Darkness In Angel’s Land

Angels in America is the masterpiece of American contemporary playwright, Tony Kushner, which won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award. There are various themes of the play, involving politics, racism, suffering and misery of homosexuals. Tony Kushner himself is Jew and homosexual. From his own experiences, he has a deep understanding of the difficult situation as being "others" and marginalized groups of people:the misery of being discriminated and rejected by the mainstream society. Tony Kushner considers himself as a political playwright. He believes that all the psychological movements originate from social conditions where they live in. And all literary works cannot be analyzed alone without analyzing social background. Therefore, this thesis develops the research from two important aspects of the play’s themes, that is, relative social and political background, trying best to analyze the play more thoroughly and profoundly.Relating to the political background, this research paper places particular emphasis on analyzing the character Roy Cohn to show political darkness and judicial corruption of the United States at the end of the last century. Roy Cohn is a lawyer in New York, and at the same time he is a political broker. He is both Jew and homosexual. He has close relationship with McCarthy, who is nicknamed American Hitler. They together cruelly persecute communists. In the play, except for the archetype of Roy Cohn, there are also two real figures, who are the couple of Rosenberg. They are suspected as spies for the Soviet Union and at last unfairly sentenced to death because of Roy’s intervening in the trial by telephoning the judge every day and misusing his power. Tony Kushner makes the problem of judicial corruption, which the play reflects more persuasive. Roy Cohn is a lawyer, but he does not respect the law. He uses his power and clout not only intervene in judicial trial, but also pursue interests and profits for himself. When he learns that he will be disbarred, he intends to arrange his good friend to work in the Justice Department in Washington D.C. His purpose is to let his friend favors him, intervene in the trial and prevent the disbarment. The reason why he is afraid of being deprived of the certificate of being a lawyer is that lawyer’s identity can bring him the power and rules, which he uses his whole life to pursue, rather than safeguard the law.Relating to the social background, this thesis analyzes the prejudice and discrimination towards homosexuals and PWAs (patients with AIDS) by the American mainstream in the1980s, the crisis of AIDS due to Reagan government’s indifference to them, the loss of religious belief, racism and other social problems through the analysis of main characters of the play. The writer aims to disclose the miserable situation of homosexuals and PWAs:they suffer from both pains physically and terrors psychologically from AIDS. They are discriminated and isolated by the mainstream, and even rejected by their homosexual lovers. They are suffering isolation, misery and desperation. Through the description of the difficult situation of homosexuals and PWAs, the research paper wants to let the public understand their sexual orientation and their desire to love and to be loved, and treat homosexuals and AIDS patients fairly and equally, and get rid of the prejudice and discrimination towards them. People should establish connections and communities to love, to care and to help each other, in order to set up a new-type society, which is filled with friendship, love and humanity.