A Foucauldian Reading of Peter Shaffer’s Equus

Michel Foucault, the twentieth century philosopher, brings a new perspective to the concepts of madness and power. He shows how the perception of the concept of madness changes in his ―History of Madness‖. In Classical Age, mad people were treated as animals and the aim was to tame them as they were a threat to the order of the society. However, in Renaissance that perception changed and the mad were started to be appreciated because madness was affiliated with knowledge. In the eighteenth century, it was seen as the disease of the society, not of the individual. In Peter Shaffer‘s ―Equus‖ the main character, Alan, is thought to be mad and the doctor Dysart starts questioning the characteristics of madness. First, Dysart sees Alan as a customer; however, at the end of the play, he criticizes his own profession as it aims to create normal people who are purified from their passions. The definition of power by Foucault is not restricted upon the oppressor and the oppressed as he focuses more on the subjects of power. According to Foucault in all kinds of relationships, the power exercises and it can be claimed that the prerequisite of the existence of the power is the people. Power cannot only be evaluated as something possessed by certain people, classes or institutions and Foucault criticizes that kind of understanding of power. In Shaffer‘s ―Equus‖, the power operates between the doctor and the patient and within the family members. The doctor seems superior as the hospital provides an advantage as a panoptic machine. However, the patient starts establishing the course of events, and it can be seen that the patient gains the power. The parents of Alan are quite distinct from each other. Dora, Alan‘s mother, is excessively religious, but Frank, Alan‘s father, is an atheist and he puts the blame on religion in Alan‘s case. Both parents contribute to the madness of Alan and become object, target, and the references. All in all, we are all subjects of power in the grand mechanism of power.