Embedded deep within American culture are a multitude of internalized topics that, for a time, seemed to tear individuals apart; examples of these topics are religion, sexuality, race, gender, economic class, and much more. Tony Kushner's magnum opus, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, puts all these issues on one stage, analyzes them, humanizes them, and ultimately brings its characters into unified coexistence despite the forces that keep them apart . This unified coexistence, Kushner argues, is progress, and audiences come to understand Kushner's hypothesis: that progress can be achieved through the fundamental act of forgiveness. The play is set in the 1980s, one of the most divided eras in American history, and contains characters forced to overcome this era of internalized irony for the world to survive the chaos. The endings of both parts of the play are crucial to this idea, as they shape the actions of the play's events into Kushner's aforementioned thesis of progress and growth. The analysis of the character in the era of irony and the importance of the ending come together throughout the work before amalgamating in the epilogue. The final scene shows the audience four characters (Prior, Louis, Belize, and Hannah) specifically triumphing over previously restrictive ironies and summarizes the work of the play to convey Kushner's true point: individuals must keep the world as it is. state of “painful progress” by forgiving yourself and others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayTo discuss the importance of triumph over irony, it is necessary to disclose the era in which the work is set: the 1980s, sometimes called the “Decade of Me.” It is the age of consumerism, with the rise of the “yuppie” character and the cultural emphasis on the display of wealth and status, apparently supported by the economic policies of Ronald Reagan. It is an economically ironic time, when the rich become very rich and the poor are still, if not poorer. Thus, the country finds itself in an economically polarized state of being, drawing the ire of many who recognize inequality. Abroad, communism remains the perennial threat to American capitalism, despite its apparent victory in some aspects of the American experience. Meanwhile, the discovery of AIDS in 1981 transformed the national ambivalence towards homosexuality into a full-blown war between heterosexuals and homosexuals, thus dividing the country into an even more divided state of being. In summary, the 1980s were a decade characterized by deepening rifts between all kinds of people. The characters in Angels in America confront these issues head-on and slowly discover that unity is the only way to survive what could potentially be the death of American society. Prior Walter is one of many characters forced to face internal irony. him to survive the time in which he lives. He describes himself as a WASP, a social group usually linked to heterosexuality, and is so well educated that his family says: "Going back to the Norman Conquest... there's a Prior Walter sewn into the Bayeux Tapestry” (Kushner I, 135).Despite this apparent social distinction, Prior unconsciously separates himself from it by living as a gay man, and even more so by living as a gay man with AIDS. This description of Prior is consolidated in Millennium Approaches, where the ravages of his illness, his heartbreak when Louis leaves him and eventually his Angel's call shows him being acted upon. This only serves to insulate himself from the things thatin addition to his illness and sexuality, they characterize him as well as his education and his economic condition. Prior becomes a fighter during Perestroika in many ways, such as learning to curb the effects of his illness and making amends with Louis. By coming to terms with the realities of his life and making the best of them, Prior reconciles the themes that divided his inner self in Act I. The angels asked Prior to be their voice in the world and to tell the world to stop move. . To vindicate himself, Prior tells them after rejecting their request: “Bless me anyway. I want more life. I can't help myself. I do” (Kushner II, 135). Prior has forgiven his internal ironies and decided that living with them is better than not living at all, and this is made universal in the epilogue. Louis, a Capuchin intellectual with endless opinions on everything from left-wing politics to philosophy, is ironic in two respects: his attraction to a closeted Republican and his disjointed relationship with Judaism. As he and Joe attempt to be happy despite their differences, these differences turn out to be their internal foundations, thus preventing them from living a life of coexistence. The irony of their relationship is something neither of them can overcome; this is seen when Louis confronts Joe with his homophobic ghostwriting and Joe can only scream “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME! I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU” (Kushner II, 110). With Joe unable to deal with the contradictions in which he lives, the relationship ultimately fails because it is fundamentally paradoxical to Kushner's idea of ​​progress and growth. Meanwhile, Louis' disconnection from Judaism is symbolized by the death of his grandmother, of whom he says, "I pretended for years that she was already dead...I abandoned her" (Kushner I, 24). The quote is a metaphor for his abandonment of Judaism; a religion that according to Rabbi Chemelwitz supports “guilt” (Kushner I, 25). Louis finally understands this idea of ​​guilt after abandoning Prior, but at the end of Perestroika he reconciles with Prior and finally with Judaism by reciting the Kaddish with Ethel Rosenberg over Roy Cohn's body. In this scene, Louis symbolically takes responsibility for abandoning his lover (who was temporarily in the afterlife at the time) and his religion, showing great growth in moral character. Although Louis cannot correct what he has done, his internal development is a progressive journey that leads to his place in the epilogue. Hannah's presence in the play is characterized by rebirth, first by her initial call to purify her son and instead by the renewal of herself. Hannah is shown to believe that her purpose is to help other people, whether they ask for it or not. Ironically, she is quite unable to "straighten" her son despite her intentions, and inadvertently becomes Prior's protector. Although her first words to him were: “We're closed. Go away” (II, 98), Hannah finds herself helping him in a few sentences when he has a fever and accompanies him to the hospital. The sequence not only reflects Hannah's naturally altruistic nature, but it is completely ironic that she is helping a homosexual (a way of being she neither condones nor understands) and that it was purely by accident, never intentional. Acceptance of the irony of their relationship, rather than rejection of it, is what brings about Hannah's rebirth, enacted during her lesbian encounter with the Angel, made possible by her companionship with Prior. Their relationship leaves Hannah as an awakened person, which is explored further in the epilogue. Belize's character is noticeably different from the rest of the characters, even the other three who appear at the end. It is at odds with the world from the pointracially as a black man, sexually as a gay man, and gender-wise as a former drag queen. Despite these isolating themes, Belize has already resolved his own internal ironies and instead acts to resolve the ironies of others. As a nurse at New York Hospital, he must care for Roy Cohn, despite their obvious mutual hatred and Roy's reluctance to admit his true self. He serves as Louis' confidante and adversary, even though the two are constantly at odds and as Prior's former lover, Belize should be on Prior's side in the argument. Belize's constant efforts to heal others are summed up in his request that Louis recite the Kaddish for Roy, saying, “He was a terrible person. He had a hard death. So maybe... A queen can forgive her defeated enemy. It's not easy, it doesn't matter if it's easy, it's the hardest thing. Pardon. And it is perhaps here that love and justice finally meet. Peace, finally. Isn't that what the Kaddish asks for?” (II, 124). Belize's role in the Age of Irony is not to reconcile; His character's purpose is to help others mend the fractures that divide people, which he believes can only be achieved through forgiveness. Belize's presence as a guiding light for the other characters is a crucial mechanism for Kushner to prepare the audience for the play's conclusion, and thus the affirmation of its purpose. Kushner offers the audience two scenes preceding the epilogue to indicate the conclusion of the work. In the first scene, Prior descends from the sky and wakes up with a lowered fever, to which Nurse Emily exclaims, “Well, look at this. It is the dawn of man" (II, 139). The scene, and this quote in particular, lets the audience know that all the action in the show has come to an end and that man finally has the foundation to rebuild society. To conclude Harper's plot and show the inevitability of this progress, Harper is shown on a night flight to San Francisco, where she observes that "In this world there is a kind of painful progress" (II, 144). Showing a character like Harper, who has been terrified of movement throughout the play, embark on a great journey forward in her life is symbolic of the inevitable progress humanity must take to rebuild their lives and their world. Since neither scene fully displays the ideal society that Kushner attempts to convey, an epilogue is necessary to conclude his argument. However, both sequences are crucial to the plot as they conclude the action of the play and give way to the epilogue to reveal Kushner's speculative world. The epilogue is set in a crucial moment in world history, in January 1990; as Louis describes, “The Berlin Wall has fallen. The Ceausescu are out. He is building democratic socialism. The New Internationalism…Remember four years ago? The whole time we had the feeling that everything was blocked everywhere, while we were in Russia! I wait! Perestroika! …The whole world is changing!” (II, 145). Louis' explanation addresses what Kushner believes was the overall problem of the 1980s; that it was stagnant, that nothing was moving. Millennium Approaches addresses this issue, as the main characters were (mostly) succumbing to the dangers of the time, and if they were to move in any direction, it would almost certainly be downhill. This is what the Angels want, the halting of progress in the world so that God can be found. But what Kushner demonstrated in Perestroika is that, as Prior says, “We are not rocks: progress, migration, movement are…modernity” (II, 132). It is not possible to live in a world that does not move, a world that embraces the 1980s, according to Kushner. For icharacters and for Kushner, that first month of 1990 marks the beginning of this modernity, of this adherence to migration. For the audience, a scene that takes place in a new era means not only the end of the play, but also the beginning of a new world. The end of the play is a crucial moment of the play; it is the moment when the audience is granted the desired outcome in the action. The result in Angels in America is the embodiment of Kushner's "Gay Fantasia on National Themes," the embodiment created by these four characters. This "fantasy" is what Kushner believes the future of America should be, a future in which the gaps between sexualities, religions, genders, and races should be bridged, and Kushner presents audiences with characters who represent all four of these things. They can meet at the fountain that day because for those characters, those boundaries that once separated themselves and others have been mended and transcended. Prior, Louis, Hannah and Belize have all survived the Age of Irony and are reunited. in the epilogue, set at Bethesda Fountain. Prior remained alive thanks to his overall desire to live, despite the limitations his illness gave him. Louis, in his abandonment of the Prior, his relationship with Joe, and his reconciliation with religion, has become someone who lives by the morals he could once only talk about rather than live by. Hannah, despite the teachings of her anti-movement religion, has embraced progress so much that she is a completely different person, dressing as a New Yorker. Belize, whose internal conflicts were resolved long ago, nevertheless appears in Bethesda Fountain, still working as a moral guide for the characters. These specific characters ultimately come together for the same purpose: to validate the actions of the past and reveal what Kushner hopes will be America's future. An important element of the epilogue that needs to be addressed is the nature of homosexuality within the characters. that appear, their relevance to Kushner's Fantasia, and their relevance to audiences. Prior and Belize are the most hidden characters, as they have been throughout the play. It's easy to assume that Louis still lives as an openly gay, but partially closeted, man. Hannah's orientation is harder to say, as she is presumably still a Mormon. However, her experiences with Prior and her lesbian encounter with the Angel suggest that her views have evolved from what her religion initially told her. Furthermore, Hannah seems to be completely comfortable with this fact. What Kushner suggests with the homosexuality of the epilogue is that broad acceptance of gay rights is an inevitable thing that will come with time and progress. As Prior valiantly proclaims, “…we will not leave…We will be citizens. The time has come” (148). For Kushner, the time has come for the world to accept homosexuals and achieve peaceful coexistence, because "they will not go away." As these lines are spoken to the audience, Kushner bridges the gap between the stage and the seats and invites the audience to believe in the progress that gay civil rights represents. Ultimately, the denouement, the scene itself is not a break, but the breaking of the fourth wall. Kushner is so committed to the concept of progression that he ensures that the characters' experience becomes the audience's experience and that, when they leave the audience, the action of the play is in their past as well as that of the protagonists. the characters. But what conveys his understanding of the concept so deeply is that he knows that a play about progression should never end. For this reason, Prior blesses the audience with the message “The world only turns forward… You are fabulous creatures, every one of them. And I bless you:.