Angels in America is divided into 2 parts: Millennium Approach and Change Perestroika. The play involves religious beliefs, race, politics, AIDS, homosexuality, love, disease, death and other themes. The content is very full, the characters are very three-dimensional, and the plot is very compact. It is one of the most influential dramas in the United States in recent years .
The story takes place in New York in the 1980s:
Louis Ironson was a court clerk. He is Jewish. He lives with his gay love, Prior Walter. But Pryor had AIDS. Society at the time knew very little about the disease. Unable to withstand the enormous pressure, Louis abandoned Prior.
Joe Pitt is a Republican lawyer who is a Mormon. His wife Harper is addicted to Valium and has paranoia. Joe worked hard to suppress his homosexuality. Louis and Joe hook up because they both work in court.
The notorious McCarthyist Roy Cohn, Joe's boss, offered him a promising job in Washington. In fact, Roy is also a comrade. At this time, he also got AIDS and was admitted to the hospital. Belize, the black comrade nurse in charge of his care, happens to be a friend of Player's.
Pryor is torn between life and death; Louis is condemned by conscience but overwhelmed; Joe is torn between his religious beliefs and his sexuality.
As I said before, the play involves many topics and there is a lot to talk about. I am no stranger to the themes of religion, race, and politics in the United States, but in the Chinese environment, I have not encountered any troubles in these areas, so I can understand the play's discussion and thinking in these areas, but There will be no skin-to-skin sensation. What touches our hearts is often what can happen to us as well. For example, we are also in the situation of social acceptance of homosexuality and awareness of AIDS at that time. Our lover has AIDS. What will our psychological activities be like? What will our concrete actions look like?
Many human problems cannot be assumed. Especially those who are in a relationship, do not use assumptions to discuss such human nature issues, because this assumption is a bit like fishing law enforcement, and it is also a bit out of nothing. All you can get is two outcomes, a satisfying lie and a stark reality. The former is self-deception, the latter we may not be able to accept. Why is this necessary.
Such human issues are also not suitable for discussion. Because they are rarely right or wrong. As human beings, we are inherently imperfect. We are inherently cowardly, cowardly, hypocritical, vain, lazy, selfish, etc., the so-called "evil" of human nature. There are many things that are innate in us, or influenced by our living environment, that are deeply ingrained in us, which are difficult to overcome. It is arrogant and unreasonable to use your own ruler to measure others out of thin air; therefore, it is unacceptable to be used by others to measure yourself.
When it comes to human nature, we can only see how others do it, and then think about how we will do it ourselves. This is the time when you are your truest self, because there will be less scruples at this time. Comparing our hearts to our hearts, it seems that we can understand more people than being a saintly bitch. Of course, there are many people who don't even have the courage to think about it, and some people still have no answer even though they think about it. Actually don't worry, when that moment does happen, you will be forced to react and what you do is you. Even if you don't act, you are acting.
So, I don't have any emotional likes and dislikes for Louie in the show. All I can say is that he is within the range of normal people I understand. When his own boyfriend Pryor got AIDS, he was afraid because he was afraid that he would be infected; he panicked because he didn't know how to take care of Pryor; because he was overwhelmed, he couldn't express more, Just told Pryor we couldn't be together and left. Seemingly indifferent, but actually tangled. At this time, Louis was like an anxious child when he encountered something he couldn't handle. Although he chose to escape, he never crossed it in his heart. He knows that he still loves Pryor, and he is condemned by his conscience every day, so he has been torn between escape and his true feelings. This is actually his painful psychological construction process. In the end, after he had experienced several mental tortures of himself, he understood what he wanted, what he was able to undertake, and whether he was able to do what he was capable of, so in the end he would return firmly to Player.
After this kind of thinking, maybe we will be more tolerant towards the people around us, and we also feel that the world is not so ugly.
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