Summary
Act Three: Not-Yet-Conscious, Forward Dawning
Scene 1
Prior wakes up in a fright from a nightmare and sees a man dressed in the clothing of a 13th-century British farmer/squire carrying a scythe. The man ("Prior 1") says he is Prior Walter and he is an ancestor—the great-great-grandson of the Bayeux tapestry Prior Walter. Prior says he is the 34th but Prior 1 says he is the 32nd: you cannot count the two bastards.
Prior 1 sees pills on Prior’s nightstand and says they must be for the pestilence. Prior, intrigued, asks if he had it too. Prior 1 explains that it was much worse in his day: whole villages died; Death walked the streets. He died of the “spotty monster” (90) alone as well. Prior says he’s not alone, but Prior 1 says he clearly has no children. Prior replies that he’s gay, but Prior 1 does not care if he’s gay and blithe. Prior tries to explain what the word means and stops.
A second ghost ("Prior 2") appears, dressed as an elegant 17th-century Londoner. Prior screams. Prior 2 greets them and says they’re here to “declare Her fabulous incipience” (91). He adds that he and Prior 1 were no doubt chosen because of the plagues they died from. His was Black Jack from a water pump, and the other’s was fleas.
Prior asks if his ancestors if he is going to die, but Prior 2 won’t discuss it. Prior 1 is grim about the path to death, but Prior 2 consoles him there is good news coming.
Prior begins to sing. Prior 2 puts his hand on his forehead to calm him. Prior 1 chants for the angel. Prior 2 joins in, intoning that the Messenger is coming, trailing orbs of lights. Both call for Prior to prepare for the descent.
Scene 2
This is a split scene. Prior is in an exam room, hooked up to an IV. Louis and Belize sit across from each other at a coffee shop. Louis is talking aloud about why democracy seems to have succeeded in America even though the elite framers did not want it to. The Left is the side that keeps tripping up, and the worst kind of liberalism is bourgeois tolerance; AIDS shows the limits of tolerance. Power is the actual object, and for America, what defines the country isn't race but rather politics. There’s the monolith of White Straight Male America, yes, but it was in London where Louis really saw the weight of race and how old prejudice was there. Race is all that counts there, and there is no hope for change.
Belize looks at him skeptically and repeats that he is saying race doesn’t count here. Louis protests that he was not saying that; he says that here, race is a political question: there are no gods or angels in America, and there is no racial or spiritual past—only the political and its decoys.
Belize mocks him and pretends to look at the time. Louis, indignant, asks if Belize thinks this is racist. Belize replies that it’s something. Louis is perturbed and tries to explain himself, but Belize sighs that he knows there must be guilt fueling this tirade.
Louis knows Belize must know he left Prior, and Belize says Louis knows they are not to talk about him. Louis is frustrated that Belize is drawing conclusions, but Belize isn’t having it. He tells him that as much as he’s enjoyed listening to him blabber on, he has better things to do than listen to this racist bullshit.
Louis claims he is not a racist, but then he stops and wonders if he is. Belize grimly says it’s no fun even picking on Louis because he’s so guilty. Louis sniffs that it’s difficult talking about oppression; Belize responds by saying that, as a black drag queen, he knows that very well.
Louis wonders about the gay community’s attitude toward drag, and Belize warns him that he’s on shaky ground tonight. He asks if Louis is “deliberately transforming [himself] into an arrogant, sexual-political Stalinist-slash-racist flag-waving thug for my benefit?” (98.)
Louis is convinced Belize hates him because he is a Jew. Exasperated, Belize prepares to leave. Louis says that most black people are anti-Semitic. Belize tells him he is always ambivalent about everything, even Prior, and he ought to remember that real love isn’t ambivalent.
Emily is removing the drip needle from Prior and inspecting his body for more lesions.
Louis asks about how bad Prior is. Belize says there’s the weight problem, shit problem, and morale problem. He thinks he is going crazy.
Emily asks if there’s anything else. Prior rambles about his fuzzy tongue, his sore ankles, how he is afraid of bird tuberculosis, and how he is okay but is going nuts. He is afraid of something terrifying on its way.
As Emily tells him he is fine, her voice seems to blur into something like Hebrew. Prior yells at her, but she is confused and laughs that she wasn’t speaking Hebrew. As he frantically dresses after his inspection, she tells him he’s one of the lucky ones, that he will live for a few years at least, and that he isn’t going crazy.
All of a sudden there is a rumble, a huge blaze of light, a chord sounded by a choir, and a book bursting through the floor. The book opens and a large Aleph glows and lights on fire. Then, the book shuts and disappears, and the floor is as it was. Prior stares at the floor in shock.
Louis wants Belize’s help. He feels like he has the Mark of Cain on his forehead. He can’t sleep, he is cold, and he misses Prior, but he remembers the sores and the smell. Belize is cold and remarks that Louis does not understand what love is—democracy and justice, yes, but not love. Louis whines that he is dying. Belize replies that Prior is dying—Louis just wants to be.
Before Belize departs, he asks Louis if he can smell snow—“softness, compliance, forgiveness, grace” (105). Louis cannot. Belize looks at him and says he cannot help him.
Louis inhales. He realizes that he can smell the imminent snow.
Scene 3
Harper is dressed in a beautiful snowsuit and is in a white, cold place. She marvels at the snow, ice, and how the air has a strange iron taste of blood in it.
Mr. Lies appears and informs her this is Antarctica. She is immensely pleased and proclaims that she wants to stay forever and build a city by the river. When he says there are no trees, she waves him off and says she will plant them herself.
She looks around and happily says that she can have everything she wants here; she can even pretend to be pregnant here and have any baby she wants. Mr. Lies corrects her: this is a place to be numb and safe, and she ought to “respect the delicate ecology of [her] delusions” (107).
She wants to see an Eskimo; even though Mr. Lies explains that they don't live here, one appears. Harper is excited and thinks she will be very happy here.
Scene 4
In an abandoned lot in the South Bronx, a homeless woman stands near an oil drum. An angry Hannah appears, dragging her two suitcases.
Hannah tells the woman she is lost; she complains about the bus driver, how he didn’t speak English, and how he didn’t know where she wanted to go. Her son was supposed to meet her at the airport but never showed.
The homeless woman berates the air beside her and tells a joke. Hannah sighs and orders the woman to pull her wits together and help her get to Brooklyn. She is sorry the woman is psychotic, but she needs her to take a deep breath. They breathe together. The woman says she’s never been to Brooklyn, but she tells her the location of the Mormon Visitors' Center in Manhattan. Hannah is stunned that she knows it, but the woman shrugs that there are free movies there.
Hannah turns to catch the D train. The woman comments to herself that “In the new century I think we will all be insane” (111).
Scene 5
Joe and Roy sit in Roy’s brownstone and Joe tells him he cannot take the job. He explains that his wife is missing, his mother is here, and he has a bleeding ulcer. It’s just a job, he adds. Roy is angry and starts explosively cursing at him that it’s not just a job and that Joe broke his heart.
Joe sadly replies that he did want to be a participant in Roy’s world and that he loves him; however, Roy shrugs this off. He bitterly tells Joe that his greatest accomplishment is securing the death penalty for Ethel Rosenberg back in the 1950s because he hates traitors and hates communists; he doesn’t care if it was legal because he’s not a nice man and doesn't give a shit about that.
Joe pauses and reminds Roy he’s not well: he has cancer. Roy protests that he does not. When Joe says Roy told him he was dying, Roy yells that he never said that and that he is in perfect health. He shakes Joe’s hand, pulls him near, and calls him the prodigal son.
Joe turns to leave. Roy shoves him, then turns him around and smooths his lapels tenderly; he tells him that he’ll always be there waiting for him. Suddenly, he shakes him violently and spits out that he doesn’t know what Joe wants from him and what all this was. Joe grabs Roy, slams him into a bookcase, and prepares to hit him.
Roy laughs softly and tells him to transgress a little. Joe hurries out. Roy sinks down in pain. He calls for Andy, but when the door opens, a small Jewish woman enters. She is Ethel Rosenberg.
She looks at him calmly and comments that he doesn’t look good—he has lost weight. He agrees and says he doesn’t feel good. She tells him that the shit has hit the fan, and he agrees. Suddenly he loses patience and yells at her that he is better dead than red: he isn’t afraid of her, death, or anything.
Ethel turns to leave and says that Julius sends his regards. Roy flips her off and moves toward her but collapses. She notes that he is not doing well and picks up the phone. She doesn’t know how to use the buttons, but she figures it out and calls for an ambulance for Roy Cohn, the famous lawyer.
Roy stands up shakily. He tells her he’s immortal, has forced his way into history, and will not die. She smiles that “history is about to crack wide open. Millennium approaches” (118).
Scene 6
Prior 1 and Prior 2 are giddy, preparing for Her arrival. Prior is scared; he holds a crucifix, garlic, and a mirror, and tells them to leave. They command him to dance, but he confusedly tells them he can’t, asking them to leave him alone.
They conjure Louis for him. Louis asks Prior to dance, and he says that his leg hurts. After a moment, Prior inquires if Louis is a ghost; Louis says he is a specter. He sits on benches thinking of Prior. They dance.
The other two Priors vanish. Before they do, though, Prior 2 marvels at how old the world has gotten. Louis vanishes. Prior dances alone. The sound of enormous wings is heard. Prior opens his eyes and his leg hurts.
Scene 7
This is a split scene: Louis in the park, and Prior in his room.
Prior looks up at the ceiling fearfully. The lights intensify and, to his horror, Prior, against his will, speaks of the Recording Angel opening its eyes and snapping the spine of the Book of Life. He clamps a hand over his mouth.
Joe approaches Louis in Central Park. Louis wonders if he knows the story of Lazarus and if Joe thinks it really happened. Joe doesn't know what he believes anymore.
Joe admits that he followed Louis, and he tries to touch his face. Louis pulls back and says bitterly that bad things have happened to people who touch him. Joe asks haltingly if he can, and then he holds Louis’s face. He mutters that he is going to Hell for this, and Louis sniffs that Hell can’t be worse than New York City.
Louis tells Joe to come home with him even though he hates the Republican stuff. Joe sadly says he doesn’t think he’s worthy of being loved. Louis laughs that they have a lot in common. He walks away and Joe follows.
In his bedroom Prior listens and is frightened at the sound of a large bird. He wills himself into anger and stands up on his bed; he declares that he has clean blood and can handle the pressure. Suddenly, he sinks down as a wave of arousal sweeps him. The lamp flickers, the bed shakes, and Prior moans in confusion.
Triumphal music sounds. Four major chords resonate and a different color flashes with each. Then there is silence. Prior is awestruck.
What sounds like a meteor hurtles toward the bedroom and there is a massive crash. The ceiling comes down and the room is in absolute darkness. Unearthly white light floods the room and the Angel descends.
The Angel greets the Prophet and announces that the Great Work begins: the Messenger has arrived.
Analysis
In Act III, the characters experience more trauma associated with their various afflictions. Harper hallucinates that she is in Antarctica. Louis tries to rationalize his leaving Prior. Joe searches for companionship in Louis and struggles with Roy. Roy continues to see the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg and collapses, having to be taken to the hospital. And Prior experiences a multitude of concerning things. His body continues to deteriorate, Louis officially leaves him, he hears voices, he encounters two dead ancestors, and he finally sees the Angel herself in the most terrifying and dramatic fashion. He is convinced he is losing his grip on reality, but in fact he is being ushered into a new reality—one that is fantastically confusing and strange.
Louis’s betrayal of Prior is one of several in the text. Part of being human, Kushner suggests, is that we sometimes do terrible things to each other even if we don’t mean to be hurtful. Louis is turned off by not only Prior’s illness but also the fact that he was “too much of a victim, finally. Passive. Dependent” (218) and he never gave him a chance to find his footing. He is lonely and turns to Joe for companionship, even when he finds Joe’s religion and political beliefs distasteful. As a Jewish, liberal, and homosexual intellectual, he thinks deeply about things but ends up offending Belize when he tries to dismiss the role of race in America. These betrayals are mirrored in: Roy’s betrayal of his fellow Jew, Ethel; Joe’s betrayal of Harper; and America’s betrayal of her citizens.
Returning to Louis, he occupies a couple different vulnerable aspects of identity: he is homosexual and he is Jewish. Kushner stated, “Louis carries the burden of the play.” He is difficult to like, but he is a richly developed character. Critic Ranen Omer-Sherman dives into Louis’s character, explaining how his essential rejection of his grandmother (he did not talk to Sarah for ten years) prefigures his rejection of Prior. He is prone to “sweeping judgments about the historical culpability of nations and groups” but is a “moral failure in his own relations with others.” His sovereign authority is the Self, and he is no longer enmeshed in “what was once an inescapable framework of identity—familial, communal, traditional, even the Jewish neighborhood—inherited at birth.”
Louis actually has more in common with Roy Cohn than anyone else, for Louis lives outside his community and Roy is acommunal. Louis’s abstract ideology leads him astray, and “[his] failure of responsibility is as heinous as Roy Cohn’s betrayal of Ethel Rosenberg.” He may espouse Hegel’s myth of progress, but he abandons a loved one in the most horrific time of need, which is “the crux, the moral center of Angels as a whole.” The Rabbi’s earlier words come back to us: “The Holy Scriptures have nothing to say about such a person” (25).
Kushner is aware, Omer-Sherman writes, that the Jew’s role as an outsider in all respects has been supplanted in modern life by other vulnerable identities, but that the history of that oppression should make them more open and obligated to the other identities. Part of acknowledging, affirming, and supporting those identities is understanding one’s Self, and “radically disavowing either Self or Other wreaks terrible violence on the individual and society.” Roy, Joe, and Louis (before he starts to change his worldview) cause this violence and make it more difficult for the others to succeed.
