Equus (Act I - Scene 07)

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Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Vocabulary 2 Plot summary 2.1 Characters involved 2.2 Plot 3 Interpretation 4 Go to

[Bearbeiten] Vocabulary

page	English	English explanation	German translation
31	pagan	sb. who has little or no religion	Heide, heidnisch
31	nostril	a horse's nose	Nüster
31	splendid	famous	glanzvoll, herrlich
32	to assume	to guess, to suppose	vermuten
32	to pester	to go on sb's nerves	nerven, drängen
32	stable	place where horses live in	Stall
32	to indulge	show sympathy	Nachsicht haben/zeigen
32	to rake	clean sth up in a garden or park	rechen
32	manure	dirt in a stable	Stallmist
33	peculiar	special, strange, weird	eigenartig
33	to eavesdrop	listen covertly	abhören, belauschen
33	daresay...	I risk to say	Ich wage zu sagen...
33	anguish	to feel ashamed for sth	Pein
34	susceptibilities	to be open for sth	Empfindlichkeit
34	kinky	abnormal	pervers
34	insuperable	can't left by side	unüberwindlich
35	sob	a sorrowful noise	Schluchzen

[Bearbeiten] Plot summary

[Bearbeiten] Characters involved

• Martin Dysart
• Alan Strang
• Frank Strang
• Dora Strang

[Bearbeiten] Plot

In Scene 7 Dysart visits the Strangs’ house. At the beginning Mr. Strang is absent which gives Dysart the time to talk to Mrs. Strang, Dora. The reader finds out, that Mr. Strang is not very religious by Dora saying: "He doesn’t set much store by Sundays." (p.30, l.5). She claims that Alan loves horses, because he always got excited when she reads over and over again the same book about a horse to him – the horse is called “Prince” and lets nobody ride on it except for its young master. Alan even has a picture of a horse in his room.

Mrs. Strang told him some passages of the Bible where horses are involved. She is presented as a religious person and is able to recite big parts of the book of Job including a scene with the beloved animals. Also, she was the one who told Alan about the Latin word for horse which is “Equus”. Dysart finds out that Alan went to watch Western movies at a neighbor’s house secretly – without telling anything to Mr. Strang. It quickly appears that Mrs. Strang and Mr. Strang have extremely different points of view in regard of religion and education.

Mr. Strang comes in; Dora leaves the scenery for a moment to make some tea. That gives Dysart the opportunity to talk to Mr. Strang in private. Mr. Strang admits he is an atheist and blames the Bible for Alan’s terrible crime. He cannot understand that his wife is telling the boy all those Bible stories and that Alan is so fascinated of them. Dysart hears about Alan's disability to write properly (he can hardly write his name!). Alan worked in a shop selling electrical and kitchenware.

Mrs. Strang appears again and Dysart goes on asking questions, for example one about sex. He asks what Alan might have known about it and receives the answer that Mrs. Strang informed him about some biological facts as well as she told him sex was “not just a biological matter” (p.35, l.4). Thinking of Alan she breaks down in sobs; her only comment to this is “All right – laugh! Laugh, as usual!” (p. 25, l.12).

[Bearbeiten] Interpretation

In this scene it becomes badly apparent that Alan's parents, Frank and Dora, work against each other. Their opinions are very different and if there's the opportunity to run each other down they jump at the chance.

Mrs. Strang shows peradventure through holding her hands tightly together by motion Dysart to sit down. She's scared of Dysart's questions and afraid of getting blamed for Alan's act. Also the relationship between Alan and horses becomes more clearly. Already as a young boy he loved horses and Westerns. His mother was happy about it and showed him that horses play a role in the bible, too. The song they learned by rote was on one hand an alliance between Dora and Alan and on the other hand a contact to the bible. Along the way Dora used Alan's interest for horses to give him an understanding of the bible.

By letting him slip off at the afternoon to a friend’s house, Dora got Alan's confidence. But she did it without her husband's knowledge. That's one of the points she worked against him and his education. You can see, by Frank entering the door, Alan lies back under the blanket. He wants to avoid that Frank sees him or wants to talk to him. The relationship between father and son isn't good.

With saying "I told him how that came from Equus... Alan was fascinated by that word... I suppose because he'd never come across one with two U's together before.", Dora reveals why Alan calls his master "Equus". It fascinates him and was an important moment in his life.

When Dora leaves the room, Frank starts talking about their marriage. Through some comments he shows Mr.Dysart that they have a lot of problems. Also Frank feels, that Dora thinks her opinion is more important than his own. He's very sick about it and blames the religion for it. He blames the religion for every problem inside the family, also the act of Alan.

Especially the last part of the scene, with Dora lying on the floor and crying " Laugh! Laugh as usual!" demonstrates the bad relationship between the couple. You don't really know what she means, but she shows anger and frustration through her reaction.

[Bearbeiten] Go to

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