Is Alan crazy?

[deleted]

[deleted]

I say he is! I mean blinding horses with a knife pick or something?! Crazy behavior to me!!!!!

I saw yes, and Martin is in no good position for being envious Alan either.


Giddy-up, goat!

i guess he partly is but then look at his up bringing it is normal for him to be liek this having a mum goingon about god and his dad isnt a perfect role model for him to follow he needs some one to look up to and thats were the hoses become his god i blam his parents for him being like this i dont think he is crazy thats to strong as it is not his fault

I don't think there's any evidence of schizophrenia, manic depression or psychopathic personality disorder. I think he has a temporary mental disturbance due to the stresses of the situation he ended up in.

No, Alan's not crazy.

Don't forget Equus originally is a play, which goes far beyond cinema (though it's a wonderful movie!).
The whole story seems to refer to Oedipus (a Greek (!) play): a problematic relationship with parents, an inevitably fulfilled destiny and the blinding of the main character (Alan = Equus, a man-made god).

And, Alan galoped. He found his freedom away from restrictions as parents, spouses and human lovers.

Fear is the mother of morality.

I just watched the film tonight and this is a hard question to answer. I spent 4 years majoring in forensic psychology before turning and going in a radically different direction, but from a psychological standpoint, this film is absolutely fascinating.

Alan has a pathological religious/sexual fascination with horses that came about due to his upbringing and what have you, and he has these lapses in reality when he really does think he's conversing and being with his "God". Yes, that in and of itself makes him not "normal", yet within the context of his pathology, what he does to the horses is understandable, and in his mind it is necessary, and even justifiable. Alan's "God", Equus, watched him "sin" with the girl and was passing judgment on him and telling Alan that he belonged only to him. In order to get his god to stop watching him, what does he do? He blinds it, which is completely understandable within Alan's psychosis and the world he created... but that doesn't make the action "right" when it plays out in the "real world". For Alan, he was blinding his God, not 6 innocent horses.

As for the good doctor, his quandary with treating Alan is the fact that he is going to be robbing Alan of his ability to worship, and in a free society, is that fair, or right, to do? He ENVY'S Alan's passion because the good doctor has never been passionate about anything in his life... he's just going through the motions... and those feelings are somewhat justifiable as well.

Does this make any sense? LoL! Apparently Peter Shaffer, the author, was inspired to write the play when a friend told him about a real case involving a 17-year-old boy who blinded horses in Suffolk (near London). The play is a fictional account of what could've driven the boy to commit such a heinous crime... yet Shaffer knew nothing of the actual events of the crime (and I can't find anymore information on it either). But yea... it's a completely fascinating bit of fiction.

~Megan