Angels in America, Act Three (the last of Millennium Approaches)
Tomorrow we're going to turn back to the big questions with a special emphasis on History and tolerance (diversity, difference). Post your own big (or not-so-big) questions below. And be sure to bring the handouts from today's class!
In Act III, Scene 4, Hannah, a devout Mormon and Joe’s mother, tells a homeless woman to “pull [her] wits together” so that she will stop “jabbering.” Unlike Joe, the homeless woman does as she says, calms down, and gives her coherent directions. In this play, Hannah refuses to tolerate anything but what is “normal.” She rejects that the homeless woman may have a mental illness, just as she rejects Joe’s homosexuality. The same denial exists in The Bell Jar as Plath describes Esther's bout with depression. Was religiosity a main proponent in the denial of mental illness and homosexuality during the Cold War?
In Act 3, scene 3 Harper is in Antartica with Mr. Lies. Harper says that iciness of her surroundings makes it feel like there are "ice crystals in [her] lungs, wonderful and sharp" (101). She also brings up the subject of her pregnancy which Mr. Lies has to remind her that it is fake. She responds to Mr. Lies claiming that Antartica is the perfect place for her to have a baby. Why does Harper choose Antartica (opposed to somewhere warmer and happier) as the place where she takes a mental vaction? Why is she so obsessed with the idea of pregnancy and having a baby? And why does she think that Antartica of all places would be the proper place to have a child?
From Shant: At the end of Act 3 in Scene 7 an angel comes to Prior and says, "The Great Work begins" (125). What does the angel mean by Great Work? Is it significant because the first letters of the words are capitalized? Why has the angel chosen Prior, a homosexual with AIDS? How do we understand the role of the angel in this play?
Act III repeatedly uses conversations with imaginary characters, such as when Roy sees Esther Rosenberg, or when Prior sees Prior I and Prior II when the characters are confronting their problems. For example, Esther and the Priors appear when Roy and Prior, respectively, are suffering from AIDS, and Harper converses to Mr. Lies about her pregnancy. What is the importance of these hallucinatory scenes? Do these hallucinations reveal information about the culture of the times?
When Harper is about to leave Joe, he tells her not to leave because she is the only one in the world who loves him. Based off of how we have seen their relationship pan out in the play, do you think what he speaks of is truly love or just Harper tolerating him?
Earlier in the book, someone mentions that it is funny that Prior's name is what it is, because it sounds like there was someone before him. As act III begins, we see that there are actually prior Prior Walters. Why are these other Priors important to the play? Also, are they angels, or spirits, or something else?
In Scene 5 of Act III, Joe refuses Roy's job offer and Roy seems to reveal his true self. He admits to interfering with the judge of the Rosenberg case in order to make sure Ethel got the death sentence and says it is his greatest accomplishment. What does it mean, for the character who personifies American politics and its inner workings, to be this corrupt and law bending? What does it say at the period that produced this person in a seat of great power and how does being Jewish (the lawyers on the bar committee see him as a "filthy little Jewish troll" (67) and is this passage he says Ethel "reminded us all of our little Jewish mamas" (108)) play into his desire for power?
On page 100, Belize makes a statement that love is complicated, and democracy and justice is simple. How is this so? Why can't love be something that is viewed as simple--or is it just that we make it complex? Shown by the difficulties that America had during that time period with adapting and showcasing the TRUE principles of democracy and justice, is it not evident that true democracy and justice is just as hard to achieve and understand as love?
Roy goes off in a rant against the Rosenbergs and explains how he would hae "fucking pulled the switch if they'd have let [him]." Angrily, he says he hates "traitors" and "communists." Could Roy also be repressing his homosexuality through his hate towards Jews and Communists?
In Act 3 scene 3 Harper is again visited by Mr. Lies who takes her on a fantasized trip to Antarctica. Throughout the story he has been a companion of hers in her time of loneliness. Is Mr. Lies Harpers Angle? Is his duty to get her life back on track? At the end of Act 3 Prior meets his Angle as he dies of AIDS, but does the role of the Angle only occur in life or death circumstances?
During Belize and Louis' conversation, Belize refuses to sit there and listen to Louis. How does Belize's retaliation show Louis contradictory monologue? What holes does it poke in Louis frame of character?
Also what does the significance of Joe and Louis going home together at the end signify about the end of their families/households?
Louis's rant about democracy and American right wing political faction's attempt to stop democracy from trickling down concludes that its all just bourgeois tolerance. How does that connection establish logically ? What is american left's role in all of this ?
What is the significance of part one of Angels in America ending with a scene involving Prior rather than any other character? There are obviously quite a few subplots that have gone on throughout the entire story, but in the end the first part of the play ends with the angel appearing to Prior. What will come of this? Will his relationship with others, such as Louis, change because of this meeting?
During Ethel Rosenberg's conversation with Roy, he states, "History is about to crack wide open. Millennium approaches." What could this statement mean? Could this statement be hinting at the ending where the Angel descends into the room? Furthermore, when the Angel says, "The Great Work begins," could this Great Work be referring to the "Millennium" that Ethel Rosenberg mentions?
During his argument with Belize, how does Joe's political hypocrisy show that although he is a liberal and detests the Reagan administration, but clearly lacks any desire for race equality?
Harper and Prior both have a great fear of an unknown impeding doom. Does this show the fear that still lingered as the Cold War came to an end or is Kushner using these characters to show and existential code of living through terror or dying bringing peace?
In Act 3 Scene 3 Mr. Lies says to Harper, "There is something wrong with this picture." What does it mean that a figment of her mind, her own creation, is trying to limit her fantasy? Why does he change from someone who was helping her escape to someone who is telling her true facts, such as she is not pregnant and there are no eskimos in Antarctica?
What is the meaning of Joe and Louis's interaction at the park? Why is Louis not spending time with Prior if he claims to love him? Does Louis's statement "real love isn't ambivalent" true in his case?
I think that the fear expressed in this play is the fear of oneself and how they express themselves in society. it is evident that each character does not truly know who they are and struggle to suppress the things they do not like about themselves. How is this specifically shown in the shared dream between Harper and Prior? Why does Kushner combine their dreams? Does this emphasize a sense of sameness among the characters?
In Act 3 Scene 3 and Scene 4 snow plays a key role. In Scene 3 Harper imagines herself with Mr. Lies in Antarctica. Through diction (ice, freeze, cold, snow, polar) Harper's pill addiction seems to have caused her to be in a numbed state for she is incapable of dealing with the hard truth of the world. In the next scene snow is also part of the setting when Hannah arrives to the Bronx. If snow is pure and clean how does this imagery contrast with the textual context and what does it tell us about these characters? Is there significance in the cleanliness of snow in these scenes and the dirtiness that Roy references later or the whole idea of something approaching?
In Act III, Scene 4, Hannah, a devout Mormon and Joe’s mother, tells a homeless woman to “pull [her] wits together” so that she will stop “jabbering.” Unlike Joe, the homeless woman does as she says, calms down, and gives her coherent directions. In this play, Hannah refuses to tolerate anything but what is “normal.” She rejects that the homeless woman may have a mental illness, just as she rejects Joe’s homosexuality. The same denial exists in The Bell Jar as Plath describes Esther's bout with depression. Was religiosity a main proponent in the denial of mental illness and homosexuality during the Cold War?
ReplyDeleteIn Act 3, scene 3 Harper is in Antartica with Mr. Lies. Harper says that iciness of her surroundings makes it feel like there are "ice crystals in [her] lungs, wonderful and sharp" (101). She also brings up the subject of her pregnancy which Mr. Lies has to remind her that it is fake. She responds to Mr. Lies claiming that Antartica is the perfect place for her to have a baby. Why does Harper choose Antartica (opposed to somewhere warmer and happier) as the place where she takes a mental vaction? Why is she so obsessed with the idea of pregnancy and having a baby? And why does she think that Antartica of all places would be the proper place to have a child?
ReplyDeleteFrom Shant: At the end of Act 3 in Scene 7 an angel comes to Prior and says, "The Great Work begins" (125). What does the angel mean by Great Work? Is it significant because the first letters of the words are capitalized? Why has the angel chosen Prior, a homosexual with AIDS? How do we understand the role of the angel in this play?
ReplyDeleteAct III repeatedly uses conversations with imaginary characters, such as when Roy sees Esther Rosenberg, or when Prior sees Prior I and Prior II when the characters are confronting their problems. For example, Esther and the Priors appear when Roy and Prior, respectively, are suffering from AIDS, and Harper converses to Mr. Lies about her pregnancy. What is the importance of these hallucinatory scenes? Do these hallucinations reveal information about the culture of the times?
ReplyDeleteWhen Harper is about to leave Joe, he tells her not to leave because she is the only one in the world who loves him. Based off of how we have seen their relationship pan out in the play, do you think what he speaks of is truly love or just Harper tolerating him?
ReplyDeleteEarlier in the book, someone mentions that it is funny that Prior's name is what it is, because it sounds like there was someone before him. As act III begins, we see that there are actually prior Prior Walters. Why are these other Priors important to the play? Also, are they angels, or spirits, or something else?
ReplyDeleteIn Scene 5 of Act III, Joe refuses Roy's job offer and Roy seems to reveal his true self. He admits to interfering with the judge of the Rosenberg case in order to make sure Ethel got the death sentence and says it is his greatest accomplishment. What does it mean, for the character who personifies American politics and its inner workings, to be this corrupt and law bending? What does it say at the period that produced this person in a seat of great power and how does being Jewish (the lawyers on the bar committee see him as a "filthy little Jewish troll" (67) and is this passage he says Ethel "reminded us all of our little Jewish mamas" (108)) play into his desire for power?
ReplyDeleteOn page 100, Belize makes a statement that love is complicated, and democracy and justice is simple. How is this so? Why can't love be something that is viewed as simple--or is it just that we make it complex? Shown by the difficulties that America had during that time period with adapting and showcasing the TRUE principles of democracy and justice, is it not evident that true democracy and justice is just as hard to achieve and understand as love?
ReplyDeleteRoy goes off in a rant against the Rosenbergs and explains how he would hae "fucking pulled the switch if they'd have let [him]." Angrily, he says he hates "traitors" and "communists." Could Roy also be repressing his homosexuality through his hate towards Jews and Communists?
ReplyDeleteIn Act 3 scene 3 Harper is again visited by Mr. Lies who takes her on a fantasized trip to Antarctica. Throughout the story he has been a companion of hers in her time of loneliness. Is Mr. Lies Harpers Angle? Is his duty to get her life back on track? At the end of Act 3 Prior meets his Angle as he dies of AIDS, but does the role of the Angle only occur in life or death circumstances?
ReplyDeleteDuring Belize and Louis' conversation, Belize refuses to sit there and listen to Louis. How does Belize's retaliation show Louis contradictory monologue? What holes does it poke in Louis frame of character?
ReplyDeleteAlso what does the significance of Joe and Louis going home together at the end signify about the end of their families/households?
What made Joe finally decide to come clean with his sexuality?
ReplyDeleteLouis's rant about democracy and American right wing political faction's attempt to stop democracy from trickling down concludes that its all just bourgeois tolerance. How does that connection establish logically ? What is american left's role in all of this ?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the significance of part one of Angels in America ending with a scene involving Prior rather than any other character? There are obviously quite a few subplots that have gone on throughout the entire story, but in the end the first part of the play ends with the angel appearing to Prior. What will come of this? Will his relationship with others, such as Louis, change because of this meeting?
ReplyDeleteDuring Ethel Rosenberg's conversation with Roy, he states, "History is about to crack wide open. Millennium approaches." What could this statement mean? Could this statement be hinting at the ending where the Angel descends into the room? Furthermore, when the Angel says, "The Great Work begins," could this Great Work be referring to the "Millennium" that Ethel Rosenberg mentions?
ReplyDeleteDuring his argument with Belize, how does Joe's political hypocrisy show that although he is a liberal and detests the Reagan administration, but clearly lacks any desire for race equality?
ReplyDeleteHarper and Prior both have a great fear of an unknown impeding doom. Does this show the fear that still lingered as the Cold War came to an end or is Kushner using these characters to show and existential code of living through terror or dying bringing peace?
ReplyDeleteIn Act 3 Scene 3 Mr. Lies says to Harper, "There is something wrong with this picture." What does it mean that a figment of her mind, her own creation, is trying to limit her fantasy? Why does he change from someone who was helping her escape to someone who is telling her true facts, such as she is not pregnant and there are no eskimos in Antarctica?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the meaning of Joe and Louis's interaction at the park? Why is Louis not spending time with Prior if he claims to love him? Does Louis's statement "real love isn't ambivalent" true in his case?
ReplyDeleteI think that the fear expressed in this play is the fear of oneself and how they express themselves in society. it is evident that each character does not truly know who they are and struggle to suppress the things they do not like about themselves. How is this specifically shown in the shared dream between Harper and Prior? Why does Kushner combine their dreams? Does this emphasize a sense of sameness among the characters?
ReplyDeleteIn Act 3 Scene 3 and Scene 4 snow plays a key role. In Scene 3 Harper imagines herself with Mr. Lies in Antarctica. Through diction (ice, freeze, cold, snow, polar) Harper's pill addiction seems to have caused her to be in a numbed state for she is incapable of dealing with the hard truth of the world. In the next scene snow is also part of the setting when Hannah arrives to the Bronx. If snow is pure and clean how does this imagery contrast with the textual context and what does it tell us about these characters? Is there significance in the cleanliness of snow in these scenes and the dirtiness that Roy references later or the whole idea of something approaching?
ReplyDelete