"Angels in America"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses and compares the two significant relationships portrayed in the play "Angels in America" by Tony Kushner. The characters are described in the context of their relationship, as well as outside the relationship. The paper examines the subliminal messages which are emitted from each of the four central characters, regarding their own self images. The falsity of these self images, is a central theme of the play, and conversely, allows the playwright to emphasize the importance of truth and honesty.

From the Paper:

"The relationship between Joe and Harper in Tony Kushner's "gay fantasia" of a play entitled "Angels in America" can be seen as parallel to the relationship of Lewis and Prior, despite both relationships' apparent dissimilarities. In both relationships, the two main characters exist in an unbalanced partnership, riddled with inequities. Only by suffering the traumas of a closeted gay relationship and the horror of AIDS does the nature of these essentially unequal and unfulfilling relationships become "outed" within the structure of the play."

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