Character Notebook: Angels in America I - Essay Example

Character book: Angels in America I Affiliation: Section Brief Synopsis of the Play a) Angels in America is a play that focuses on the stories about two couples that are troubled, whereby one couple is gay while the other couple is straight. The gay couple is Louis Ironson and his lover Prior Walter. The straight couple is Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt and the wife, Harper. In this play, one member of a gay couple (Prior) reveals to the partner that he has contracted AIDS while the other couple panics. Louis later reveals to Joe on the situation in a sad mood, and Joe similarly reveals that his wife (Harper) is an addict of Valium and that she suffers anxiety and hallucinations. Joe and Louis then get closer to each other more often, to the extent of engaging in a sexual affair outside their marriages. At the same time, Harper and Prior meet at an odd circumstance, whereby both of them are hallucinating. Through the hallucination, they find themselves revealing the truth about each other and seem to understand each other’s woes in a special manner. They seem to understand each other through their hallucinations, which act as a tool for revealing their inner beings. They also make jokes about each other’s problems but seem to understand and agree with each other perfectly. b) The central idea of the play is the aspect of cheating and problems of hallucinations among couples. Joe and Louis are cheating on their couples while Prior and Harper have problems with their inner beings, hence find themselves in hallucinating situations. There is also a concept of transmission of AIDS disease within the play. It is evident that Prior is sick, creating the possibility that Louis is sick too. Similarly, Roy Cohn also has AIDS, creating a possibility that Joe also has the disease. Despite these circumstances, Joe and Louis engage in a sexual affair, paying little attention to their health status. The play thus brings the idea that people tend to make decisions and choices basing on their love and sexual feelings, rather than on their friendships and professionalism. This explains why Joe rejects a job offer to Roy Cohn’s justice department while they engage in a sexual affair with Louis in order to satisfy their desires. Similarly, Harper has a problem with facing reality, thus engages in taking excessive Valium that eventually puts her into hallucinations. Therefore, the whole play brings the central idea of weak familial relations that shy away from solving issues that face them, hence seek refuge from outside their families and marriages. Section 2: All the scenes in the play occur due to given circumstances. The time aspect presents itself in the manner of which some characters are in the closet and fear revealing their own identities. It is just a matter of time until things will come out to the open. The concept of the place occurs at the locations where certain events occur. For example, Louis and Joe meet in the bathroom of the courthouse, where they end up striking an unlikely friendship basing on the fact that Louis becomes suspicious of Joe’s sexual orientation. The other aspect of place presents itself in the context where Harper and Prior meet each other in a fantastical mutual dream, whereby they end up revealing to each other the truth about their inner self. The society presents itself in the manner of which people go by their activities. In the play, it is apparent that the society here is full of immorality, whereby each member involved engages in sort of immoral behavior. All of this is evident in part one of the play, whereby there is a description of each individual’s character and acts in the play. The concept of religion also presents itself at the end of part one, scene 7 where Prior and Harper are referring to their religions in relation to certain acts (Kushner, 1993). However, religion is subject to present as a mockery, whereby it has no value to the lives of these characters. Finally, the concept of law and politics also presents itself in part one of the play. There is an aspect where Roy offers Joe a place to work at his justice department basing on the history that both of them had in the past. It thus presents the idea that people in the law and political places give favors to those people they have personal relations together, at the expense of ethics and values of professionalism. Section 3: The aspect of before time presents itself through characters in the play. Particularly, before time presents well through Joe’s character. At first, it is possible that Joe and Roy used to be having a sexual affair. Joe also is behind the closet on his sexual orientation. He seems to be in a marriage with Harper only because he was forced to do so by his mother, which did not manage to change his sexual orientation towards becoming a straight man. In another situation, the concept of before time could occur in the Louis and Prior’s relationship. In this couple, there must have been a member that was engaging in an extra sexual affair, hence contracting AIDS. There is also a possibility that one of them had already contracted AIDS before they became a couple. Before time, there is a possibility that Louis was already cheating on Prior, hence justifying his character of cheating on Prior with Joe later on. Section 4: Harper’s Character Autobiography As Harper in the play, I consider myself as a softhearted person and one that is quick to anger. This explains my anger upon learning something that hearts my feelings, hence driving me to seek refuge in a different place, such as confiding in other people or intoxicating myself so that I can avoid facing things that hurt me directly in life. As a softhearted person, I like offering people advice and help in solving their problems in any way that I can. This explains what makes me be unique as a character. Since it is not the first time that I have intoxicated myself when faced with a challenging situation, it implies that my character is historical since my young age. I consider my character unique in the context of looking at people and have the ability to tell on what they are experiencing from their deeper feelings. I am not shy of telling an individual the truth even if it may or may not hurt that individual, on the provision that what I say is a true reflection of my view of that individual. The playwright informs me that my character of telling people the plain truth is not right and that I need to consider people’s deep feelings before talking to them on certain sensitive matters. It is necessary to add details in the manner of which an individual should learn to learn and evaluate the environment so that he or she should act in a reasonable and logical manner. It is also necessary that an individual realizes on the thing that is causing anger and irritation within oneself, hence be able to avoid such circumstances from occurring. Finally, I think my character is historical in that I tend to hide from the real problems that I encounter. In this perspective, I will appreciate a logical advice that would inform me on how to solve my problem and hence gain the courage of solving my problems head on in the future. Section 5: What I want as Harper in the Play It is entirely painful to learn that your partner is cheating on you. As Harper, I feel that Joe is doing something that is very unforgivable, especially through the manner of cheating on me with another married man. I this case, I would like to see that Joe pays for his own actions by compensating me through my life. I am thus planning to file for a divorce of which I will require him to continue paying for my upkeep through my life as he keeps on suffering in his miserable and lonely life. To some extent, some mistakes are hard to forgive, thus making someone pay for those mistakes helps at bringing back the sense of satisfaction. Therefore, my objective is to see that Joe continues suffering in his life for many more years to come. Section 6: Obstacles to achieving my objectives At first, I am just a housewife and have little for my own. In this regard, Joe uses it to his advantage by doing whatever that he wishes to accomplish. I have little money for my own, thus making it hard for me to seek the services of best lawyers that could help me through the divorce process. Another obstacle is that Joe is a lawyer by profession and since he has many friends in the judicial system, it makes it hard for me to achieve my goal of trying to make him pay for his mistakes. Additionally, Joe uses the fact that I am an addict of valium; he might use that into excusing himself in the court as a way of justifying why he cheats or possible use the same concept of my valium addiction in filing a counter case against me. The court might also think that since I suffer from deep hallucinations, it will be risky for me to stay alone, hence end up to deny granting me a divorce. All of these factors are key obstacles to my efforts of seeking revenge to Joe’s actions. Section 7: Rehearsal Record For my part of the play as Harper, I took my rehearsal very seriously in order to bring originality while in the real play. I conducted my rehearsals often whenever I felt like I wanted to remind myself of the script. I conducted most of my rehearsals in the morning and evening hours, spending at least three hours a day in the entire rehearsal process. What I did was printing out my act of the play so that I may rehearse it at my own pleasure. I also received the assistance from my sister who helped me polish my act my rehearsing to her often. Some techniques obtained from class, such as the importance of self rehearsals help in building my confidence. I could engage in the play my rehearsing to the mirror as part of the strategy of bringing out originality in my acting capacity. Reference Kushner, T. (1993). Angels in America: A gay fantasia on national themes. New York: Theatre Communications Group. Read More