In order to be able to answer this question, the play needs to be approached from two different points of view. The first one would be the real world, a world where such an act is not only not blamed, but fully not understood and catalogued as a psychiatric problem. On the other hand, we have the "equus" world, created by the author to support such acts. As Peter Shaffer himself states, equus "creates a mental world in which the deed could be made comprehensible"1.

Hesther gives the best overall evaluation of what the real world thinks of the act: "the boy's in pain...That's all I see"2. This is an obvious reaction that many people have when faced with something they do not understand, especially with an individual's own beliefs and reactions, too deep and obscure to be considered anything else than a problematic pain. For all members of the real world, Alan Strang is in pain, his act was caused by inner sufferance.

On the other hand, we have the "equus" world, a mythological world born from Alan's imagination. T

here are no rules in the "equus" world or rather there are different rules, rules that only the priests of the horse-god can understand and put into practice. Most important of all, Alan's imagination plays the demiurgic role and creates the status necessary for all actions. Rather than a deregulated world, the "equus" world is a world with rules of its own and a way of functioning that cannot be understood.

In this sense, we may turn to the real world explanations and dispose of our problem simply by stating that the boy is mentally disturbed. Our rules would be enough to thus label him, because, according to the real world, blinding six horses with a spike is an act of madness. This is one of the solutions to our problem we need to consider: the boy was mad. He is now being treated by a reputed psychiatrist who goes to any length to explain what happened. Unfortunately, the psychiatrist does not allow us to fully adopt this solution. He is the one that unveils Alan's imagination and who shows us that there is definitely more to the matter than this.

The presentation was necessary in order to adapt the solutions to the problem, as it was described in the initial paragraph, from several different perspectives. First of all, the imaginary perspective, as it appears in A

Some common words found in the essay are:
Devil Alan's, Martin Dysart, Health Priest3, Alan Strang, , Peter Shaffer, real world, According Normal, equus world, alan's imagination, blinds horses, alan blinds horses, rules imaginary world, hand equus, world world, world act, rules imaginary, world rules, priests horse-god, hand equus world,
Approximate Word count = 869
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)