Peter Shaffer Essays

In “The Metamorphosis”, we have a son who had given everything and had devoted himself to help his family. It is so, that he worked himself until he was nothing, but a useless insect and was alienated from his family circle, the people he tried to truly help. He gave his all, and that wasn’t enough to be accepted and helped after he became this “monster”. We have a character that his work made him become almost nothing, he was rejected by his family and even though he was in this complex situation

At first glance, a "house" and a "home" are the same words. Both describe a place where someone lives, but with a deeper look at the words, we find that a house is simply just a building. A home is much more complicated than that. It is filled with objects and memories, which grow and change along with the family inside of it. Home is a place we come back to after a long day's work, the place where we go to seek shelter and protection. When the world outside is constantly changing the home remains

The play Equus written by Peter Schaffer offers a compelling exploration of societal norms, more importantly the rigidity of society through its portrayal of the character Alan Strang. Alan’s unusual behavior and unique perspective driven by his passionate nature, challenge these conventional norms, allowing the audience to draw meaningful insights on the current boundaries imposed on individuality. Alan Strang emerges as a socially awkward character who defies societal norms in multiple ways.

In “Equus”, written by Peter Shaffer, each horse sports a bit that restrains him and hands total control over to his master. At night, chains encircle and bind the stables horses from wandering off into the wilderness. Day in and day out, they’re held back from the freedom that they so desperately desire; however, these metal shackles represent more than physical confinement; they amplify the literal meaning of the piece by being an ominous reflection of Dr. Dysart’s work as a therapist, they symbolize

1. How did the absence of religion within the story affect the traits displayed by the characters in terms of immorality? The Great Gatsby touches themes like infidelity, deception, and a number of what people can consider as immoral acts throughout the story. There have been many notions considering the 1920s as an era of radical extremes, economic disparities, division of social classes, and moral callousness. The author wanted to pattern and group the characters in such a way that emphasizes

Why some people cannot escape from criminal activities while others never have any problems has been examined for decades. The study of criminology targets why individuals commit crimes and why criminals behave in certain situations. This criminology research helps to break down a true story on the film “Blow” which tells the story of George Jung, one of the most significant drug traffickers in the United States in the 1970’s. The film depicts several criminal theories on why George lived his life

The World of Family in “The Outsiders” Imagine a world without family… Without Mom, Without Dad Family, without a doubt, is one of the most significant things in this world. Just like it is important in the world, it is also crucial in “The Outsiders,” a novel written S.E Hinton. The novel depicts two weeks in the life of a 14 year old boy, Ponyboy Curtis. The book tells his story and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he is not a part of. Family plays a large role

In Equus by Peter Shaffer, a psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, begins to question his career. He has a dream where he is physically hurting children and wonders if the dream is directly connected to what he does in his job. Dysart believes that he is harming children. Dysart has a vivid dream about cutting up children. He is clinically participating in an ancient Greek ritual as a chief priest. He is describing his dream to the audience. “In it I’m a chief priest in Homeric Greece. I’m wearing a wide

Introduction: The play entitled Equus was written by Peter Shaffer in 1973. It is play about a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man in the character of Alan Strang a boy who is a strange and has religious fascination with horses. In an age of 17 he was engaged with a crime blinding six horses with spike. The main theme of the play seeks to challenge the typical ideas of normal. “The word abnormal is used in several different senses and also in various combinations. The major dimensions

blinded six horses using a metal stake, Peter Shaffer wrote Equus uninformed of the actual reasons of him doing so. Shaffer not only weaved in theories of Behaviorism and Freudian psychology into the plot and the minds of few characters to enhance the feasibility of his argument, but also to expose the imperfections of the society. At the beginning of the play, Dysart tells Hesther of his weird dream where he becomes "a chief priest in Homeric Greece “(Shaffer.1.5.42) In his description of the explicit

Influences can shape who a person might turn out to be and tend to either have positive responses or extremely negative ones. However, in Peter Shaffer’s Equus, Alan Strang, a troubled seventeen year old, has created his own downfall by responding horribly to the influences in his life. He commits a violently heinous crime due to his own deep, devoted passion for his god, Equus. Alan Strang’s impressionable behavior and vulnerable mental health all played huge roles in influencing him to commit

Hamlet and Agamemnon are both extraordinary plays that deal with big themes, such as; Love, Loss, Pride, the abuse of power, and distraught relationships between men and Gods. The protagonists, Hamlet and Agamemnon, are both of high status, and both commit terrible crimes without realizing their arrogance or foolishness. Hamlet is more tragic than Agamemnon for various reasons including, the nobility and bravery, multiple deaths, and honorable military service in Hamlet. Hamlet is good, kind, noble

The Truman Show is a 1998 film directed by Peter Weir, and using countless hidden messages, warns the modern society against the power of the media and reality television. The movie stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, who is unknowingly broadcasted on a live, 24/7 television show. Having been chosen out of six unwanted pregnancies, Truman was adopted and raised in Seahaven, an artificial island enclosed in a large dome, but does not know this. To keep his show successful, the director and creator

Utopia to Dystopia: The Collapse of Animal Farm The attempt at creating a utopian society led the animals closer to a dystopia. The novel Animal Farm demonstrates that a fantasy paradise is unattainable and is parallel to the attempt of the Soviet Union. As leaders, the pigs paraphrased the rules, and made themselves as superior to the working class of animals. Not all the animals acknowledge the idea of a farm governed by animals and disregard the rules. The corrupting effect of power has divided

The story “Smoke” composed by Ila Mehta is narration of the life of a widow who also happens to be a doctor. The story line is generated along the confines of the life of the doctor. The main character the story is Shubha the widow doctor. She is the protagonist of the story while the antagonist of the story is her mother-in-law, Ba. The story is developed at time when Shubha mother-in-law is about to return and she will have to go and pick her at the train station. At the start of the story she

Rationale Animal Farm is a political allegory that represents the Russian Revolution but instead of people the author, George Orwell, decided to use animals. Also the book emphasizes the communist system at that time but in the story the animals called Animalism. In this written assignment I will create a new character called Tornado who tries to save Boxer after Napoleon lied to the animals and called the Horse Slaughterer to kill Boxer instead of the hospital because he was sick, but Tornado can’t

When reading the famous novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it is easy to get caught up in the main character, Jay Gatsby. After all, the novel is about him, right? While the focus is Gatsby, characters like Jordan Baker also play an important role in furthering the story. Jordan Baker is a friend of Daisy Buchanan, the love of Gatsby’s life; she spends endless hours in Daisy’s company. She also acts as the causal lover of the narrator, Nick Carraway and tells him the story of Jay Gatsby’s

By examining the actions of the characters in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams,The Truman Show, and “The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber, the reader can see each character struggles with and withdrawals from their realities. We also see the author gives each character a way to make their realities a little better. Throughout each story, each character struggles to accept their realities. A struggle with acceptance was shown in “The Glass Menagerie” when Tom was arguing

Introduction I chose the topic disguise and mistaken identities, I chose this topic because I found it interesting how Shakespeare made connections with the Victorian culture of disguises and mistaken identities in his work, it is also interesting to see how disguise was used centuries ago. I found some interesting connections to Shakespearean plays, for example, women would often disguise themselves as men to be able to work under certain circumstances as we can see in the comedy “Twelfth night”

The figure of Sherlock Holmes first appeared more than 150 years ago but the level of interest and adoration of it has not changed through the years. We know about the famous detective probably more than about any other historical figure of the Victorian time. As Orson Welles, an American actor, described Sherlock as „The world’s most famous Man who never existed » (Jackson 151), and this phrase can not characterize the image of the famous detective more precisely. The character outlived his author