Angels in America: the Play that Captured Emotions and Implications of the AIDS Crisis

Within modern society, the idea of the rebel or exile has the unique potential to repulse and fascinate simultaneously; when characters in literature, for example, stray from what society considers to be normal, for the betterment or damage of that society, events are set in motion that captivate the reader and allow for a fuller understanding of that character. This rebellion and positive or negative deviation from the norms of society is not always apparent.

In this paper, a specific character from the play "Angels in America" will be identified, analyzed and discussed from a wide variety of viewpoints. Furthermore, in the instance of this particular character, the thesis will be proven that through a skillful blending of a real-life character with fictional nuances, the playwright demonstrates the enigmatic nature of the rebel who fluctuates between darkness and light, goodness and evil, while all the while grappling with inner demons and ultimately, the confrontation of mortality and the consideration of what is truly good and truly evil in the final analysis.

The Role of the Character in the Play

"Angels in America" is as much a highly dramatic work as it is a detailed character study and social commentary about the high water mark of the AIDS crisis in New York, one of the epicenters of the disease in America, and the lives of individuals who are directly and indirectly impacted by the disease. Keeping this in mind, the characters lives eventually intersect, and in some cases, seem to overlap in terms of common emotions, traits, fears and rage. In the midst of all of this emotion and chaos emerges the most fascinating and complex character in the play, Roy Cohn, who in reality was one of New York's premier attorneys and powerbrokers whose power and influence in reality was destroyed when he was infected with the AIDS virus and eventually died due to complications from it. In the play, the semi-factual/semi-fictional character of Roy Cohn serves the role of antagonist, driving forward the plot and using his cunning, power and deceit to manipulate others as he faces ultimate destruction.

What Function the Character Serves in the Play

Cohn, in the play, serves a highly important symbolic role that binds the plot and action of the play together and allows it to flow and captivate the audience. In fulfillment of this function, Cohn stands as the ultimate symbol of what the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, and that era in American society overall, eventually came to represent- the focus on self advancement and pleasure over obedience to rules and respect for others, a bending of the rules of society to serve one's own purposes, and a seeming sense of invincibility; in short, an all out rebellion against everything that society holds as "normal".

The actions of Roy Cohn in "Angels in America" range from the outright impressive to the disgusting and offensive; for example, in the play, when Cohn is diagnosed with AIDS by his physician, his response is to try to dismiss reality with his importance by saying to the physician who has basically given him a death sentence that he can merely dial the phone and instantly be in touch with not the President of the United States, but with the real center of presidential power, the First Lady (Kushner, 1995, p. 51). This gives the reader a clear vision that in the case of this particular character, he truly believes that there are actions to be able to dispel any occurrence, even a matter of life and death. This belief system also speaks volumes about the motivations, beliefs and ideas of Cohn.

What the Character's Actions Tell About His Motivations/Ideas/Objectives

Throughout his life, which he reflects upon and flashes back to in "Angels in America", this character's actions paint a colorful portrait of what motivated him, what he thought about things, and what his ultimate objectives were both in life and as he reached the apparent end of it.

Motivationally, Roy Cohn appears to be the kind of individual who sought absolute power at any price, and reveled in that hard gained power. Earlier in the paper, Cohn was shown to challenge even his own death sentence with a response alluding to his power and influence, showing just how motivated he truly was.

Ideologically, Cohn seems to have believed in the enforcement of laws against everyone but him in a sense of higher entitlement. Hypocritical and self centered in this respect, Cohn spent his life ruining the lives of law breakers, but thought nothing of breaking laws himself in the pursuit of a higher justice.

Ultimately, the question of Cohn's objectives comes into clearer focus, as does the answer of exactly what his objective truly was. Cohn, by all appearances, had the objective of understanding what the ultimate good and evil were in the world, by crossing that line himself many times and rebelling against society and its standards.

How/Why the Character Relates to Other Characters

Relating to other characters, for Roy Cohn, had very little to do with gaining friends, but everything to do with influencing people. Much like a game of chess, Cohn treated other characters like pawns- perishable, expendable, and replaceable. The reason why he did so became apparent as the play progressed- having seen so many lives crushed in an instant , and faced with his own life fading away fast, Cohn came to understand that relationships with other people, for a wealth and influential man like him, were easy to come by and even easier to replace. As a result, he saw little value in investing a lot of time or emotion in interaction with others.

Is the Character Correct to Challenge Societal Norms

In perhaps one of the most ironic lines of the entire play, Cohn reveals that beneath the veneer of a champion of justice and the proper execution of the laws of the land, Cohn himself may not be any better than the criminals that he has devoted his life to battling. This challenge to the law abiding norms of society is embodied in this one brief statement that Cohn makes to a young protégé: "there are so many laws; find one you can break" (Kushner, 1995, p. 116). A short utterance, true, but one that says so very much about Cohn's desire to challenge societal norms, and raises the question of whether or not he is correct to challenge those norms.

By interpreting the word "law" liberally, an assertion can be made that Cohn was correct to challenge societal norms in certain situations. For example, Cohn was a self admitted homosexual; if, in fact, he was merely expressing his sexuality in the way that felt natural to him, he would have found himself as an outcast in a society that considered sexual relations between members of the same gender to be improper; therefore, by rebelling against this norm, Roy Cohn is in fact struggling to be allowed to express himself in the way that is natural and comfortable to him, despite the harsh judgment of a society that is quick to condemn, but often slow to realize its own shortcomings.

Even if "law" is interpreted literally, which is to say the rules that regulate the way that a peaceful society is to function, Cohn can accurately be seen as a rebel against the norms. His vast knowledge of the legal system of the United States gave him the unique talent of being able to manipulate the legal system for his benefit and the benefit of the clients who paid him huge sums of money to do so.

Cohn, in this play, is afforded the ability to cross the line between legality and morality, two norms that are often confused for one another, and as Cohn illustrated, are not absolute, but are open to interpretation and debate. Therefore, the actions of Cohn bring forth the possibility that norms within society, not being absolute, can be saved or crushed by the very society that created them.

Whether or Not the Norms are Worth Saving

The norms that Cohn distills from American society- law and morality- while possible to save, need to be objectively evaluated to determine if they are worth saving in the first place. In a large sense, law and morality are in fact worth saving, for without them, total chaos would reign in society and the final impact would be the implosion of the modern societal unit. However, the more appropriate question is exactly how these norms should be saved. While there does not appear to be a "black or white" way to preserve justice or morality, within the shades of grey where these norms exist, a certain level of discretion and restraint would be highly useful in saving them. For example, justice should not exist as an intolerable system of heartless punishment, nor should it be so flexible as to be worthless; rather, it is most effective when objectively evaluated, and the factors of individual legal cases to be examined upon their own merits. Similarly, morality should not exist to allow the self righteous to pass judgment on people with alternative lifestyles, like Roy Cohn, but morality should be utilized to protect the weak and prevent the strong from using that strength to violate the rights and peaceful existence of others.

The actions and mindset of Cohn within "Angels in America", as with so many other factors, speak loudly in terms of what Cohn can tell the reader about the community in which he lives.

What the Character Tells Us About the Community in Which He Lives

When Roy Cohn's internal makeup, mindset, personality and motivations are looked at in combination, one can see what Cohn is trying to tell the reader about the community in which he lives. Of course, the environment in which Cohn lived at the time the play takes place is highly important- it was a time of selfishness, reckless abandon, and pursuit of pleasure and power. Also, Cohn typified all of these and used his community as a trading post for his power and pleasure- New York, at that time, was highly desirable for an ambitious, calculating and lustful man like Roy Cohn which, in a sense, tells a great deal about his community. It is realistic to surmise that the moral relativism that reigned in Cohn's community at that time becomes evident when realizing how well Cohn functioned in that environment. Before his downfall, Cohn actually thrived in this decadent community.

Summary

"Angels in America", and its most colorful character Roy Cohn, serve as a social and historical commentary of the New York of the 1980s; just as importantly, in closing, let it also be understood that the play is a deep morality tale about the confines of law, morals, and the quest to rebel against them.

References

Kushner, T. (1995). Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. New York: Theater Communications Group.