Summary
Act Four: John Brown’s Body
Scene 1
Roy and Joe are in Roy’s hospital room. Roy looks absolutely terrible. He is claiming he is the heart of modern conservatism: all the rest abandoned the struggle, but he persists. He knows how brutal life is and how false people are. Everything he did was for the moxie, not the money, he assures Joe. Joe says he will remember that.
Joe apologizes to Roy for letting him down. He tells Roy quietly that he left his wife and has been staying with someone else. He alludes that it is a man; Roy shrugs and says he forgives him—but he doesn’t ever forget.
Suddenly, Roy asks Joe if he sees a dumpy old lady in a hat around here. Joe is confused. Roy then asks Joe if Joe’s father blessed him before he died, and says he will bless him.
Joe kneels and Roy touches his forehead. They enjoy the moment. When Joe starts to talk, Roy hushes him and tells him admiringly of how Jacob took his birthright from Isaac. He then says how, when he was younger, he had a bony spur on his nose and his mother made them operate and take it off; this helped him become stronger.
Before Joe goes, he nervously tells Roy that the person with whom he is staying is a man. Roy looks at him hard. Joe says he met the person three weeks ago and he doesn’t know if the man wants to continue seeing him; he tells Roy that he doesn’t know what to do. Roy looks away, but Joe presses on. He says that he has no one else to talk to and thinks that perhaps he just wants sympathy, which is odd since he never used to seem to need or want that. He looks at Roy and says that he knows Roy cares for him.
Without warning, Roy stands up and begins to hobble across the room. Joe thinks he is heading to the bathroom, but Roy pulls out his IV tube and starts bleeding profusely. Frightened, Joe calls for help.
Belize rushes in, but Roy growls at him to stay away. He looks at Joe and demands that he go back to his wife. When Joe protests, Roy grabs him and blood gets on his shirt. He cries that Joe needs to go or he will regret it—and Joe is not allowed to ever talk to him about that stuff again.
As Belize helps Roy bandage his arm, Roy tells Joe that he never saw that coming. Belize orders Joe to take off the shirt, throw it away, and not touch the blood.
Joe hesitates and Roy screams at him. Finally, Joe departs; Roy looks at Belize and says, “Every goddamn thing I ever wanted they have taken from me. Mocked and reviled, all my life” (215). Belize replies, “Join the club” (215).
Roy wanly says they could never be in the same club, and then he asks for Belize’s name. Belize tells him that it is Norman Arriaga, but that his friends—not Roy—call him Belize. Roy suggests that Belize sue someone because it is good for the soul.
Roy is then wracked with tremendous, terrible spasms. Belize holds him down, shocked and saddened by this display of pain.
Ethel appears. Roy shudders and says that this is a bad way to go. Belize asks for God’s mercy and says that he almost feels sorry for him. Ethel shrugs that that is a bad idea.
Scene 2
Prior sits down on a bench as far away from Louis as he can. Prior is visibly angry and tells Louis not to flatter himself that he is somehow noble. Louis wishes he could get some points for trying to arrive at a resolution and for being responsible. He knows he "fucked up," but he thinks that perhaps Prior fucked up too because he never gave Louis a chance to adjust, acting as a sort of a passive victim.
Prior cuttingly asks him why he wants to come back. Louis says he didn’t say that he wanted that. Prior softly acknowledges this. Louis pleads that he can’t just move back in and start over. Prior looks at him and says that he knows he is seeing someone and that he’s a Mormon. Louis is flabbergasted that Prior knows this; Prior makes Louis ask him how he knows.
Prior furiously tells him that he (Prior) is a prophet; he stands up to leave, but he has a respiratory attack and sits down. Louis cries, and Prior scolds him for doing things that cost him nothing. He asks after the man Louis is seeing and laughs that this man is a “Gay Mormon Lawyer” (219) who is also Republican and apparently “sensitive.” When Louis says he is only someone for companionship, Prior shakes his head that Louis has somehow made it worse. He comments that all over New York there are men with AIDS who have someone to take care of them—yet he only has Louis. He sneers that Louis can only come back to him when his bruises are visible. Prior leaves.
Scene 3
Roy is in a deep sleep, surrounded by machines regulating his condition. Belize gives him his pills and looks at him sadly as he raves in his morphine haze.
Roy asks Belize dreamily what heaven and hell are like; Belize says they are like San Francisco. Roy smiles that he is glad it is a city. Belize talks of tall buildings, wrecking crews, gusts of wind, ravens, trash, voting booths, dance halls, lights, and gender confusion. All the deities are “Creole, mulatto, brown as the mouths of rivers” (223). Roy thinks this is hell, but Belize says it is heaven.
Now Roy is scared of Belize, and Ethel appears. Belize whispers to Roy to sleep now and says that he’s just a shadow on his grave.
Scene 5
Prior and Belize sneak up to Joe’s door at work. Belize is skeptical, but Prior demands to meet his replacement. Prior steps in. Joe is confused; Prior announces that he is a prophet, whereas Joe is only a clerk who files things and breaks hearts. Joe will have bills to pay in the world to come, Prior says. Then he suddenly says he has the wrong room and leaves.
In the hallway, Prior despairs that Joe was the Marlboro Man; Belize, curious, enters. Joe recognizes him as Roy Cohn’s nurse. Belize lies, says that he isn’t, and runs out.
Prior sadly tells Belize that Joe is so butch, which makes him feel wispy and weak.
Joe comes running after them, angry and confused. He asks why Prior mentioned his wife; Prior crazily says that he was there to sue and is appealing to anyone in the universe. He demands that Belize take him away. As they leave, Belize speaks in French to Joe and tells him to behave. He then looks at Joe and mourns to himself that his own problem is that he is trapped in a world of white people.
Scene 6
At Bethesda Fountain, Belize sits next to Louis. Louis admits he saw Prior; Belize confirms that he knows this, and he admits that they went to see Joe. Louis is furious, but Belize wants none of this; he excoriates Louis for sleeping with Roy Cohn’s “buttboy.”
Louis is flummoxed and says that Joe is certainly not that: he is nice, conservative, and moral. Also, Louis adds, Belize has always loved Prior, so that is why he is saying this.
Louis continues, growing more heated. He thinks Roy Cohn is the worst person who ever lived, the “polestar of human evil” (229), and he says that Belize ought to give him some credit. He knows he fucked up and didn’t face what he needed to. He says that he's the sort of person who usually takes action and he knows he ought to move forward. He knows he cries too easily and falls apart. He ruined his life and Prior’s, but he would never sleep with a man who slept with Roy Cohn.
Belize is stoic. He states that Louis doesn't even know anything about Joe: he doesn't even know that Belize already has a man and was never in love with Prior. Louis only loves Big Ideas and America. Belize, for his part, hates America and the fact that people in it are dying. In fact, he invites Louis to Room 103 at the hospital so he can show him America: “Terminal, crazy, and mean” (230).
Scene 7
Joe enters the reception room at the Mormon Visitors’ Center. Hannah sits at the desk. They look at each other.
Joe wonders why she is here and says that he is taking Harper home. Hannah protests, but Joe begins to heatedly say that he knows nothing works anymore and his efforts always fail. Hannah listens, but she says that being a woman is harder.
Joe asks his mother to give Harper to him, but she says she isn’t here. She isn’t at the apartment either, so she must have escaped again. Joe is upset because it is raining outside. He suggests that his mother go home and leave them be. Hannah can’t bring herself to tell him that she sold the house in Utah.
After a pause, Hannah brings up the thing he told her on the phone. She suggests maybe they ought to… Joe realizes she is going to say “pray,” and he yells that he could never stomach the prospect. He leaves.
Hannah sits alone. Prior, in his wet prophet garb, enters. Not looking at him, Hannah tells him woodenly that they are closed. Prior states that the man who left was her son. Hannah, surprised, wonders how he knows him. Prior explains that his ex-boyfriend knows him; he says he wants to warn Joe that Louis can’t handle bodies, age, fright, and emotions.
Hannah asks Prior if he is a homosexual; he says that he is.
Prior moans that he is sick and that it is expensive, as he sinks to the floor. He asks Hannah if he has a fever; though she hesitates at first, she touches his forehead and says yes. She suggests he stand and that maybe she should get help, but he waves that off. He wants to go to the hospital. She helps him up and decides to take him. Thunder sounds and the sky is immensely black.
Scene 7
Joe finds Harper standing on the edge of the railing at the Promenade. She is soaked and disheveled, talking about Judgment Day being at hand. She smiles that Manhattan is going out of business and the prices are insane. Joe is concerned and tells her he is coming back.
Harper replies that she knows and that she wants to stay in Brooklyn because the water will never bring about the end. People just float, even in a flood. It has to be fire for the Great and Terrible Day.
Scene 8
Emily is examining Prior in the Emergency Room. Hannah stands nearby. Emily is angry that Prior is losing weight, but he retorts that he has pneumonia and can’t breathe. Emily sighs and tells him to stay put.
Hannah stands to leave. Prior tells her that he isn’t insane and that he saw an angel. She doesn’t dispute it. He proclaims that he is not insane, but that has been driven insane by her son, the lying, and his own terror.
Hannah suggests that he had a vision, and she speaks of the visions of Joseph Smith. Prior starts to say that is ridiculous, but she interjects, saying that it is rude to say that. Prior assumes that she thinks ill of him because he is a homosexual with AIDS, but she does not believe it fair to make assumptions. He agrees. She explains that it wasn’t the idea of two men that upset her when Joe told her that he was homosexual as well—yet when she heard it, she flew into a rage and then actually flew.
Prior coughs, can’t breathe, and becomes anxious. He is very upset that he made mistakes, and he is scared. He lifts his shirt and shows Hannah. She is perturbed, but she tries not to show it as she comforts him. She says that it is only cancer and puts her hand on his shoulder. He calms down.
He asks about the prophets in the Bible. He wants to know if they ever refused their visions, and what happened if they did. She can only think of one, but she isn’t sure about it. They laugh a bit when she says that God feeds such prophets to whales.
Prior asks her to stay until she falls asleep because she comforts him. She settles in a chair and both wonder at what a strange end to this day this is.
Hannah tells Prior that an angel is a belief: if it lets you down, then you should reject it. Then, she says, seek something new.
Scene 9
Harper and Joe are getting dressed. She knows why he closes his eyes when they have sex: he is thinking of men. He agrees. He then says he is going out. She stops him and asks what he sees when he looks at her. He finally says, “nothing.” He repeats that he is going out and exits. She simply says that the truth sets her free.
Scene 10
Louis is at home when Joe knocks on his door. Louis lets him in but keeps reading as Joe plaintively asks him why he hasn't responded to him—why he isn't being nicer? Louis looks at Joe and quotes, “Have you no decency, sir?” He asks if Joe knows who said that, and he repeats the question. He then says that he has spent the day looking at the decisions of Justice Theodore Wilson during the Reagan years.
Joe pauses and asks why he is reading the decisions he, Joe, actually wrote for Wilson. Louis won’t let Joe touch him and continues that he just loved reading about how Wilson found against the women suing a factory for blinding children. As Louis goes on, Joe becomes angry and wants Louis to stop making childish assumptions.
Louis will not be deterred and brings up another case about a gay man suing for his pension from the army. Joe tries to explain what went into the decision, but Louis, with blazing eyes, will have none of it. He repeats the “decency” question and a frustrated Joe decides to leave. He yells that he doesn't know who said it but that he loves Louis.
Louis grimly says that it was Joseph Welch at the Army-McCarthy hearings who said it, and that Roy was there—and that he knows Joe slept with the disgusting reprobate Roy. Joe will not answer; Louis screams that he lied to him, that he does not love him, and that Roy has AIDS. Joe is shocked. When Joe tries to leave, Louis grabs him and sneers that they are both “stupid closeted bigots” (250) who probably never figured out that the other was gay.
They struggle and Joe punches Louis, who grabs his leg and won’t let go. Joe punches Louis in the face and is surprised at himself. He backs off and mutters that he had never done that before. He apologizes and moves to help, but Louis bitterly shoos him away.
Joe looks at the blood on his hand and then leaves.
Scene 11
Roy is singing “John Brown’s Body” to Ethel, smiling that he is finally going and that he will still be a lawyer. Ethel corrects him: the panel ruled against him and called for disbarment. The Executive was waiting as well, and signed it. Roy is not a lawyer anymore.
Ethel explains that she came here to see if she could forgive Roy, but she only feels pleasure in his misery. He is shit and everyone will be happy when he dies.
Roy is delusional now and starts to call her “Ma," saying that it is good to see her. He is scared and slinks back into his bed. Ethel is upset by this and starts singing to him in Yiddish. His eyes are closed and he is not breathing. She then quietly sits down.
Belize enters and thinks that Roy is dead, but Roy jerks awake, gleefully saying that he was faking; he can’t believe that he made Ethel sing, and he says that he wins. As he is gloating, though, a clot forms in his brain and strikes him down. As he is dying, he wishes that he could be an octopus in the next life. He dies.
Analysis
In these scenes, each of the characters begins to fall apart more and more. Joe and Harper are split up. Harper languishes in her hallucinations and quest for truth. Joe thinks he is in love with Louis and then feeling anguish when Louis excoriates him for being close to Roy. Louis freaks out that Roy and Joe were close and also tries to come to terms with his relationship with Prior. Prior seeks answers regarding his status as a prophet, has to put up with Louis’s, becomes physically sick again, and is taken to the hospital by Hannah. And then there is Roy, whose bodily sufferings are legion and who eventually dies after being disbarred—and after besting Ethel Rosenberg in an essentially meaningless battle of sympathy.
One of the few moments of lightness and warmth is Hannah’s interaction with Prior. They have a very respectful conversation and Hannah does not think he is crazy at all for saying he saw an angel. She stays with him in his hospital room even though she barely knows him, and she ends up giving him the advice he needs to best the Angel and choose the future he desires for himself. Kushner is clearly suggesting that the only way to make this world tolerable, even pleasant, is to set aside one’s dogma, prejudice, and assumptions, simply being compassionate towards others.
Harper’s story is almost over now, though in the final act she will decide to officially leave Joe and travel via plane to San Francisco—all this after seeing Prior in Heaven and telling him she finally understands how everything works. Even though it seems like Harper gets a happy ending of sorts, there are still some issues with her character. Critic Natalie Meisner explicates this, revealing that, while the male characters of Angels have a spectrum of gender in which to perform and seek power, the female characters do not. Harper is “a sexually thwarted and politically detached female figure [who] constructs Joe’s emergence, by contrast, as all the more reasonable, brave, and lively.”
Most of the female characters are either ghostly or disembodied, but Harper’s body is still quite present—present and “subjected to a clinical and exhaustive set of restraints and strategies for containment.” Whereas the male characters retain or attain dignity and integrity, Harper disintegrates. She hallucinates, is an addict, cannot clean herself, and cannot engage in any sexual fantasizing or behavior without it leading to self-loathing or failure. Harper’s behavior is meant to be funny, but it is grotesque: the audience laughs at her, not with her.
Another issue Meisner identifies is that none of the female characters “seem aware of the humor that surrounds them.” They cannot manifest irony, humor, or wit; the lack of these characteristics for the women, “coupled with their persistent association to decay, stasis, death, and indeterminacy constructs them as threatening to the very principle of sociality.” Harper is seemingly only fixated on Joe, and while he is experiencing a sexual awakening with Louis, she is literally slumped in a chair. Stage directions indicate that her delivery of lines is flat and dull, and that oftentimes she is in dim light. She is devoid of any individuality and any autonomy. Meisner concludes by stating, “the whole, healthy, alive, conflicted, active, male subjects are created by their separation (under the logic of conflict and sacrifice), from the fragmented, pathological, passive female objects.”
Even though these critiques are absolutely valid, there are a few other perspectives to add to this discussion of the female characters. Hannah displays a level of tolerance and acceptance her son has difficulty achieving. By the end of the play she has evolved to look like a “real New Yorker” and has a set of friends that exemplify multiculturalism. Harper may have moments of insanity, but both she and the homeless woman in the Bronx have lines that get to the essence of living in America at this time. Harper looks at Manhattan, under the scourge of AIDS and the rapaciousness of Wall Street, and laughs that it’s Judgment Day and “[is] going out of business” (236), while the homeless woman says, “in the new century I think we will all be insane” (111). The Mormon Mother offers advice for Harper that she eventually does accept, telling her to leave her heavy heart because she “can’t carry no extra weight” (199). She also tells Harper that it is up to her to take care of herself, and that when God rips her open, “it’s up to you to do the stitching” (200).
