’s L'Enfant Sauvage (1970), Dr. Jean Itard sought to domesticate the wild boy. Both Dysart and Itard feel as if their endeavors may be futile. The doctors feel jealousy for the states in which their patients exist. The trials of the strenuous mentally-performed surgery the doctors
Both cannot function the way they “should” in society. But still, Dysart and Itard are jealous of the social pariahs. Dysart’s life, professional and otherwise, is absent of passion. Absent, except for Alan, and Alan’s anomalous case of severe spirituality worshiping the horse God Equus. Alan is a burst of passion and meaning in Dysart’s life, though the case forces an uncomfortable self-reflection onto the psychiatrist. "I'm jealous, Hesther. Jealous of Alan Strang" (81). I must ask, does this jealousy expose Dysart’s practice as a selfish endeavor veiled by philanthropic effort; does he want to help Alan for the chief effect of self-understanding? Alan’s carnal expressions are uncorrupted by the same society that Dysart allows himself to be held back by, so I’d have to reason the answer is yes, Dysart acts for
Normalizing patients is what connects the life of Dr. Istard with Dr. Dysart. This may not be the best or most effective path for either of the doctors in treating their patients, but the dogma of socio-psychological belief keeps them on this path. Traveling down this path makes Dysart and Istard feel like their actions are useless. They are fascinated, and at the same time disgusted, and simultaneously jealous. Trying to will their patients to normality reveals the benefits of absolute normality (though this in itself may be a contradiction, as one with no abnormalities is in of himself abnormal);