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Angels in America Essay

Decent Essays

Carter O’Leary Angels In America Essay Rabbi Chemelwitz says in his eulogy (Millennium) that the "Great Voyages" of the past no longer exist. Does the play bear out the truth of his belief or not? If not, what are the new great voyages? Tony Kushner’s play, Angels In America, explores the trials of the journey of human life through the development of his characters throughout the play. When Rabbi Chemelwitz says “Great Voyages is this world do not any more exist.” (Millennium 16) he speaks only the partial truth. It is true that none of the characters at the funeral can make the same kind of trip Sarah Ironson made, the pilgrimage from her home to a foreign land across the Atlantic. However, the voyage to America Sarah took and the …show more content…

This is shown in her introduction to the play. She is portrayed as a semi-mad woman who talks to her hallucinations more than actual people. Harper even realizes this is wrong when she says “Weird stuff happens... like you, for instance.” (Millennium 23) She realizes something is clearly wrong yet does nothing about it. As the play progresses though, she gains more confidence in herself and eventually confronts Joe about his homosexuality. She comes out and directly asks him, “Are you a homo?” (43) after her hallucination with Prior. This is a huge step for her because she has always had her suspicions about Joe but has never confronted him about it before. Now however, she begins to change. She gains confidence and winds up leaving Joe. It is at this point when she takes a journey with Mr. Lies to try to get away from her life in New York. Unfortunately, the hallucinations are only a temporary distraction as first, Joe finds his way into them and second, she eventually comes back to her senses and is arrested for burning a tree in Central Park. Finally, at the end of her great voyage, she gains enough self-confidence and assurance to make a physical voyage all the way out to San Francisco. A third character who goes on a great voyage through the play is Louis. He originally starts out unable to deal with the reality of Prior having AIDS so he leaves him. However, although he left Prior, he feels

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