Angels in America

by Tony Kushner

Start Free Trial

Change and Transformation

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Change and transformation are central themes in Angels in America. Each storyline touches upon some form of change, with all major characters undergoing a transformation. Some characters are intimidated by change, preferring the security and comfort of their familiar world.

Take Harper, for example. She begins the play terrified by the changes she senses or imagines around her. She fears losing her husband, her home, and her sanity, which is overwhelming for her. She uses the metaphor of the ozone layer, high above the earth, to symbolize her fear, comparing it to protective guardian angels encircling the planet. "But everywhere," she notes, "things are collapsing, lies surfacing, systems of defense giving way." Throughout the play, Harper indeed loses everything she held dear but gains a new understanding of change and transformation. As she sits on a plane bound for San Francisco to start anew, she reflects, "Nothing's lost forever. In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind and dreaming ahead."

Other characters embrace change and even flourish in it. Louis's viewpoint is somewhat Darwinian. He tells the Rabbi he believes the world will improve through struggle, which is why he cannot reconcile Prior's illness with his worldview. Instead, Louis distances himself, diving into change to avoid deterioration. He finds Joe, who passionately echoes the beliefs of his new right-wing Republican friends, Roy and Martin. Joe tells Harper the world is changing for the better. "America has rediscovered itself," he claims, "Its sacred position among nations." To Joe, the country has been positively reinvented during the Reagan years. However, by the play's end, both Louis and Joe long to return to the past, but neither is granted this return.

Prior and the Angels are involved in the play's most significant conflict over change. On a personal level, Prior faces relentless changes. First, his illness attacks, altering his body. Then, Louis leaves him, changing his world. Finally, the Angel summons him, asking him to become a Prophet for the Continental Principalities. The Angels desire stasis, the opposite of change. However, Prior rejects their plan, declaring, "We can't just stop. We're not rocks— progress, migration, motion is ... modernity. It's animate, it's what living things do."

Identity

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

The theme of identity exploration is evident from the very start of Angels in America, affecting each character, whether they actively pursue it or not. During his eulogy for Sarah Ironson, Rabbi Chemelwitz portrays her as a part of a distinct group of immigrants who made the transatlantic journey to create a new life in America. They brought remnants of the Old World, passing these down to their offspring. To the Rabbi, Sarah Ironson represents a piece of America's identity; she was a vital component in "the melting pot where nothing melted."

Joe's journey to discover his identity is deeply personal. Throughout his life as a Mormon, he has attempted to suppress his true feelings—his attraction to men. In an effort to change this part of himself, he even married Harper. Against his convictions, he contributes to legal decisions that deny homosexuals their rights. Through his short-lived relationship with Louis, he experiences a sense of near-liberation. He admits his desires to himself and to Louis but hesitates to come out publicly. By the end of the play, Joe remains torn between his life as a married, heterosexual, Republican law clerk and the fleeting happiness he found with Louis.

Louis’s search for identity is more abstract, reflecting his personality. Though he feels he has come to grips with the world and has opinions on every issue, his beliefs are regularly...

(This entire section contains 333 words.)

Unlock this Study Guide Now

Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.

Get 48 Hours Free Access

tested. Like Joe, he lives a life filled with contradictions. He criticizes Joe for concealing his sexuality, yet he keeps up a "butch" side, a clearly masculine, heterosexual persona around his family. Raised as a Jew, Louis is a tormented agnostic who struggles to find a religion that accepts him. Politically, he is an extreme liberal drawn to a confused right-wing Republican. Louis’s quest for identity doesn't conclude with the play: in the Epilogue, he continues to debate religion and politics with Belize, who, as a black ex-drag queen and confidant to both Prior and Louis, faces his own identity challenges.

American Dream

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Kushner characterizes his play as "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," examining the idea of America—its social interactions, political identity, and uncertain future. Set in the 1980s, a period marked by excessive greed and conservative values, Angels in America explores the influence of Republican politics on the nation. Roy Cohn embodies the worst aspects of the right wing: political dominance, economic inequality, discrimination, and censorship. His colleague Martin proclaims, "It's a revolution in Washington, Joe. We have a new agenda and finally a real leader," confidently predicting that Republicans will soon dominate the courts, secure the White House, reclaim the Senate, and govern the nation as they wish.

In contrast to the conservative advocates, Louis and Belize are pessimistic about America's future, each for their own reasons. Louis laments that in America, only politics and power matter, the very things Roy and his supporters crave. "There are no gods here," he argues, "no ghosts and spirits in America, there are no angels in America, no spiritual past, no racial past, there's only the political." Conversely, Belize perceives a distinct spirit in America but loathes it. "I hate this country," he asserts, "It's just big ideas and stories and people dying and people like you." To Belize, the so-called land of liberty offers very little freedom.

These stark views of America remain unresolved by the play's conclusion. The Epilogue, set in 1990, four years after most of the play's events, emphasizes significant changes: the Berlin Wall has fallen, Mikhail Gorbachev's "Perestroika" or "radical change" has helped end the Cold War, and America has emerged as a global leader. Yet, the group of survivors gathered around Bethesda Fountain in Central Park represents both the successes and failures of the American Dream.

Hannah left her secure Mormon life in Salt Lake City, and like her ancestors, moved to a new land (New York City) to reinvent herself. Her struggle continues. Louis and Belize remain marginalized members of society, still misunderstood, mistreated, and fighting for the rights enjoyed by the heterosexual majority. Prior, having survived his illness far longer than he expected, recognizes his story is just the beginning for homosexuals with AIDS in America. "We won't die secret deaths anymore," he declares, "The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come ... The Great Work Begins."

Previous

Summary

Next

Characters

Loading...