Emergent Sexuality and Religious Shame: How Stephen King in 'Carrie' and Peter Shaffer in 'Equus' Use Stylistic Features Anonymous 12th Grade

Stephen King’s Carrie and Peter Shaffer’s Equus both centre around teenage characters who are torn between their emergent sexuality and the religious views of their parents. King and Shaffer use characterisation to portray lust as a sin, then use descriptive language to show how the taboo associated with lust in religious dogmas resulted in inescapable shame for the central characters, driving them to acts of violence.

Each text positions the audience to view lust as a sin through the characterisation of the parents of the protagonist. The characterisation of Dora and Frank in Equus suggests that Alan lives in a house where sexuality is repressed. Dora sees sexuality as dirty and is reluctant to discuss more than the biological facts of sex with her son. She believes that coitus is a spiritual as well as a biological matter, and these religious beliefs cause tension in her marriage. Frank, an old-time socialist, describes his wife as excessively religious and berates her for dousing [her beliefs] down Alan’s throat. This, he believes, is what caused Alan’s violence. Like Dora, Margaret’s concepts of the Curse of Intercourse and religion have been linked irrevocably, though to a far greater extent. Margaret’s characterisation is...