Forrest Gump may pray for God to make him bird so he can fly far, far away, but Harper Pitt seems to have missed the mark a little. Perhaps it is because God won’t talk to her and she has to make up people to talk to her (40). When things with her and Joe finally come apart, when she hears him admit that he is gay, and finally realizes that it is him she’s been terrified of this whole time – that his life and his lies would kill her inside, she calls upon her imaginary friend Mr. Lies to take her far, far away.
Harper ends up in what she believes to be Antarctica and immediately feels better. There is a reason for this level of delusion however, and it’s that she is in “the Kingdom of Ice, the bottomest part of the world” (101). As this would clearly indicate, Harper has finally hit bottom. Although she is in a place where she cannot feel the pain of what has just happened to her life, she acknowledges that she has gone off the proverbial deep end: “Wow, I must’ve really snapped the tether, huh?” (101)
She wants to be free of the fear and pain that plague her daily existence, and after finding this cold, numb place in her mind wishes to stay there forever and create her own reality. She is warned by Mr. Lies that although this place seems wonderful, she cannot have it forever, because “ice has a way of melting” (102). While it lasts though, Harper can hold on to every delusion she ever had, including the delusion that if she could just have a baby, she would somehow be safe. We can see that by her comment when talking about the baby girl she imagines she will give birth too: “And if it gets really cold, she’ll have a pouch I can crawl into. Like a marsupial” (103). The fact that she would crawl into the baby’s pouch and not the other way around shows that she doesn’t desire to be a mother, so much as she desires something to be a solution.
A marsupial isn’t quite a bird, though it does seem that Harper has flown far away from reality. Many of Kushner’s characters in Angels in America seem to be searching for a way to escape the harsh reality of their lives, and in doing so, they are failing to really live their lives. Only Harper goes so far as to create an alternate universe for herself, but by escaping her feelings and escaping the very real situation around her, she is giving up her life. When the ice melts, things will be very difficult for Harper, and she will either have to come to terms with her humanity (since she is not, in fact, a marsupial) or she will retreat to her Antarctica forever and will need to be checked into a mental facility.
Interestingly, it seems there is some hope for Harper, because her ironically named friend, Mr. Lies, refuses to lie to her. He never actually tells her she is in Antartica. He is the one who tells her she cannot have this forever, that he is not the one who can give her the love she truly wants, that she is not really pregnant and made that up, and although she ignores him, he reminds her that “even hallucinations have laws” (102) and she cannot completely escape everything just be living in her head. The fact that some voice in her head can still remind her of these things indicates that perhaps she can come back from this complete meltdown, and maybe she and her imaginary baby really can become one and mend.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Failure to measure up
“The failure to measure up hits people very hard. From such a strong desire to be good they feel very far from goodness when they fail” (53). This quote from Joe in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America so accurately sums up much of the human experience. One of the common fears shared by people in this country is the fear of failure. So much of our culture is built around the idea of success, and not to succeed is the same as being bad.
In his play, Kushner explores the idea of failure and of goodness in many of his characters. Roy, for example, is certain that success in his career is what defines him. He is a man with clout, and that seems to be the most important thing to him. (45) If he were to be seen as a gay man, he fears he would lose that status, and therefore would fail to measure up. In the world that Roy occupies, this would be a fate worse than death. This feeling is not unique to Roy.
Harper feels that she has somehow failed to measure up because she is trapped in a marriage where nothing she does can win the love and attention of her husband. They are “buddies” and even when they kiss it is a “buddy kiss” and lacking in any sort of romantic connection or passion. (27) Harper sees this lack of intimacy as a failure on her part because she is somehow lacking. She seems to hold onto a delusion that if she can prove herself, if she can be good enough, that Joe will suddenly begin to love her the way a husband should. In fact, when it is revealed to her in a dream/hallucination that Joe is gay, she says “something just… fell apart” (34) and it is the story she has been weaving for herself that fell apart. She realizes the imaginary house she has built for herself is falling apart and already feeling so far from goodness, she embraces that label by intentionally behaving the way “a mentally deranged sex-starved pill-popping housewife would” (36).
Louis feels that he is failing Prior by leaving him while he is at his weakest and yet Louis can’t cope with staying. We see his struggle with failure and the idea of this separating him from goodness as he talks to the Rabbi in one of the early scenes. He turns to the Rabbi for guidance from a religious point of view, perhaps for forgiveness for “the crimes I may commit” and is told to find a priest because “Catholics believe in forgiveness. Jews believe in guilt” (25). Louis does feel guilty for not being able to deal better with Prior’s illness, but the idea of sickness, frailty, and death terrify him to irrational levels. He knows that Prior needs him and yet, he cannot do the good thing, he fails his lover by leaving and it does hit him hard, but yet, he continues to move further away from goodness by moving out while Prior is stuck in the hospital and cheating on him with strangers in the park.
Success being linked to goodness is an idea that so many people in the world face. As Kushner’s characters show, that theme manifests itself in a variety of different ways for different people, but nearly everyone in America whether young or old, gay or straight, religious or secular can relate to this idea that failure is somehow the universal equivalent to being bad. And nobody wants to feel bad inside.
In his play, Kushner explores the idea of failure and of goodness in many of his characters. Roy, for example, is certain that success in his career is what defines him. He is a man with clout, and that seems to be the most important thing to him. (45) If he were to be seen as a gay man, he fears he would lose that status, and therefore would fail to measure up. In the world that Roy occupies, this would be a fate worse than death. This feeling is not unique to Roy.
Harper feels that she has somehow failed to measure up because she is trapped in a marriage where nothing she does can win the love and attention of her husband. They are “buddies” and even when they kiss it is a “buddy kiss” and lacking in any sort of romantic connection or passion. (27) Harper sees this lack of intimacy as a failure on her part because she is somehow lacking. She seems to hold onto a delusion that if she can prove herself, if she can be good enough, that Joe will suddenly begin to love her the way a husband should. In fact, when it is revealed to her in a dream/hallucination that Joe is gay, she says “something just… fell apart” (34) and it is the story she has been weaving for herself that fell apart. She realizes the imaginary house she has built for herself is falling apart and already feeling so far from goodness, she embraces that label by intentionally behaving the way “a mentally deranged sex-starved pill-popping housewife would” (36).
Louis feels that he is failing Prior by leaving him while he is at his weakest and yet Louis can’t cope with staying. We see his struggle with failure and the idea of this separating him from goodness as he talks to the Rabbi in one of the early scenes. He turns to the Rabbi for guidance from a religious point of view, perhaps for forgiveness for “the crimes I may commit” and is told to find a priest because “Catholics believe in forgiveness. Jews believe in guilt” (25). Louis does feel guilty for not being able to deal better with Prior’s illness, but the idea of sickness, frailty, and death terrify him to irrational levels. He knows that Prior needs him and yet, he cannot do the good thing, he fails his lover by leaving and it does hit him hard, but yet, he continues to move further away from goodness by moving out while Prior is stuck in the hospital and cheating on him with strangers in the park.
Success being linked to goodness is an idea that so many people in the world face. As Kushner’s characters show, that theme manifests itself in a variety of different ways for different people, but nearly everyone in America whether young or old, gay or straight, religious or secular can relate to this idea that failure is somehow the universal equivalent to being bad. And nobody wants to feel bad inside.
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