Published 1993-09-01
Copyright (c) 1993 Maney
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
AbstractThe names of the two protagonists in Peter Shaffer's drama Equus allude to “desert saints” in different senses, suggesting the celibacy, loneliness, and idealism of those characters, as well astheir conflict and kinship on matters of rebellion and religious belief. Other names in the play, including that of the hospital setting, refer to a variety of cultural antecedents. Although the effects 'of these names are much subtler than those of such names in fiction, the end result for Shaffer is a verbal symbolism that amplifies and undergirds his potent thesis.
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