Summary
Millennium Approaches
Act One: Bad News
Scene 1
The Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz stands before a small coffin with the Star of David draped over it, beginning his words on the life of Sarah Ironson. He admits he does not know her but does know her in some ways, for she was a whole person—a person who crossed the ocean and fought for the Jewish home, who tried to make life in this “melting pot where nothing melted” (10). She came from and was the Old World; such Great Voyages no longer exist.
Scene 2
Roy Cohn and Joe Pitt are in Roy’s office. Roy is yelling and gesticulating on the phone, joking with clients and cursing them, switching back and forth between them, and telling his secretary between calls to get him tickets for Cats.
Joe wonders if he should leave, but Roy impatiently waves him to stay. He asks Joe how Appeals is, and Joe diplomatically says it is going well. Roy is back on the phone—holding, switching, and cussing out the phone. Joe asks him quietly if he could refrain from taking the Lord’s name in vain. Roy laughs but, saying “fuck” multiple times on the phone.
Finally, Roy turns to Joe and asks if he’s Baptist or Catholic. Joe says Mormon. Roy asks him point-blank if he’d like to go work in the Justice Department in DC. Joe is perplexed, but Roy smiles that he can get him in with Ed Meese, the Attorney General. Joe is clearly hesitant; he says that he appreciates it, but that he will have to ask his wife. Roy tells him to go do that.
Scene 3
Harper Pitt is alone at home. She turns to the audience and ruminates on how the ozone layer looks like a pretty blue halo and a protective gift from God. Now, though, “everywhere, things are collapsing, lies surfacing, systems of defense giving way” (16). She adds that Joe should not leave her alone and that she wishes she could travel.
A figure appears and startles Harper. She recognizes him as a travel agent from Salt Lake City, and he tells her she had said she wanted to travel. He introduces himself as Mr. Lies, of the International Order of Travel Agents, a group that sets people adrift and makes them nomads. When Harper tells him she wants to see the hole in the ozone layer, he says it can be done.
Harper tells him hesitantly that she isn’t safe here, and weird stuff happens: Joe stays away and her dreams talk to her. She feels like something is going to happen; it is fifteen years until the Millennium, after all.
Suddenly, she hears something outside and tells Mr. Lies to go. He vanishes.
Joe enters and they kiss. He asks her if she’d like to move to Washington.
Scene 4
Louis, who is rumpled and flustered, sits with his boyfriend, Prior, who is dressed elegantly. They are outside the funeral home. Louis wonders at how odd that service was, and Prior teases that he wants the rabbi’s name for his own. Louis muses that he hadn't seen his grandmother for ten years and that she was crazy toward the end. Prior hugs him but teases him about his family not knowing he is gay.
Louis is irritated and asks if Prior is still upset since his cat is missing. Prior shrugs and says she is, and that she has intuition and left because she knew. When Louis asks what the cat knew, Prior hesitates, removes his jacket, rolls up his sleeve, and shows him a dark purple spot. Louis looks and says it is a broken blood vessel, but Prior tells him bluntly it is K.S.: it is a lesion, meaning that he has AIDS and he is going to die. Louis is incredulous but Prior sighs that he can’t find a way to spare Louis from this.
Louis pulls away and tells Prior “Fuck you” over and over again. Prior says he did not want to tell Louis because he was afraid he’d leave him. Prior then suggests they go home; Louis says stiffly that he has to bury his grandmother. Prior asks him if he is coming home, and Louis says yes.
Scene 5
This is a split scene between Joe and Harper, and Louis at his grandmother’s grave.
Harper tells Joe that she does not want to move to Washington and that they are happy here. Joe says they aren’t really that happy; he is tired of being a clerk and wants to do something good. Harper replies that there is nothing good in Washington, and she has to finish painting the bedroom.
When Joe tells her gently that she has been painting there for over a year, she says she is afraid to go in there alone. It is creepy and she thinks of Rosemary’s Baby. Joe asks how many pills (Valium) she’s had today, and she eventually replies that she's had only three.
At the cemetery, Louis muses to the rabbi that he pretended his grandmother was dead for years. The Rabbi quotes Shakespeare in Yiddish to him about the ingratitude of children. Louis asks him what the Holy Writ says about someone who abandons someone he loves when they are in a time of great need; that person’s worldview cannot handle sickness or death because vomit, sores, and disease are frightening.
The Rabbi responds that the Scriptures have nothing to say and that he is not here for Confession.
Joe tells Harper she’s got to see that things are changing for the better in America. The country has rediscovered herself and there is truth now. Reagan is a great leader and the country is better. Harper asks about the ozone layer and a schizophrenic she saw earlier. Joe, exasperated, says she never goes out into the world. She protests that she does.
They continue to bicker. Harper accuses Joe of secrets and lies, and she tells him he never should have married her. He calls her over for a kiss to calm her. Harper says it is time for her to make a baby. Joe walks out. She talks of the ozone layer and the world coming to an end.
Scene 6
It is November. In the men’s room at the Brooklyn Federal Court of Appeals, Louis cries over the sink. Joe enters, and they say hello awkwardly. Joe asks if he is okay; Louis thanks him for asking and says he has a sick friend.
Louis then tells Joe that other colleagues came in and said nothing to him, and then criticizes the “Reaganite heartless macho assholes” (29). Joe protests and says he voted for the man twice. Luis is surprised and comments that Joe is odd for being a gay Republican. Joe replies that he is not gay, and Louis is again surprised.
Joe and Louis haltingly dance around this; finally, Louis offers him his hand for a shake and departs the bathroom.
Scene 7
A week later, Prior and Harper seem to be appearing in each other’s dreams. Prior is applying makeup, talking to himself about how people do not seem to get what they want and that he looks like a corpse. He sighs that even drag is a drag.
When Harper appears, the two are surprised to see each other there. Harper is also perplexed to see him in makeup, but then simply asks if he is her imaginary friend. He says she is too old for those, but she says frankly that she has emotional problems and takes a lot of Valium. She isn’t addicted to anything else, and she thinks she is a bad Mormon.
Prior responds and says he is a homosexual. Harper says her church doesn’t believe in homosexuals, and Prior jokes that his church doesn’t believe in Mormons.
Harper wonders how he can be here: she does not know him, and she thought hallucinations came from things one knew. It is depressing to her that when people escape the ordinary they really only find the ordinary again, repackaged. Prior shrugs that it’s all been done before.
When Harper says this is a depressing hallucination, Prior apologizes and says he tries to be funny. Harper knows someone as sick as him shouldn’t apologize. The fact that she knows he is sick surprises Prior. When she asks what he knows about her, Prior tells her he knows her husband is a "homo."
Harper refuses to believe this at first, but suddenly, she asks if homos take long walks. She feels like Prior knows her now, but she has to get back to her life. Before she leaves, though, she tells him, “deep inside you, there’s a part of you, the most innerpart, entirely free of disease” (34).
Alone after she vanishes, Prior contemplates this but does not believe her. He feels dirty. He smears his makeup angrily.
Suddenly, a feather falls down from above him and he hears a voice telling him to look up and prepare the way. Prior is very scared and moans that he does not feel good.
Scene 8
It is a split scene, with Louis and Prior in bed and Joe entering the apartment where Harper waits.
Harper asks Joe accusingly where he was; he only says that he was out. She becomes angry and says she purposefully burnt his dinner. When he asks how many pills she’s had, she screams at him that pills are not the problem. She wants to know where he was and what is going on.
Joe tries to suggest she means the job, but she tells him to shut up. He tells her that if she has something to ask, she ought to ask it. Harper quiets down and replies that she cannot ask because she is afraid of him. He looks mean and hard when he comes in, and he feels different to her. Joe tells her that he knows who she is, but Harper spits that she isn’t always the enemy. She hates sex too, after all, and it is like punishment being married to him; this is sin, and it is killing them both.
Harper finally asks Joe the question: is he a homo? She demands he answer and not walk out. Joe first begins to ask what it would matter if he was, but then he retreats and says he is not.
Louis is talking about the afterlife and how he doesn’t think much about it; Jews don’t really have a guide for it. He continues that the act of judgment matters more than the verdict; it’s the judge weighing, pondering, and thinking, not the judge on the bench. It should be the whole of a life that is judged, “arranged and considered [...] not some stamp of salvation of damnation which disperses all the complexity” (39). Prior says that this is very Zen and that, as one who is about to die, he thanks him.
Louis protests that Prior is not going to die. Prior explains he has two new lesions, his leg hurts, his urine has protein in it, his ass is chapped, and he shat blood from diarrhea. Louis is uncomfortable and Prior is annoyed that he has to comfort Louis. Louis begins to cry and Prior asks him to talk more about justice.
After a moment, Louis says that justice is God. He then asks haltingly whether, if he walked out, Prior would hate him forever. Prior kisses him and says yes.
Joe suggests that he and Harper pray, but she is angry. Joe implores her that it wouldn’t make any difference even if he was a homo because he has fought so long and hard to kill this thing. What does she even want from him, he asks. He feels certain he is a shell and there is nothing left to kill. He has worked hard, he’s a good man, and she wants to get rid of that.
Harper tells him she’s going to have a baby, but Joe accuses her of lying. She retorts that he is a liar and that she’ll have a pill-addicted baby who hallucinates. She tells him to leave.
Prior muses aloud about one of his ancestors who came over on a ship packed with Irish immigrants. The ship foundered and sank, and he went down with the ship. The crew threw people overboard to get the ballast right, and only nine survived. He thinks about sitting next to someone and not knowing if they’ll throw you overboard. He tells Louis he likes his cosmology; there’s no guilt, judgment, or responsibility.
Scene 9
Roy is in the office of Henry, his doctor. Henry is telling him about HIV and how it works. Roy is brooding and asks why he is telling him that. Surprised, Henry replies that he just removed three lesions, which will be Kaposi’s sarcoma, and he has many other symptoms. Roy states that the disease affects mostly homosexuals and drug addicts, and Henry confirms this.
Roy is silent and hard. He asks why Henry is implying that he is a drug addict. Henry sighs that he is not. Roy goads him, telling him to say Roy is a homosexual. Henry refuses. Roy tells him if he says those words he will destroy Henry's career.
Henry, exasperated, tells Roy he’s been his doctor for decades and he knows he’s had sex with women and men and he is very sick with AIDS. Roy pauses and then tells Henry that he’s too caught up with labels like “gay,” “AIDS,” etc. Labels don’t say what one thinks they say. He is not a homosexual. Homosexuals have no power and nobody knows them; everyone knows Roy and he has a lot of power. He brags that he could call up the president—or even better, the president’s wife. Sure, he has sex with men, but he’s not a homosexual: he is a “heterosexual who fucks around with guys” (47). And he has liver cancer, not AIDS, he concludes.
Henry looks at him and says that, whatever he has, it’s bad news and he can’t help him; the waiting list for AZT isn’t even open to him.
Act Two: In Vitro
Scene 1
Prior is in the hallway outside his bedroom, languishing in pain. When Louis comes out, Prior screams not to touch his leg and then begins to moan that he cannot go to the hospital because then he will never come out. When Louis leaves to call, Prior accidentally shits himself.
Louis returns and sees the blood in it. His eyes widen and he murmurs that he cannot do this.
Scene 2
Harper is alone in the dark when Joe comes home. He sits with her. She tells him she might go off again, and he tells her he knows this is his fault and he’ll fix it. He sadly says that he wishes God would crush him and start over. Harper tells him not to say that.
Joe dreamily remembers a book of Bible stories he had when he was a kid and how there was one story of Jacob wrestling the angel. Jacob was strong and handsome, and so was the angel. It was a fierce struggle and an unfair one; he sees himself in that struggle.
Harper says she loves him so very much. Joe asks if she will have a baby. She replies that there’s no blood and that it’s time, but that she probably won't. Suddenly she tells him to go to Washington without her. He says that he won’t leave her. She replies that she is leaving him.
Scene 3
Prior is sleeping in a hospital bed with Nurse Emily attending. Louis stands near. They make idle talk; she comments that Prior’s cute but his name is kind of funny. Louis explains that there were lots of Walters before him and that it’s a very old name.
Louis thinks aloud that, if a woman who loved one of Prior’s ancestors could wait faithfully, why can’t he? He tells Emily he’s going for a late-night walk in the park.
Scene 4
This is a split scene. Joe and a disheveled, drunk Roy sit in a bar. Louis and a man meet in the Ramble in Central Park.
Joe is telling Roy about his wife’s pills and how she starting taking them when she had a miscarriage—no, wait, earlier than that. She always had a hard life. Mormons have a hard time living up to the standards set for them. That hit her hard, and he wonders if the part of her to which he was drawn was her darkest part, and if he’s keeping it alive because he needs it. Maybe he married her because there was something wrong with her; maybe he needed her in order to pass.
Roy asks what he had to pass for and Joe quickly replies that he had to pass as someone who simply loves God. He feels responsible for her. Roy shrugs that he should do what’s right for him and let her live her life.
Louis tells the man to fuck him hard and make him bleed; he wants to be punished. The man says they can go to Louis’s place, but Louis says no. The man lives with his parents, so they cannot go there.
Roy explains to Joe that the way people make it is to have someone older and more powerful take an interest in you. He’s had many fathers; Joe McCarthy the best one. Substitute fathers are fine, and the father-son relationship is the most important. Even if a father is hard or unfair, his love still matters.
Louis asks if the man has a rubber and the man says he does not use them. Louis tells him to forget about sex, but the man acquiesces and wears one. They begin to have sex and the man suddenly apologizes because the rubber fell off. Louis does not care and says he wants to be infected. The man is turned off, and Louis sneers to give his best to Mom and Dad. The man slaps Louis and leaves.
Roy asks how long he and Joe have known each other, and Joe says they've known each other since 1980 and that Roy has been a good friend to him. Roy slurs that he wants to be family and that he is dying of cancer. Joe is shocked. Roy boasts that he is not afraid of death because he’s already faced everything. Joe should learn not to let anything stand in his way because “Life is full of horror; nobody escapes, nobody; save yourself” (61).
Scene 5
Prior is in his hospital bed but he looks better. Belize, a black man who is a nurse, former drag queen, and close friend of Prior’s, stops by on his way to work and cheerfully brings out a rub made by a Cubana witch in Miami to put on Prior. Prior is put off by this, but Belize chides him that he is a medical professional, after all.
As Belize rubs Prior, he asks if Louis is back. Prior becomes upset and begins to cry; he says that he wants his boyfriend and that he is dying. Belize sympathetically rubs his back.
Prior explains that he is on a strange drug and hears voices but he’s not supposed to tell. Belize is concerned and demands he tell him. Prior exclaims that he likes the voice and it is keeping him alive; in fact, he confides, when he hears it he gets hard.
Prior then sighs that he can at least be satisfied that Louis is feeling anguished somewhere. His mother had warned him, after all, that if someone were freaked out by the little things, they’d be gone for the big ones. Belize smiles wryly and tells him he is here for him whatever happens; he tells him on his way out to eat more because he looks like shit.
When Belize leaves, Prior calls to the Voice. The Voice says it cannot stay but that it will return soon and reveal itself to Prior—all its glory and its message. Prior must prepare. It is near.
Scene 6
Martin, an official in the Justice Department, sits at dinner with Joe and Roy. He is extolling the merits of the Reagan administration: the Republicans on the Court, the success of their agenda, and the end of New Deal Socialism. He tells Joe gleefully that Justice is the hub of it all.
Roy sneers at Martin, but Martin kisses up to Roy as a “Saint of the Right” (67). He then asks Joe for an answer about the job. Roy jumps in and becomes angry when Joe demurs.
Suddenly Roy takes a letter out and shows Joe. It says that they are going to try to disbar him. Martin simply says it is for revenge: Roy borrowed money from a client and never gave it back. Roy protests that it is because he doesn’t play by the arbitrary and antiquated dictums of the law.
When Joe tells him he will help how he can, Roy explains slowly and intensely that he is about to be tried not by a jury of his peers, but rather by a jury looking to oust him as a “filthy little Jewish troll” (69). If he had a well-placed person in Justice, though, things could improve.
Joe looks at him and says he does not understand. Roy retorts that he does. Joe whispers that it is illegal and unethical. Roy asks Martin to give them a moment. After Martin leaves Roy leans in and angrily asks him if he thinks this is Sunday school. No, he hisses: this is life; this is politics. He tells Joe to grow up and that he can be his man just like Martin is Ed’s man and thus Reagan’s man. He then tears up the letter and says he will be a legally licensed lawyer until the day he dies.
When Martin returns, he asks Joe if he’s decided. Joe says he will think about it. Martin adds that a person can almost always live with the consequences of what they do.
Scene 7
Joe joins Louis sitting outside on the steps of the Hall of Justice. Louis is clearly agitated, and he starts talking about how he thinks about Reagan’s kids a lot, especially the homosexual Ron Reagan Jr. Joe is indignant and asks why Louis thinks he knows Ron is a homosexual. Louis smiles grimly that he cannot, as Ron never sucked his cock. Joe asks him not to be vulgar.
Louis sighs about what those children of the zeitgeist must feel. Nowadays there are no connections; everyone falls through the cracks. Joe and Louis look at each other; it is a bit sexual, but neither follows up.
When Louis prepares to leave, Joe confesses to him that he accidentally showed up to work on a Sunday and everything was empty; the Hall of Justice was seemingly out of business. It was creepy, but he'd wanted to scream happily. He wonders what it would be like to have everything one owed something to vanished overnight. It would be terrible and great, he decides.
When Joe finally says he cannot go in there today, Louis asks if he wants some company. Louis suddenly says he moved out on his… he stops. He and Joe both say they aren’t sleeping well. Louis looks at Joe and says everyone is scared in the land of the free.
Scene 8
Later that evening, Joe drunkenly calls up his mother Hannah in Salt Lake City. She is perturbed that he is drunk, and even more upset to find out that he is near Central Park at night. He says he goes there to watch. She is confused. He then asks if Dad loved him.
Hannah sniffs that this is maudlin. Joe announces that he is homosexual. Hannah is quiet, then says he is being ridiculous and should go home to his wife. She concludes that drinking is a sin and hangs up.
Scene 9
This is a split scene of Joe and Harper at home and Louis and Prior in the hospital room. The conversations are interlaced.
Joe tells Harper she is still his best buddy, but she is upset; she says she is pregnant and leaving. He tells her he knows she is not. Then he continues and says he knew the truth when he married her. He goes walking and swears to himself he won’t go again, but he does. He tries to be dead, but he sees someone he wants and cannot stop himself. He does not have sexual feelings for Harper and never did.
Harper tells him he should go to Washington without her. All he has ever done is lie to her and she is tired of it. She calls for Mr. Lies. Joe sadly says she has always been afraid, but now he knows that the men she was afraid of were him.
Suddenly Joe covers his mouth and gags. When he removes his hand, he sees blood.
Mr. Lies appears and takes Harper away with him.
Louis nervously tells Prior he is moving out. Prior is bitterly angry, especially when Louis says he needs more space. Prior sneers that he means their place isn’t big enough for Louis, Prior, and Prior’s disease. Louis states that he does not want to be judged and is doing the best he can. He will come over sometimes, he adds. Prior tells him he is pathetic.
Louis believes that you can love someone and fail them, but Prior does not believe Louis loves at all. Louis protests that he does love Prior, but Prior does not care.
Suddenly Prior reaches for Louis, crying out that they lived together for four-and-a-half years. Louis moves away. Prior tells him to leave or he will scream; then says he will close his eyes and that Louis had better be gone when he opens them.
Louis leaves. Prior comments, “I hurt all over. I wish I was dead” (84).
Scene 10
Hannah Pitt, who is unflappable and not very friendly, is outside her Salt Lake City home with Sister Ella Chapter, her only friend and a real estate agent. Ella is selling Hannah’s home and wonders why she wants to move to New York City.
Hannah looks over the edge of the ledge; her house is on a canyon rim. She muses that occasionally she thought about stepping over. Salt Lake is hard; there’s energy but no intelligence.
They both take a puff of Ella’s cigarette and Hannah orders her to put it out.
Ella nervously looks at Hannah and says that, as her friend, she thinks she ought to stay put. Salt Lake City is the home of the saints. Hannah wanly corrects her with latter-day saints. Ella sees no difference. Hannah simply says it’s late in the day for saints, and for everyone.
Analysis
Angels in America is a rich, dense, hilarious, complicated, and occasionally heartbreaking play. It is almost impossible to take in everything it has to offer, and its sheer ambition is both stunning and daunting. Kushner takes on AIDS, politics, race, gender, religion, love, betrayal, redemption, and more in his seven+ hour work, and it is no wonder it is as lauded as it is.
We can begin with the context: the years of the Reagan administration and the years that the AIDS virus was sweeping through the homosexual community (see “Other” in this study guide). Kushner conveys a palpable sense of fear, rage, and confusion in both the people who are afflicted and their loved ones, and some of that rage is directed towards the politicians who have no interest in acknowledging or helping with this crisis. Kushner does not shy away from the uncomfortable, visceral, and grotesque elements of the disease as it plays out on the body of Prior. Although Roy is certainly extreme, his antipathy towards homosexuals and the disease represent the mindset of politicians and most Americans at the time. Critic Chris Freeman sums this up: “Angels in America uses AIDS as a metaphor for an investigation of life in the 1980s. Kushner views the greed of that era as having frightening implications for personal relations.”
Suffering is palpable for Prior, but it is also such for Harper, whose suffering is not bodily but mental. Viewers learn that she has long been suffering from hallucinations and an addiction to Valium, and, as her marriage and stability decline, the visions become worse. She eventually leaves the house, thinks she is going to Antarctica with Mr. Lies (a perfect name if there ever was one), and becomes dirty, disheveled, hungry, and confused. Roy also suffers from AIDS, and the disease wrecks utter havoc on his body. There is emotional suffering as well, with Louis trying to come to terms first with Prior’s diagnosis and then with his choice to leave Prior; we also see this in Joe, with his repressed homosexuality and feelings for Louis.
Prior and Harper’s suffering allows them to transcend the boundaries of their mortal bodies in time and space and enter each other’s dreams and hallucinations. There, they find shared understanding in being bereft of their partners and in seeing their lives crashing down around them. They reveal secrets that they couldn’t possibly know to each other, and often they find a modicum of comfort in their hellish lives. Prior’s sickness is eventually the key to his hearing and seeing the Angel and to his appointment as a Prophet, which we will discuss in future analyses. Sickness also brings about ghosts, as with Roy and Ethel; it is clear that the agitation of the body and soul make one’s existence more mutable and porous.
The exploration of body and soul is a significant part of the text and, as critic Benilde Montgomery explains, is something that owes itself to medieval mystery cycles. Kushner had studied medieval culture at Columbia and was well versed in these Corpus Christi plays. However, he imbues Angels with highly secularized humanism rather than adhering to traditional theological themes. One of the first similarities is that Kushner’s “arrangement of incidents…closely imitates the structural outline of the mystery cycles. As the cycles trace an arc from Genesis to Doomsday, so, too, does Kushner’s play.” In the very first scene, the Rabbi alludes to a more perfect and Jewish past that is now gone. At the end of the play, four characters gather together, redeemed not by Christ but rather because they’ve loved Prior Walter, the new prophet of these postmodern times. Second, there are angels—and even a devil, in the guise of Roy Cohn. Roy curses God, blesses chaos, and tries to tempt Joe. Third, the parallels and patterns of relationships between the characters are similar to those of the medieval plays, in which Old Testament figures intermesh with or become New Testament figures.
Perhaps most significantly, “Kushner’s analogies create an ordered series of relationships among God, self, and world and thereby give shape to the otherwise disparate elements of the play.” The suffering body of Christ is now the suffering body of Prior; in both the medieval plays and Angels, the wounded body “[is] an analogue for, among other things, the woundedness of the social body, of the body politic, and of the individual physical body, [and] the cycles teach that the destinies of these separate bodies are in fact interconnected.” Montgomery provides multiple examples: the family is wounded, seen in the fact that Joe’s dad did not love him, Roy doesn’t have good fathers, marriages and relationships are dissolving, and Sarah’s ancestors do not honor what she did for them; the body politic is wounded due to corrupt politics, capitalism, rapaciousness, and a failing justice system; and the planet is wounded, as with a thinning ozone layer and the Chernobyl explosion.
Before concluding, we will look at each character briefly as they appear thus far. Joe is a conservative, a Mormon, and a repressed homosexual. His inability to acknowledge his true self manifests as a bleeding ulcer, a terrible marriage, and numerous awkward encounters in which he clearly wishes he could be more open about his identity but instead has to obfuscate, deflect, and lie. He feels the deep contradictions between his religion and his homosexual self, but cannot figure out how to reconcile them. Harper knows somewhere deep down that Joe is gay but also cannot initially openly confront him. She suffers immensely, experiencing depression, anxiety, and hallucinations. Louis does not have close connections to his family and even though he is Jewish, he does not seem to be particularly fervid about the faith. He cannot handle the suffering of others, finding it distasteful and perplexing. He feels guilt easily and acutely, but he is full of excuses and justifications for his behavior. Prior is a thoughtful and kind man who is figuring out what to make of his new reality.
And as for Roy, he is a bombastic and sadistic monster, prone to lies, cruelty, prejudice, greed, and corruption. An acolyte of Joseph McCarthy and one of the lawyers responsible for giving Julius and Ethel Rosenberg the electric chair, he is “the polestar of human evil” (223), according to Louis. Something else that he is, though, is Jewish. Emily King looks at this aspect of Roy’s identity, acknowledging first that, in the 1950s, the Jew had the option of being either the pariah or the parvenu; nonetheless, “Choosing neither ‘option,’ Cohn occupies and exploits to his benefit the liminal space of the trickster, and as such, he achieves voice, visibility, and power.” The real Cohn felt the pressures of the postwar period, in which Jews often exhibited the proper American patriotism and denounced or marginalized their own Jewish community to fit in. These Jews also denounced Communism, sometimes virulently.
Roy, though, does not closet his Jewishness and assimilate. As a trickster type, “Cohn not only redefines labels, he plays with a multiplicity of Jewish stereotypes and tropes”; though he works from the sidelines, “he nevertheless accumulates his power while deftly navigating completing loyalties alongside the impossibility of assimilation.”
