Angels in America Essay Sample

In the play Angels in America, Tony Kushner analyzes the dawning change that jeopardizes each character’s core values and beliefs about their own identities. Throughout the play, Kushner presents characters whose self-interests conflict with their morals. Joe Pitt is a devoted Mormon whose religious beliefs to do “right” in the eyes of God are at the center of his lifestyle. Yet, in living the “proper” lifestyle, he has forced himself to suppress his homosexuality. In doing so, he is destroying himself and allowing the relationships he has falsely built to crumble. Throughout the play, Kushner examines both the ways in which Joe engages with allowing himself to change and the terrifying consequences that lay ahead. Through complex conversations, Joe ventures into how he can be set free from the Mormon rules and accept himself. Ultimately, Joe’s struggle to first acknowledge change and then discern how to move forward highlights the difficulty of changing  who you are and being able to live with that change. Through intricate dialogue, this gay fantasia explores the excruciating journey of honestly expressing one’s self, as characters free themselves from the burdens of the past, no matter the terrifying consequences of which it beholds, Kushner wants the audience to decide whether it was all worth it.  

In Act 1, Scene 8 of the play, Kushner represents Joe’s deterioration and refusal to confront his sexuality through a complex split scene overviewing the dilemma of a verdict versus judgment in the eyes of God. Ultimately, this passage delves into Joe’s hatred of himself - because of what he is rather than who he is - and how this refusal to confront change is killing him from within. In this scene, Harper questions Joe’s sexuality whilst Louis attempts to justify his reaction to Prior’s sickness by stressing overall judgment over the verdict. When Harper demands to know if Joe is a homosexual, he says (scary): “Stop it.  Stop it.  I'm warning you. Does it make any difference? That I  might be one thing deep within, no matter how wrong or ugly that thing is, so long as I have fought, with everything I have, to kill it” (40). Instead of opening an honest conversation, Joe is in denial, uninterested in having a conversation for he is not ready to give attention to this hidden part of himself. He knows that as a Mormon, being gay is “wrong” and “ugly”, yet justifies to himself that it has not “made any difference” in his lifestyle because he still has a wife and has not chosen to act upon his desires. This directly parallels the split scene between Louis and Prior in which Louis aspires to be judged not on the verdict of something that he has done, but rather on his whole life and the way he has acted throughout. Nonetheless, in the case of Joe and Harper, Joe aspires to be judged on how he has “fought with everything he has to kill it” and not the simple verdict that he is homosexual. Yet in relentlessly attempting to deny his sexuality, he is consequently killing a part of himself and deteriorating from within. Joe says that “there's nothing left, I'm a shell” because he has to live a false life on the outside as his “shell” in order to do “decent in the eyes of God” while his insides are being torn apart in angst. He then remarks: “All I will say is that I am a very good man who has worked very hard to become good and you want to destroy that.” (40). However, it is not Harper which will destroy him, but rather the acknowledgment that he is homosexual and consequent changes to his life that will destroy him. Joe is not ready to begin considering a change and live his life true to himself as a gay man; the consequences would be devastating to his faith and his wife. Joe is not able to accept himself for who he is, nor is he able to make any changes about that because he has no guidance. The conversation ends when Joe denies that Harper is having a baby and she responds by saying “now we both have a secret” (41). Act Two alludes to change dawning, which means that this secret is bound to be unraveled. There will be changes in what Joe allows himself to feel and do, and this change will uproot life as he knows it.

In the second act of the play, while Joe is still terrified of change, he starts to explore how change can be made, and how he can reconcile. Sitting outside the hall of Justice with Louis, Joe desires to break free from the Mormon constraints unencumbered, yet he hesitates because he knows this would be an impossible task. In order to break free and initiate change, Joe first needs to build the courage to live with the consequences. They discuss:

JOE: You just .... Whatever you feel like saying or doing, you don't care, you just ... do it. LOUIS: Do what?

JOE: It. Whatever. Whatever it is you want to do.

LOUIS: Are you trying to tell me something?

(Little pause, sexual. They stare at each other. Joe looks away.) (74)

In this scene, Kushner highlights the first time Joe is willing to ask questions to a homosexual about his lifestyle and how he may muster the courage to change for himself. Yet similarly to Harper in the previous scene, Joe still cannot bring himself to directly ask about homosexuality. He refers to it as “whatever” showing that he still is terrified of the consequences. Then, unexpectedly, Kushner directs these two men to create sexual tension in the form of a “Little pause.”, highlighting the excitement Joe feels from opening himself up to this change. This foreshadowing shows the potential for sexual activity between these two, later on, however, Joe quickly cuts it short by looking away for he is not ready to constitute any change in his lifestyle yet. But as the conversation continues, Joe starts to see how much he truly needs this change. After describing his eerie encounter with the empty courthouse, Joe recounts: “I just wondered what a thing it would be... if overnight everything you owe anything to, justice, or love, had really gone away. Free. It would be... heartless terror. Yes. Terrible, and ... Very great. To shed your skin, every old skin, one by one, and then walk away, unencumbered,  into the morning. {Little pause. He looks at the building) I can't go in there today.” (74). Joe imagines a life in which he is “free” from the rules and obligations yet in doing so he recognizes that there will be “heartless terror” for he will still remain a devout Mormon. Kushner incorporates a metaphor for Joe's desire to "shed his skin" of the strict laws he needs to abide by on a surface level - that is the heartless shell he has lived in for his whole life, for he has not been able to fulfill his hearts desires. He “can't go in there today” because it just reminds him of the laws and how he is "supposed" to act in the eyes of God. Joe has built up the courage to reject routine and consequently the facade he has put up with his whole life. Finally, at the end of the conversation they discuss:

JOE: I can't be this anymore. I need ... a change, I should just ...

LOUIS: (Not a come-on, necessarily; he doesn't want to be alone}: Want some company? For whatever?

(Pause. Joe looks at Louis and looks away, afraid. Louis shrugs.)

LOUIS: Sometimes, even if it scares you to death, you have to be willing to break the law. Know what I mean? {Another little pause.}

JOE: Yes.

Joe has had enough of living a forgery of a lifestyle, doing what he is supposed to do - have a wife, work a steady job, and act heterosexual - in the eyes of God. This lifestyle has been killing him from within, literally making him sick to the point where he is drinking Pepto Bismol. He ultimately decides that he needs a "change". Even though this change terrifies him, the sexual tension between him and Louis reinforces the assertion that change is dawning. In addition to that, Louis reminds him that you have to be "willing to break the law" for the freedom that you so desperately need. Both of these men are "breaking the law"; Joe is breaking the laws of Mormonism, and Louis is breaking the laws of love. This exchange, along with so many others underscores the duality between the characters in the play. Lastly, while Joe is terrified, he understands that he needs to change for he simply cannot continue to live like this. Even though the change is daunting, his current way of life cannot get much worse. Through his interactions with Louis, Joe has been empowered to break the rules in the face of excruciating fear, for there is no other choice. In the following scenes, the sexual tension takes over and they hook up, both breaking their respective rules for the ultimate goal of freedom to love whoever and however.