Ethical Concerns In Tony Kushner's Angles In America

Widely acclaimed as one of the most significant American writers,Tony Kushner(1956-)is best known for his Pulitzer-winning play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.Consisting of two parts,Millennium Approaches(1991)and Perestroika(1993),the play is regarded as a milestone in American theater for its fantastic representations of America in the Reagan Era of the 1980 s.This thesis undertakes to explore the “national themes” of the play by focusing on its ethical concerns.Arguably,Kushner's overtly political play is heavily concerned about environmental ethics,political ethics,and religious ethics.First contended is Kushner's environmental awareness of not only a polluted earth symbolized by the ozone hole,but also an oppressive environment for marginalized citizens highlighted by gay and colored population.The thesis maintains that by creating the delusional Harper obsessed with the ozone hole and the rebellious Black gay nurse Belize,Kushner envisions an environmental ethics advocating environment justice for the oppressed,be it for the violated natural or human environment.Next,Kushner rebuts the political ethics of the Reagan Administration represented by the gay lawyer Roy Cohn,a historical figure serving as Senator Mc Carthy's chief counsel and U.S.Justice Department prosecutor at the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1951.In the play,Roy becomes a power broker taking pride of his “clout” in the White House and represents the corruption of the U.S.legal system.In one of Kushner's many fantastic visions,Ethel Rosenberg appears as a ghost in the sick bed of Roy afflicted with AIDS as a triumphant act of resistance.In paralleling Mc Carthy's America with Reagan's America through historical figures as such,the thesis argues Kushner's play serves as severest indictment of unethical politics of the 1980 s.Lastly,central to the ethical concerns of the ambitious play is Kushner's aspiration to an inclusive religious ethics in the face of declining Judaism,Mormonism and Christianity.In creating Louis as a faithless Jew and Prior as the Prophet and Benjamin's angel of the history,the thesis contends that Kushner's “gay fantasia on national themes” embodies his aspiration for a more disirable America.In conclusion,ethical concerns in Angels in America remain an integral part of Kushner's agenda of “national themes”.Taken together,appeal for environmental justice,fantastic resistance against unethical politics,and aspiration to an inclusive religious ethics voiced by Kushner in his signature play not only showcases the profundity of Kushner's theater,but also demonstrates his undaunted faith in the dramatic art to make visible a better world to come.