In the play "Equus", written by Peter Shaffer, a man named Alan creates his own god and worships him with passion. Dysart, a psychiatrist who lives a life without worship or commitment, becomes fascinated and envious of Alan. While experiencing Alan's treatment, Dysart realizes that he is capable of having passion and commitment in his own life. Peter Shaffer is able to gradually show Dysart's awakening throughout the play with a sense of excitement, suspense and climax through Alan Strang's treatment. Dysart is a psychiatrist tired of his desolate life; he is also not satisfied with his profession. It questions the value of spending every day treating endless numbers of troubled young people back to so-called normal lives, because after treatment, when they return to normal life, their lives lack any engagement or worship. Upon receiving Alan Strang's case, Dysart realizes that it is one of the strangest cases he has ever handled. At the start of treatment with Alan it was difficult to get Alan to talk about anything, Alan would respond mockingly with songs, but Dysart gets Alan talking when he introduces a game of questions. In this game, the two ask each other questions that must be answered without reservation. After playing the game, Dysart gains knowledge about Alan's family background. He learns that Alan grew up with conflict over religion in his family, as his mother is a devout Christian while his father, on the other hand, is an atheist. His mother read to him from the Bible every day, and from these daily readings Alan became more interested in the more violent aspects. Frank Strang's father Alan was concerned about this and destroyed an image of the crucifixion which Alan later replaced with ...... middle of paper ...... e depicted through Alan acting during the seances , suspense by showing that when Dysart begins to realize that he has no passion, nothing to adore in life, he does not want to treat Alan fully, Shaffer also uses a sense of rebellion in Alan to create a more great feeling of suspense. To create a sense of climax, Shaffer prolongs the revelation of why and what really happened the night of Alan's crime. At the beginning of the play, Dysart was a psychiatrist who was not only dissatisfied with his home life, but also with his professional life, and through the process of treating his patients, Alan Strang, he was able to realize that behind his life barren, and how his life lacked passion and adoration. Because of Alan, he was able to experience and feel the passion and adoration he so desperately desires in life. Works Cited Shaffer, Peter. Equus. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print