Hallucinations in Angels In America Essay

Hallucinations and Reason in Angels in America

In Tony Kushners celebrated play, Angels in America, he addresses a modern social issue through a magical realist narrative. His invocation of magical realist elements into the ordinary, such as Angels and paralleled hallucinations, allows the reader to observe the dynamics shared between characters that would otherwise be unassociated with one another. During the mid 1980s an increased presence of the gay community in mainstream society was poorly timed with the outbreak of AIDS, drawing many to come to the conclusion that the gay community was the sole contributor of the problem. The play serves as a response to this time in America. A conservative regime controlled the government, contrasting liberalizing social trends; AIDS dominated the airwaves and superstitions lead to illogical conclusions. Kushner answers the question, in an ever progressing society, when are we to stop moving(Kushner 179) forward?

One of Kushners most important themes is how his characters deal with abandonment. The nature of AIDS as a mysterious, threatening and terrifying disease causes not only the individuals who contract the virus to be frightened, but as well as those who are close to them. Such is the case with Prior and Louis; after Louis becomes aware that Prior is infected, he abandons him. Two other central characters in the story are abandoned; tying the three together and establishing to the reader how certain people rationalize and deal with abandonment. Though they react similarly, as they are all supplementing the lost of something real with something imaginary, the manner by which they deal with the hallucinations dictates the answer to the question Kushner intends to answer. Furthermore, his right to practice law abandons Roy Cohn; it is his life force and it is stripped from him not simply by contracting AIDS but more importantly by being disbarred. Lastly, Harper is a character that we find is abandoned from the very beginning. Though we never discover when she began to have her hallucinations, we also can assume that Joe had been gay all along and had never been in love with Harper, thus leaving her abandoned from the get go in the plays timeline.

It is not a speculative interpretation on behalf of the reader to come to the conclusion that these hallucinations are a direct response to the abandonment. No character experiences hallucinations until they have had a loss. It was after Louis left me. Every night Id been having these horrible vivid dreams [of the angel]. (Kushner 169) The response to the hallucinations is a response to the problem. Abandonment is paralleled by Kushner to a loss in not just the individual in the story, but to what he believes is a greater problem in society. Most importantly is his contrast of the characters Roy and Prior. Both of their hallucinations represent something they initially interpret as an authentication of what they desire. Roy envisions Ethel Rosenberg, a testament to his success as a lawyer and a representation of the ruthlessness he commands in the courtroom. While Prior envisions an Angel, and despite his initial fear, is a symbol of hope and promise for what he believes is a deteriorating overly conservative American society. Yet both discover as the story continues that neither hallucination is there to appease their egos. Ethel stands and mocks Roy, quickly arriving at his death bed to remind him before he dies that he is no longer a lawyer, thus removing his identity to be a part of the only club [Roy] ever wanted to belong to.(Kushner 221) And the Angels arrive to tell Prior to stop progress (Kushner 176) and that it has forced God to leave heaven. Priors representation as an anti-Reagan, liberal, gay man contrasts the symbolism of hope that an Angel would typically conjure.

Between Cohn and Prior, the end of their personal stories allows for a simple interpretation of how Kushner intends his social progress question to be answered. Cohn dies, no longer a lawyer, and without an identity. Rosenberg, his testament to success as a greedy, manipulative [insert expletive by Prior, Louis, etc] has conquered him, having the last word and reminding him of his permanence in abandonment. Prior, contrastingly, has decidedly not accepted his role as a prophet for sake of what the Angels believe in but rather, what he believes in. Ironically Prior and not the Angels becomes a symbol of hope, that humanity has the ability to work past the clash of social issues that were occurring in the mid-eighties. Progress, migration, motion is modernity.(Kushner 264) The inevitability of human progress is what Prior represents, and the strength to see this despite his stressful situation is what elevates him over the hindering evil personified by Cohn.

Hallucinations or reality, Anthony Lioi regards the magical realist intervention as a representation that humans are not alone but still accompanied by Guardians who themselves must evolve (Lioi) meaning that despite the divine intervention invoked in the play, there is a humanist aspect which grounds the fantastical narrative, allowing responsibility for positive progress on account of human nature. While in desperate times of need humans often reach out to the seemingly unreal, Kushner seeks to tell his audience that there are those of us who are grounded in what is right and true.

Works Cited

Lioi, Anthony. "Theatre as Theurgy in Angels in America." Cross Currents. .