Explain the use of language in grammar in Equus
Uploaded by Appleman on Oct 12, 2007
Explain the use of language in grammar in Equus
“I part the flaps, sever the inner tubes, yank them out and throw them hot and steaming on the floor. The other two then study the pattern they make as if they were reading hieroglyphics.” Dysart, Scene 5
Dysart is a well educated man. He has probably been to university, and therefore speaks formal, standard English. His narrative is built up using long sentences, which usually contain several clauses. He also uses several technical terms when he speaks, also showing us that he is well educated.
His long words and sentences give help him to overpower Alan when the pair first meet because he is intimidating to Alan.
His monologue in Scene 5 starts off very slowly. He uses long sentences so that he can include every detail of the description of his dream. He describes everything so that we can be provided with an accurate image of his dream. This is so that we can begin to understand the mental turmoil that the incident with Alan has inflicted on him.
The pace of this particular monologue increases towards the end as he describes himself breaking down. A lot of hyphens appear in the sentences, to show us that he is panicking – they make us jump suddenly between clauses.
“Sorry. I mean for him. Poor old sod, that’s what I felt – he's just like me! He hates ladies and gents just like me! Posh things and la-di-da. He goes off by himself at night, doing his own secret thing that no one’ll ever know about, just like me. There's no difference – he's just the same as me – just the same!” Alan, Scene 31
Alan is very informal and does not speak standard English. His dialect varies throughout the play. When we first meet him, all he does is sing TV jingles. Then he begins to answer Dysart questions, but with short, monosyllabic sentences. Later on in the play we see him in his horse-worshipping rituals, speaking more biblically as he reels off the genealogy of the horses.
In the above paragraph, he is neither singing nor speaking in biblical terms. Here he is informally expressing his feelings about his father. He calls Frank a “Poor old sod”. Sod is slang, as is la-di-da.
He repeats “just like me” three times in this paragraph. This is the point he wants to make, so he repeats several...