Tapestry
The Bayeaux tapestry represents an important image in the play linked with Prior. The tapestry represents Prior's noble and stable lineage. It is hinted in the play that his money comes from a trust fund and that he doesn’t work much; Prior’s family is a noble one and the name has been passed from father to son for generations. The family lineage will end, however, with Prior. First, Prior is gay and thus he has no chance of conceiving a male heir with his partner. Second, the fact that he has AIDS will more likely stop him from trying to have children with a woman. The image of the tapestry is an important one because it makes reference to the end of Prior’s family, with Prior representing the breaking of the thread.
Angel
The image of the Angel who appears at the end of the first part of the play is the image on which the play is centered. Until that point, the presence of the Angel is hinted by the recurrence of noises that make Prior think about birds and wings, and by the voices that he hears. In the last scene of the first part, however, the angel appears visually before Prior and thus the play reaches its climax. The presence of the angel is more than just an image, having a symbolic meaning as well, but the image is one of beauty, terror, puissance, divinity, strength, and desire.
Hall of Justice
Joe tells Louis that he accidentally came to work on a weekend and thought: "The Hall of Justice, it's empty, it's deserted, it's gone out of business. Forever. The people that make it run have up and abandoned it" (75). This is a powerful image because it is spooky and strange, but also because it is a commentary on the fact that the Reagan administration and much of the rest of the government have abdicated their responsibilities to the people in a quest for power. There is no justice, no equality, and no freedom; all is empty and meaningless.
The end of the play
The image at the end of the play—Prior, Hannah, Louis, and Belize sitting at the Bethesda Fountain—is a powerful one. First, the Angel is ossified and mute, reinforcing the centrality and significance of human beings. Second, the four characters represent a new, inclusive society close to the Heaven that Belize told Roy about. They are men and women; gay and straight; Jewish, Mormon, agnostic; black and white; sick and healthy; rich and poor. It is a new and beautiful tapestry of life.
