Angels In America Essays - English-language Films, Films, Harper

Angels In America The play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, by Tony Kushner, contained situations in which characters personalities underwent great changes from the beginning of the play to the end. One of the most significant and noticeable changes was that of Harper. She was married to the character named Joe, who she knew was gay and the way she dealt with this came to relate directly to her own sanity. In part one, Harper spent a lot of time with her imaginary friend and travel agent Mr. Lies. He was her escape mechanism from the horrible reality she could not deal with that was her life. In part two, Harper came to grips with her husbands homosexuality and the fact that she was not going to change him. As Harper learned to deal with her husbands sexuality she became more in touch with her own sanity. In part one Millenium Approaches, everything is falling apart in Harpers life. She is well aware that her husband is gay. Despite not being told from his mouth, Harper knows and it bothers her that she is in a marriage where her husband secretly desires a partner of the opposite sex from her. Nothing seems to be going right and instead of dealing with reality, Harper takes Valium to escape from reality. Her imaginary friend and confidante Mr. Lies becomes her only companion. She can not function in real life anymore. She takes trips all over the world (imaginary world) just to get away. In Act Mr. Lies explains We mobilized the globe, we sent people adrift, we stir the populace and send nomads eddying across the planet. We are adept of motion acolytes of the flux. Cash, check or credit card. Name your destination. This quote illustrates the freedom that Mr. Lies allows Harper to experience. With the help of Mr. Lies, Harper could go anywhere in the world and have any experience witho ut the burdens of real life travel. In Harpers mind, she gained all of the real life advantages of getting away such as the feelings of escapism and relaxation, but did not have to deal with lifes hassles to obtain them. An example of the above is when Harper had Mr. Lies take her to Antarctica. Her reason for going there was to find people and the trip would ultimately numb her feelings and freeze her tears. This is a retreat, a vacuum, its virtue is that it lacks everything; deep-freeze for feelings.. You can be numb and safe here, that's what you came for. Respect the delicate ecology of your delusions. Harper,part I,Act III,scene 3. Stated as it is above, this notion makes sense. Harper knows that she is delusional and out of touch with reality, but she is appreciating her current condition and taking it for everything it is worth. In actuality, Harper is in a park in NYC, but in her dream world she is in a cold desolate place where it is too cold for her feelings to bother her. In part II, Perestroika, Harper begins to come back to reality. Part two starts off with her literally trying to chop down a pine tree in Prospect Park by chewing on it. She is shocked back into reality because her task is impossible by the means she is using. However, at this point in the play, she is still not prepared mentally to deal with the events of her real life. Even though Harper is not completely turned around yet, she has made progress from the beginning of the play. Now that Harper is coming to grips with her marriage and her life as a whole, she is in the position to do something about them. It is often said that the first step to recovering from something is realizing and admitting that you have a problem. Harper knows that she is hallucinating and that her dependency on Valium is bad for her mental and physical health, but she appreciates what the drug is doing for her. The Harper of Part Two is at an advantage to the Harper of earlier acts in the play because she is able to look at her situation