Plato and Equus
Plato once said that man is a being in search of meaning. In Peter Shaffer's disturbing play, Equus, psychologist Martin Dysart and his patient, Alan Strang, are searching for meaning. Alan Strang has chosen the path of nonrationalism to give him this meaning. He worships Equus a God that he has taken from parts of Christianity and has assumed its form of that of a horse. Martin Dysart at first glance is a man of reason. He is a overworked psychiatrist who helps people become healthy and rational again. Dysart feels he is missing a sense of meaning in his life and sees that his young patient, Strang, has that sense of meaning and is ambivalent as to whether he should take that from Alan by "curing" him. Plato, the preeminent rationalist would find fault with both characters. Plato would be even more disappointed with Dysart. According to Plato rationality is the only way to understand the world. Dysart is an educated man, he spent years studying to become what he is today, a psychiatrist, and has thereby remembered more of the innate knowledge that is within all of us. While Strang has given himself over to nonrationalism and Dysart should know better than to do the same.Alan Strang's behavior is bizarre to say the le
To Plato rationalism is necessary to be truly happy and it is sufficient to explain the world. It is also a view that can carry us through difficult times, such as rough spots in one's marriage. Dysart is flirting with letting his appetites take over. His lust for emotions and even lust itself are threatening to consume him. As a psychiatrist in his training he must have covered Plato's concepts of The Forms and The Good. He should know better. What Strang has is not a sense of meaning rather it is madness. Dysart just needs to return to rationalism and things will be just fine again. ast. One does not have to be a Platonist to find his actions puzzling. When Alan Strang worships Equus he takes out one of the horses from the stable where he works and rides naked on it and experiences sexual climax. He then kneels down in supplication to his "God." According to Plato, Strang is far from the ideal condition of the human soul. Plato stated that the ideal human soul is rational. He or she makes sense. Reason is sufficient to carry us through even the most difficult of times. Plato's metaphysics is dualism. While this world is constantly changing it is not really Real. The Real is the world of the forms. Strang has taken the notion of The Good and perverted it. He is obsessed with horses. While his concern is the god-hood that is in all horses, this view is not the Platonic ideal. It is far from it. The god-hoodness of the horses is one that exists in this world, not in the world of the forms. Plato would find Strang's behavior unhealthy and wrong but he wouldn't necessarily blame him.
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Approximate Word count = 1092
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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