Explain how Equus shows the relationship between madness and normalcy.

Normalcy is a major theme in the play "Equus" by Peter Schaffer. Normalcy includes that which is usual, acceptable, peaceable, and socially-approved by a majority or whole of a population, or by individuals. In the play "Equus", ideas of normalcy are on the minds of many characters, but most notably, on the minds of Dysart and Alan.

For Dysart, normalcy is that which is normal, meaning that which is not mentally imbalanced. As a psychiatrist, Dysart treats everyone from the neurotic to the psychotic to the insane. Dysart's understanding of normalcy has not only to do with socially-conventional and usual thoughts, behaviors, and lifestyles, but of mental cognizance, balance, and regularity. For Dysart, Alan's worshiping of horses is not a normal thing socially or scientifically. Dysart therefore endeavors to treat Alan, only along the way to wonder if what is considered socially normal is truly normal, because most of what is considered normal means there is no passion in life. He reflects on his own life as an example, where he goes home and reads about places he wants to go, but never goes. Dysart begins to wonder if perhaps society at large, himself included, is abnormal, because there is a lack of passion of any kind about almost anything among people.

For Alan, normalcy is at first that which is socially conventional and acceptable. He finds normality in the simple things in childhood, such as building sandcastles on the beach, or learning about God with his mother. But what is normal to society at large is considered unnatural and abnormal by Alan's father, who even goes so far as to throw out Alan's image of Jesus, replacing it with a photograph of a horse. Alan's love of horses, rooted in power and control and freedom, ultimately come to blur the lines of faith, warping Alan's sense of worship, and triggering an all-out obsession with horses. To Alan, this is normal at first, until his obsession endangers his relations with other people. It is then that he knows he needs help, and he ultimately entreats Dysart for a truth serum to be able to tell Dysart everything.