Character
Tracking - Dysart
Character
Description:
Dysart is portrayed as an expert psychiatrist
who does not feel satisfied with both the work he does,
and his life at home because of marital issues. As a result he turns to his
coworker, Hesther, for company. Dysart’s struggles
with his role as ‘chief priest’ of the god of ‘The Normal’ are best suggested
by his reoccurring dream about slicing open hundreds of children in order to
offer them as a sacrifice to Zeus. Through the course of the dream Dysart’s
conviction begins to waver and he ultimately wonders whether ‘this repetitive
and smelly work is doing any social good at all.’ (25). Initially Dysart is
able to counter Alan’s attempts at avoiding questions but as the play goes on,
he becomes more and more confused and we sense a growing disillusionment with,
and uncertainty about, his work as a psychiatrist.
Quotations
& Analysis:
|
19 |
“Madam Chairman! Welcome to the
torture chamber!” |
This line introduces Dysart’s
darkly sarcastic side and continues to establish him as a world-weary expert.
The humour here implies an intimacy in the
relationship between him and Hesther but the
darkness also hints at his jaded disillusionment and although he jokes, the
impression created is that Dysart is actually acknowledging a half admitted
truth while using humour (like the mask in his
dream) to hide the fact that he has lost faith in something else that
everyone believes in. |
|
19 |
“No - just a fifteen-year-old
thrashed into catatonia by her father. |
This quotation quickly helps to
reinforce the impression that we get of Dysart as jaded and disillusioned as
it suggests that he has come to regard what would normally be quite shocking
to the general populace as normal, indeed it has even become the subject of
dark humor. |
|
19 |
“Benett
and Thoroughgood. They’ll be as shocked as the
public.” |
Hester’s assertion that only
Dysart will be able to really understand Alan’s story and help him suggests
that Dysart Is different to most other people and either suggests that Dysart
is more open minded than others or that his definition of normal clashes with
the rest of the public, and indeed that of two other psychiatrists. In this
way Dysart, like Alan, is marked out as being different from regular society
similar to Alan, and this perhaps foreshadows Dysart’s willingness to discuss
the value of norms normally held as sacrosanct and the connection between the
characters that we see develop later. |
|
21 |
“What did I expect of him? Very
little, I promise you.” |
We see that Dysart is initially
unimpressed upon hearing about Alan’s case. He seems to think of Alan as just
another patient that he will have to “adjust and this in part suggests
Dysart’s professional confidence that he will be easily able to cure Alan.
However, when coupled with the following lines about ‘One more dented little
face. One more adolescent freak.’
it also reveals his blasé attitude to his patients and his disenchantment
with his profession. Dysart appears dull and hollow here, as in he has become
inured to he suffering of others and sees no real value in the ‘adjustments’
he performs. The fact that he initially believes that Alan’s case will be
unremarkable contrasts with the profound effect that Alan subsequently has on
him and the significant and profound questions that Alan’s treatment raise. One interesting implication of
the fact that this play is told in retrospect from Dysart’s point of view is
that we can never be sure how significant Alan really is. Dysart claims that
he is not having a ‘professional menopause’ … but perhaps he is, and in this
case his presentation of Alan would reveal far more about the doctor than it
does of the patient. |
|
23 |
“you
know, I was wrong. I really do think that one’s better.” |
This line shows Dysart toying
with Alan and is used to establish Dysart’s expertise as it appears that Alan
has not previously encountered an adult who has not been fazed by his singing
of jingles. Dysart’s ability to neutralize Alan in this way establishes him
as the dominant partner in the relationship and perhaps explains why Alan
subsequently opens up more to Dysart than he has to anyone else previously. |
|
23 |
“By the way, which parent is it
who won’t allow you to watch television? Mother or Father? Or is it both? ….
Nurse!” |
This flourish of expertise
shows how good Dysart is at his job, and how insightful he can be. This
establishes him as the dominant partner in his relationship with Alan as he
understands him in a way that no one else does and this impression is
reinforced when he sends Alan off when he wishes by calling the nurse thereby
cutting off any further comments from Alan. |
|
24 |
“Then, with surgical skill that
amazes even me, I fit in the knife and slice elegantly…” |
This line from Dysart’s dream,
which sees him slicing open hundreds of children as a sacrifice, is obviously
representative of Dysart’s profession as a psychiatrist where he
metaphorically dissects the minds of troubled children. However, in the dream
this dissection has lost its connotations of medical treatment (dissection is
obviously a medical term) and has taken on the appearance of a sacrifice.
This difference is significant as ‘treatment’ is obviously intended to
benefit the patient while sacrifice is only intended to appease a god. A further interesting aspect of
this quotation is the sense of distance with which Dysart talks about
himself. Although this could be interpreted as a natural part of a dream,
this distance seems to suggest Dysart’s horrified fascination with himself,
almost as if he cannot believe how proficient he has become at such a
potentially destructive job. |
|
24 |
“The only thing is, unknown to
them, I’ve started to feel distinctly nauseous...Of course, I redouble my efforts to look professional.” |
This extract from Dysart’s
dream about ‘carving up children’, which is recalled in an aside to the
audience, continues to hint at his disillusionment with psychiatry and the
value of ‘the normal’. Dysart’s efforts to keep his failing conviction from
showing by hiding behind the mask suggest that he fears becoming disconnected
from what everyone else views as normal and in this way we can see a close
parallel with Alan who, despite being devoted to his god Equus,
also appears to want to be cured at points. In this way we can see that the
two characters trace paths that head in opposite directions as we progress
through the play: Alan starts of as strange, eventually to become normalised |
|
35 |
“What sort of thing did you
tell him? I’m sorry if this is embarrassing” |
The concern here and
professionalism suggests Dysart’s sincerity and sensitivity |
|
37 |
“[controlling himself]” |
Dysart’s reaction to Alan’s
question regarding his wife is telling, as it indicates something of his
troubled married life. This quotation stands out because Dysart has
previously dealt with Alan’s provocations, such as the advertisement by
responding calmly, e.g. “Please
do that one again.” (p. 23). This suggests that his wife is something of a
‘raw nerve’ for Dysart or, as he puts it in his own words, his area of
maximum vulnerability. |
|
46 |
“[to audience]: It was then -
that moment - I felt real alarm. Why was it? The shadow of a giant head
across my desk?” |
This was in response to Dora’s
revelation that Frank had replaced the poster of Christ with a poster of a
horse staring straight on at Alan. The fact that Dysart feels alarm because
of Alan, and openly with the audience, suggests an equality
between the patient and the doctor fact which in turn implies that the
“exacting” and “antiseptic” way in which Dysart carries out his profession
has now been compromised. This “alarm” that Dysart feels is comparable to
that which Alan feels in the presence of Equus, who
always watches, and acts as a sort of source of restraint, doubt and fear for
Alan. In this quotation, Shaffer indirectly compares Alan to Equus, a “shadow of a giant head across [Dysart’s] desk.”
The image of a shadow evokes a sense of something half-there, half-not, like
a haunting nagging presence.
Perhaps this image of a shadow of a giant head, this indirect metaphor
that depicts Alan as somewhat like Equus for
Dysart, conveys the idea that there are aspects of Alan that, like Equus, incite feelings of fear, of being watched,
self-doubt, accusation and inferiority. |
|
62 |
“... One instinctive,
absolutely unbrisk person I could take to |
In this quotation, Dysart
speaks to Hesther about his jealousy of Alan, who
at least manages to live for “lone hour every three weeks”. He speaks about
the importance of worship, be it of gods or of regular inanimate objects like
trees or slate roofs and as such this quotation indirectly characterizes
Dysart as extremely self-aware, introspective and as a man who has extreme
insight into the human spirit, not just the mind. As a psychiatrist he has
access to the “black Moreover, in the quotation
“Worship as many as you can see - and more will appear!” Shaffer empowers the
human beings who worship rather than the idol being worshipped by implying
that Gods are arbitrary and manmade and that this is what makes worship such
a beautiful, humanistic aspect of life. In this way Shaffer explores the
complex dynamic between worshipper and worshipped, between power and
submission and reveals how worship need not involve slavish obedience to a
higher being but can be celebratory. These contradictions perhaps echo the
naming of Equus the “Godslave”,
an obvious conflation of those in power and those not which suggests the way
in which the worshipper can be both the creator and the acolyte. |
|
65 |
“The |
This quotation once again
exemplifies how extremely self-aware Dysart is, especially of the inherently
paradoxical way in which he is acting compassionately by helping to normalize
people while at the same time robbing them of that which makes them unique.
Here Shaffer explores the paradoxical nature of Normality by exploring
contradictory aspects of psychiatry which “both sustains and kills like a
God”, it’s “lethal”, and it is “murderous” yet
“indispensable” - and Dysart is the executor of this paradox. There is a
beautiful simplicity and honesty in his claim that his “compassion is honest”
which contrasts markedly with the figurative and elaborate language in the
lines quoted which makes his compassion seem almost secondary or marginal,
even though it is his main motivator. Thus Shaffer outlines the main internal
conflict that plagues Dysart throughout the play - having to choose between
admiring the purity of Alan’s passion and individuality or reintegrating him
into a society where he will be accepted but only at the cost of sharing the
‘dead stare’ that can also be found in the eyes of a million adults. |
|
75 |
“[ALAN leads NUGGET out the
square. DYSART rises. The horse walks away up the tunnel and disappears. The
boy comes downstage and sits on the bench DYSART has vacated. DYSART crosses
downstage and moves slowly up round the circle, until he reaches the central
entrance to the square.]” |
This is the second stage
direction at the opening of Act 2. The first describes “DYSART [as he] sits
on the downstage bench where he began in Act One.” (75) At the beginning of
Act 2, Dysart also begins with the same line of dialogue as he did at the
beginning of the play - “With one particular horse, called Nugget, he
embraces.” However, in this instance, “The boy comes downstage and sits on
the bench Dysart has vacated”, displacing Dysart in his almost symbolic seat
of authority, as Dysart crosses downstage and stands where Alan has just
left. This very visual, extremely explicit show of an exchanging of position
between Dysart and Alan marks the point in the play where Shaffer has shifted
the focus of the “dissecting theatre” somewhat from Alan to Dysart. In this
monologue, he once again breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience as
he nears the peak of his internal conflict: “These questions, these Whys are
fundamental - yet they have no place in a consulting room. So then, do I?” |
|
85 |
“Alan - look. Everything I say
has a trick or catch. Everything I do is a trick or catch. That’s all I know
to do. But they work - and you know that. Trust me. [pause]” |
In this quotation, Dysart
introduces Alan to the supposed “truth drug”. This is the third attempt on
Dysart’s part to evoke sharing from Alan, the first being the use of the tape
recorder in the middle of Act 1 and the successful attempt at hypnotism at
its end. This quotation sums up Dysart’s and Alan’s relationship at this
point as Dysart speaks plainly and honestly showing not only his
self-awareness both of himself as a psychiatrist (“that’s all I know to do”)
and the profession of psychiatry itself (“everything is a trick or catch”),
but also explicitly acknowledging that Alan is completely aware of this and
wishes to play along. The final, simply put sentence of “Trust me” further
emphasizes the frankness and openness of this moment, as does the pause when
Alan considers this implied offer of Normality. |
Dysart’s
Role in the Play:
Dysart’s most obvious role in the play
is to act as a chorus-like figure and lead us through the plot while providing
the audience with a deeper insight into the characters on stage, the issues
being raised and, as a result, the psyche of the audience themselves. The
doctor is used by Shaffer to explore the fact that it seems that a passionate
and individually fulfilling life can only be lived at the cost of being branded
socially abnormal. This contradiction is perhaps best embodied in the dilemma
that Dysart faces when he questions whether “adjusting” the children who are
brought to him is really worth the loss of the faith and passion that will need
to be sacrificed in order to make their rehabilitation possible.
Additionally, Dysart’s ‘psychic
dissection’ of his patient is used to reveal how Alan came to develop his own
series of unconventional and unorthodox views and this becomes a tool that in
turn enables Shaffer to explore how ‘normal’ and conventional beliefs are
formed. Although Dysart and Alan come from two different worlds with Dysart
being a successful, respected psychiatrist and Alan being a ‘modern citizen for
which a society does not exist”, the juxtaposition between the two enables audiences
to realize the arbitrariness and triviality of how all beliefs, orthodox or
not, are formed.
Finally, Dysart is also used to explore
the importance of passion in life and it is clear that his enchantment with Ancient
Greece parallels, in a subdued from, Alan’s passionate devotion to Equus. Dysart’s reflections on the value of passion are in
turn meant to make the audience think about their own society and the
importance / absence of passion in their own lives. Thus his journey of exploration
and self-discovery in Equus serves as the main
vehicle through which audiences are encouraged to undergo a similar journey.