Equus
...g a psychiatrist. Slicing open children and ripping out their intestines. This signifies taking out what makes a person unique. This dream personifies what psychiatry is, its fitting everyone into one mold, taking out their originality and destroying their passion. The next day he starts his investigation of Alan. Trying to piece together his life to find out how he got to the breaking point. He learns of the religion that Alan created around Equus. His mother had brought him up to be very religious by reading to him from the bible and Alan drew a connection between horses the Jesus. That was the foundation for his religion. The picture of a horse had even replaced a picture of Jesus above his bed. He would pray to Equus at night. He had invented prayers and would kneel on front the picture saying, “Prince beget Prince and Parnce beget Prankus…” He would even have ritual ridings in the field of Ha-Ha. This was where Alan could be one with his God, Equus. As Dysart was learning more and more about Alan’s religion he began to question his own life, faith and profession. He had settled for a dull life and was only lusting after passion and here a boy had mastered it. He says to Hester on page 82, “But that boy has known a passion more fierce that I have even felt in any second on my like. And let me tell you something: I envy it.” He has seen that true passion is obtainable and is jealous that he won’t even have that kind of passion. He knows that he has to bring him back to normal and take away everything that Alan has created. This brings him back to the dream, ripping out what is unique about Alan and he can make him normal now. He has discovered something very important about normalcy, it lakes passion. “Passion, you see. Can be destroyed by a doctor. It cannot be created.” (Pg. 107) While Dysart can destroy Alan’s passion it is impossible for him to create his own. Dysart knows that a normal life is a terrible life, he himself is living it. He is finding no satisfaction in Psychiatry and he tries to warn Alan about what his life will be. “When Equu...