Dysart, The Common Tragic Figure? Peter Shaffers play Equus reads like a true tragedy blending religion and adolescence while questioning societys civilized norms. Although Alan Strang seemingly suffers the most throughout the story, the true tragic figure in the play is Dysart, Alans psychiatrist. Dysart is forced to question everything that he previously accepted and his whole life is thrown out the window upon meeting Alan. Both Arthur Millers definition of a tragic figure and the traditional definition provided by Aristotle apply to Dysart. Dysart by all outward appearances should be perfectly content with his life as a well appreciated psychiatrist who has done his job well and has become successful for it but Dysart is not happy but instead describes himself as desperate and doubtful of his whole life and career. As Miller writes about a tragic figure who is ready to lay down his life, to secure one thing- his sense of personal dignity; Dysart is shown in the same light, no longer wishing to be tied down with educated ideas or average thought. These ideas had existed in Dysarts mind before meeting Alan but came to a climax once Dysart realized that Alan was not in fact the usual unusual or one more adolescent freak that he appeared to be. Alans warped psyche disturbs Dysart from the first meeting and that night Dysart has a peculiar dream in which he is dissecting children and ripping out their insides. Its the unique talent of carving that has got me to where I am states Dysart but at the same time the celebrated carving of children makes him nauseous. When the others see that he is becoming sick, they strip him of his high status, and remove his mask. This dream reveals the inner workings of Dysarts own psyche and how truly irritated he has become with his own life of getting inside the minds of children and trying to help them, or carve them open, he wishes that someone would take away his knife. Miller writes the quality of ...
