The Clash between Two Kinds of Right

Abstract

The previous chapter suggested that a series of clashes inform Shaffer’s representation of ‘god’ and worship in his three central dramas: opposition was identified as central to the notion of divinity itself with the benign and the malign implied in its ambiguous representation. This second chapter focusing on Peter Shaffer’s most popular and best-known plays, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Equus, and Amadeus, extends the debate by expanding upon the systems of oppositions and disjunctions lying at the heart of these texts. In this discussion it will be argued that the clashes detected in the playwright’s representation of divinity and worship are related to a network of competing impulses that motivate Shaffer’s theatre at every level.