Equus Analysis

In line with these themes of tragedy and self-chastisement we find the story of Equus (1977). Equus is a 1977 British-American drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, with a screenplay written by Peter Shaffer, based on his original play, Equus (Smith 2015 : Online). Peter Shaffer was inspired to write the play when he heard of a crime involving a 17-year-old who blinded six horses in a small town near Suffolk, England. He then set out to create a fictional account of the incident (Smith 2015 : Online).

The film and play are somewhat of a detective story, involving psychiatrist Dr. Martin Dysart who takes on the unusual case of Alan Strang, a teenager who has been accused of brutally blinding six horses. Dysart begins to learn more about Alan’s

The replacement image also explains Alan’s transfer of religious devotion from Biblical characters to horses.

Fig 1. The Replacement Image of a Horse. Equus. 1977. Film. Directed by Sidney Lumet. UK: Wincast Film Productions.

According to Freud, within the traditional Oedipus complex the child must identify with the same-sex parent in order to resolve the conflict. Freud suggests that while the primal id wants to eliminate the father, the more realistic ego knows that the father is much stronger (Freud 1923 : 33).

The child then feels what is called ‘castration anxiety’, which is said to be a fear of both literal and figurative, or metaphorical, emasculation - thus a fear is created within the child that his father will castrate him as a punishment for desiring his mother (Cherry 2015 : Online).

Within the traditional Oedipus complex model, in order to resolve this conflict the boy identifies with his father, which initiates the formation of the inner moral authority of the superego, an internalisation of the father figure that aims to suppress the urges of the id and make the ego act upon the idealistic morals of the superego (Cherry 2015 :