¶ … Angels in America," by Tony Kushner. Specifically, it will discuss who are the angels, and how do they affect the play, and what do they symbolize? ANGELS IN AMERICA

The two-part play "Angels in America," by Tony Kushner won Pulitzer Prizes, has been banned from communities, and continues to be a controversial and enlightening look at the AIDS/HIV community, and how America looks at it. It also looked at America in general - how we live, what we are afraid of, and what we have to face in the future. Through it all, the angels serve as metaphors for any number of human and inhuman conditions.

Early in the play, Prior finds "kisses from the angel of death," which are wine-colored skin lesions that indicate he is HIV positive, and indicate he will eventually die. He shows them to his lover, Louis, and we know that this is also the "kiss of death" to their relationship. Indeed, Louis is not strong enough to stay with Prior, and he leaves him.

Later, in the second play, one of the characters equates angels to "powerful bureaucrats, they have no imagination, they can do anything but they can't invent, create, they're sort of fabulous and dull all at once" (Kushner). Thus, the angels can stand for anything and everything that is happening to America. Consistently,...

They are referring to how difficult it is to fit into society when you are different - a Mormon, gay, black, or sick. Angels in America are the ones who know how hard it is to live here, and do it day after day.
When the angel arrives to tell Prior he is a prophet, he says simply, "Greetings, Prophet; / The Great Work begins; / The Messenger has arrived" (Kushner). The angel also tells him God is dead. This is another symbol that the angels stand for the turmoil in America. One of the characters says that "faggots are just a bad dream America is having." There are many of those in the play, like the depletion of the ozone layer, Reganomics, government controls, hunger, racism, and just about anything else that is not working in America. Prior finally comes to understand that he may indeed be a prophet, a prophet for Americans, so they can fix what is wrong with the country. "Maybe I'm a prophet. Not just me, all of us who are dying now. Maybe we've caught the virus of prophecy" (Kushner).

The angels also represent each of us, and the "HIV" that each of us faces. We all have something secret, something inside us that we wrestle with. We all will die eventually. The angels represent our own demons inside us waiting to…