Angels in America: Harpet Pitt Anonymous College

Much of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America centers around the immediate despair and hardships which afflict victims of the AIDs crisis in the 1980s. Beyond that, however, there are certain characters who illustrate conflicts related to issues directly tied to the spread of the epidemic. For most during the 1980s, contraction of AIDs indicates same-sex relations and the patients become, if not already, recipients of heavy scrutiny and shunning by larger society. People often attribute their disdain for homosexual behavior as indications of their strong religious convictions; believing (for various reasons, whatever they may be) that strict limitations on human behavior such as sexuality are ordained by god and must be strictly abided by, so, naturally, the religious factor plays a big role in the actions of some of Kushner’s characters. However, as most aspects of human life, religious beliefs can be altered by an individual's surroundings and impulses. Harper Pitt’s experience throughout the play is an example of such, as a Mormon who is mentally unstable and wedded to a gay man, she demonstrates how one’s circumstances can greatly affect and essentially rework one’s previous mindset through various implicit and overt...