How Does Peter Shaffer Use Themes as Devices in Equus to Validate the Unpleasant.

Both of the authors exploit their characters by using them to slowly leech the identity of their protagonists which ends in the protagonists’ loss of identity. They do this to show how society is always trying to conform others. In both books, society tries to conform the characters into what they believe is best for them. This can be seen in Equus when Dysart promises, “It’s all over now, Alan. It’s all over now. He’ll [Equus] go away now… You are going to be well. I’m going to make you well, I promise you.” (Shaffer 2 35). Shaffer uses his character Dysart to supposedly “cure” Alan into a person who is accepted by society. However, Shaffer creates another purpose for his character Dysart. Shaffer exploits Dysart to reveal how society’s “cure” for Alan is more destructive than it is helpful. Understanding what this will do to Alan, Dysart declares,

In David Sedaris’ “Nuit of the Living Dead”, we at first see only a story about a slightly strange night at a home off the beaten path where our author lives. Through the first person narrative, there is much to learn of David and his perspective and with this comes an understanding of how we ourselves perceive things. Context is perhaps the greatest tool used to show us these mental processes. We are given the benign details with David’s explanation of them and then reflect on those details from another point of view without context yet still coming from the narrator himself. This very simple and elegant short story illustrates that things are not always what they seem and it ranges from things that go bump in the night, the reasons for those bumps, and to the assumptions we make when we do not have all of the information.

What can be said of the menacing literary masterpiece that is A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is that the gender issues Joyce so surreptitiously weaves into Stephan Dedalus’s character create sizable obstacles for the reader to overcome. Joyce expertly composes a feminine backdrop in which he can mold Stephan to inexplicably become innately homosexual. As Laurie Teal points out “… Joyce plays with gender inversion as a uniquely powerful tool of characterization.”(63) Stephan’s constant conflict with himself and what he wants generate a need for validation that he tries to simulate through day dreams and fantasies but is ultimately unable to resolve. Through exploring the tones of characterization and the character development of

Act III offers happy resolution to the problems of identity and marriage that drive much of the humor in the previous acts. Wilde continues to mock the social customs and attitudes of the aristocratic class. He relentlessly attacks their values, views on marriage and respectability, sexual attitudes, and concern for stability in the social structure.

Automatically, the reader knows that serious issues are about to be discussed and that the outcome may not be positive. This novel challenges the material ideology discussed above. It does this by bringing the issues to the forefront and reporting on them in a fictitious yet realistic manner. The reader is not led to believe that the ending will be happy, he is supposed to expect the consider the harsh realities of the world throughout the piece.

The author, Leslie Fiedler writes about the differences in what it means to be normal. She discusses this in a professional manner that opens eyes to what we have disguised and even been ashamed of. “The Tyranny of the Normal,” we learn much about what we perceive as abnormal and what society seems to portray normal as. We discover what we believe is normal and also what has changed through-out the history of this subject. Our minds are opened and exposed to the world of abnormalities and how we see them.

Grenville further utilises figurative descriptions of topography and character’s demeanours to delineate how people with differing views were often alienated by their societies. The isolation such people were suspected to is clearly evidenced by how Rooke was reluctant to join Gardiner at the window and hence Gardiner was

Mr. Hooper is a Romantic character both because he rejects social norms and because he is, in turn, rejected by the society to whose norms he will not adhere. Covering his face is a clear departure from social norm, as evidenced by the responses of his parishioners when they glimpse him wearing the veil. At first, some refuse to believe that “‘it is our parson’”; others think he “‘has gone mad,’” and others still believe that “‘He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face.’” Mr. Hooper’s rejection of the norm to keep, at least, his eyes uncovered disturbs them, and their reactions indicate their discomfort. Likewise, many fail to return his morning greeting in their shock. Though there is no violence in his voice when he preaches, “the hearers quaked.” Further, “Strange and bewildered looks repaid him for his courtesy,” and Mr. Hooper no longer even receives the dinner invitations he has accepted since he first came to town. Finally, his interior life, his character, has become the major focus of his life. Despite the fact that the veil renders him a virtual outcast, except for performing only the duties associated with his

In his novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward, irony within the protagonist’s ( Meursault ) contrasting perception of the human condition is used to illustrate and invoke the reader to question the contradictory nature of societal expectations. His indifferent and unprecedented reactions to experiences - relative to the characters that Camus laid before him - aid in displaying the absurdity of a world constrained by the chains of conventional wisdom. The contrasting nature of Meursault's demeanor in defying conventional wisdom in experiences such as love and death not only reveals the underlying hypocrisy of the human condition but further illustrates the arbitrary essence of defining a human life.

Next, Through Christopher's understanding of relationships, Haddon unveils the reality of the idealistic thoughts of normality in society. Society thinks a relationship is to mutually love and respect and trust one another. It’s considered “normal” to show affection if you care for someone. Christopher has an inability to express his feelings of love. "And Father said, 'Christopher do you understand that I love you?' And I said 'Yes', because loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling the truth,” (87) Despite the normality society has put on relationships, every person has their own opinion on how a relationship works. The normality of relationships is only an ideal standard. Contrary to what most believe as a typical relationship, some don’t express their thoughts and feelings in the same way. Haddon shows his readers that just because there are standards to what a relationship should be like, doesn’t mean everyone has to abide by those standards. The love Christopher's parents have for him is one- sided, they can’t expect him to feel the same way. (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time). Normality is a standard and the standard society has on relationships are unattainable considering all people are different.

Babb, Francesca. “Wes Anderson: ‘I don’t think any of us are normal.’” The Guardian. (2012) Web

Divided into five chapters, this book follows Stephen's life from childhood through adolescence to manhood. We are essentially given a window into Stephen's consciousness, and the whole world is unveiled to us through that single aperture. According to Sydney Bolt, no novel written before A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man can match its variety in styles This indicates Joyce's originality. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is told in characteristic dialogue and ironically sympathetic

“Madness, if not out rightly divine, is at best preferable to the 20th century’s ruthless and uninspired sanity, is in this play, as it is so much fashionable philosophizing, totally dependent on a pleasant, aesthetically rational form of derangement for the credibility of its argument” (Richardson 389). Shaffer brings us into these feelings with the story of Alan Strang,

Mainstream refers to a general consensus in regards to normality. Society generally sees normal as good and abnormal as bad. Someone being called “normal” or “abnormal” establishes social prejudices such as exclusions. Daystar, Speed of Dark, Frankenstein, Enemy of the People and Proof are all literature pieces that share a common theme of the impact mainstream society has on individuals. The theme of society’s perception towards mothers, disabilities, physical appearances and mental stability is portrayed through individual characters that struggled to live in a mainstream society.

Dramatic techniques play significant roles in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, allowing for the idealistic perception of the historical audience to develop into a further empathy with the characters in Macbeth. Shakespeare achieves this by playing on beliefs held in that era, such as the Great Chain of Being, and interweaves them to bring further emphasis to his themes of ambition, masculinity and the conflicting moralities/idealisms in fair and foul actions/in what can be defined as fair or foul.