Tony Kushner gave us his two-part play, Angels in America, in 1992. When the crisis began to subside after the 80’s, the people of America started to care less about the issue. Angels in America swoops in at the right time, as a self-proclaimed “Gay Fantasia on National Themes”, this play takes on the common elements we still see in our American society and kicks them right in the mouth. AoA isn’t just a story of AIDS, it’s more like a story about a group of individuals who struggle with sexual identity, spirituality, and disease. Though there are many other national themes to wrestle with, I’d like to stick with those three. Also, since a novel could easily come out of this, I’ll focus on one of the major ‘couples’: Joe and Roy.
Angels in America could quite possibly be the most famous play regarding queer sexuality and sexual identity. Why is this? Though all of the major characters are indeed queer, none of them actually know what the hell they are. Both Joe and Roy hold a public image of ‘the perfect American heterosexual male’, that is they are white, conservative, and homophobic. This is where Joe and Roy are similar, because both men also happen to be secret homosexuals. Queer, isn’t it? In “Millennium Approaches”, Roy discusses his awareness that he has AIDS with his doctor, “Homosexuals are not men who sleep with other men... Homosexuals are men who know nobody and who nobody knows”. As a typical misogynistic American patriot, Roy views anything he considers queer as something not in first place, not at the top of the totem pole. Perhaps this is why he struggles with admitting his identity, because admitting he was a homosexual would mean, to him, giving up his status. Joe, on the other hand, struggles with his identity not only because of his politics, but also his spirituality. Trying to be the perfect Mormon, Joe hid from his urges his entire life to end up married...to a woman. The sickening reality that sometimes people in America have to choose hiding their identity rather than their holy following shunning them is too real. Joe queers his faith, because “those who consider themselves so-called gays and lesbians...have certain inclinations which are powerful and which may be difficult to control... we cannot stand idle if they indulge in immoral activity...to permit such would be to make light of the very serious and sacred foundation...its very purpose, the rearing of families”(Mormon). Joe’s hiding of his identity was in-part due to these mormon beliefs, but also the environment in which he was raised. In a moment of weakness, Joe calls his mother, Hannah, and finally comes out as a homosexual man. He then asks, “Did Dad love me?”, and Hannah’s response is, “You’re old enough to understand that your father didn’t love you”. This harshness is based on the faith and who his parents are. Whatever kind of upbringing Joe experienced, the point is that it took him many years to finally explore who he really is.
The final major theme is based around disease. As Americans, we tend to believe that we are immortal, we cannot be touched, and when a disease spreads we can annihilate it with money and research. The annihilation of AIDS never came. Instead, we used our big egos and decided to blame the stereotypical recipient of the disease: queers. This is where Joe’s ego comes in, as he struggles with himself and his disease. After being diagnosed with AIDS, he covers it up and forces his doctor to write it off as cancer. As he slowly dies, his lies catch up to him and his world crashes down. As he lays in his hospital bed during his last days, Joe visits him to tell him that he left his wife for a man. Roy, driven by madness, screams at Joe, “I want you home. With your wife...You do what I say or you will regret it”. Roy’s inherent homophobia comes into play here, but also the possibility that he doesn’t want Joe to fall like he has fallen. Roy’s mentality here may be that if Joe is indeed queer, like him, that he can never be in a position of power that Roy conditioned him for.
By the end of the play, everything has exploded. Because Roy, Joe, and basically every other character could not accept their queerness at first they are forced to live through harder times. Roy does die a painful death from AIDS, and he never truly accepts the queerness of his American ideal lifestyle. To say that Joe is fully comfortable with his own queerness by the end would also be an understatement. I’m not sure he will ever fully be okay with who he really is, his entire life had revolved around hiding it. Though this may be the case, I think there is a huge milestone reached by Roy’s death and Joe’s coming out. Their queer identity is shone into the light of the American public, they are simultaneously breaking the stereotypical homo-norm while also bringing the AIDS epidemic to the public spotlight (the papers go absolutely bonkers when they hear that the Roy Cohn died of AIDS). A tender moment between the two proves all of this queerness is possible anywhere, as Roy comes to Joe after death. Roy leaves Joe with, “You’ll find, my friend, that what you love will take you places you never dreamed you’d go”. I think there is some importance in the fact that Roy says what you love. How’s that for giving your blessing from the afterlife?
Your focus on Roy and Joe opens up a very thoughtful exploration of these two men's relationship. They are so similar in some ways, yet so different, and I really like how you explain the roots of Roy's internalized homophobia, which has so much to do with power, and Joe's, which has much more to do with religion and his parents' influence in his life. (Roy's does, too, but he seems to have moved beyond that a bit, in certain ways.) Your final point is also very intriguing. I hadn't thought about Roy's blessing in that way before, and it does seem to leave Joe with a different sense of his sexuality, as if Roy, in death, is loosening his patriarchal hold (sort of) on Joe. Thoughtful conclusion.
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