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Prior Walter
A young, intelligent homosexual man, and the grandson of Sarah Ironson. Louis struggles with his feelings for his boyfriend, Prior Walter, throughout the play. Louis has been living with Prior for years, but when Prior contracts the AIDS virus, Louis decides to abandon him. Louis then begins a relationship with Joe Pitt, but breaks it off when he realizes that Joe is a friend of Roy Cohn, whom he regards as a horrible human being. This brings up Louis’s defining characteristic: his enthusiasm for politics in general and progressivism in particular. Kushner has stated that Louis is a “moderate progressive,” however. In part because of his white, secular identity, Louis tends to underestimate the role of race in the political sphere, whereas characters like Belize have a more realistic view of its importance. As the play draws to a close, Louis learns to balance his broad, abstract political views with a concern for living, breathing human beings—whether it be Prior or any of the other victims of the AIDS crisis.
Louis Ironson Quotes in Angels in America
The Angels in America quotes below are all either spoken by Louis Ironson or refer to Louis Ironson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Millennium Approaches: Act 2, Scene 7
Quotes
Louis: It's not really a family, the Reagans, I read People, there aren't any connections there, no love, they don't ever even speak to each other except through their agents. [...] I think we all know what that's like. Nowadays. No connections. No responsibilities. All of us... falling through the cracks that separate what we owe to ourselves and... and what we owe to love.
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Millennium Approaches: Act 3, Scene 2
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There are no gods here, no ghosts and spirits in America, there are no angels in America, no spiritual past, no racial past, there’s only the political, and the decoys and the ploys to maneuver around the inescapable battle of politics…
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Millennium Approaches: Act 3, Scene 6
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Prior: Are you... a ghost, Lou?
Louis: No. Just spectral. Lost to myself. Sitting all day on cold park benches. Wishing I could be with you. Dance with me, babe...
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Millennium Approaches: Act 3, Scene 7
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I think, if you touch me, your hand might fall off or something. Worse things have happened to people who have touched me.
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Perestroika: Act 4, Scene 3
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I hate America, Louis. I hate this country. It’s just big ideas, and stories, and people dying, and people like you. The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word 'free' to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on Earth sounds less like freedom to me. You come with me to room 1013 over at the hospital, I'll show you America. Terminal, crazy and mean. I live in America, Louis, that’s hard enough, I don’t have to love it. You do that. Everybody’s got to love something.
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Louis Ironson Quotes in Angels in America
The Angels in America quotes below are all either spoken by Louis Ironson or refer to Louis Ironson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Millennium Approaches: Act 2, Scene 7
Quotes
Louis: It's not really a family, the Reagans, I read People, there aren't any connections there, no love, they don't ever even speak to each other except through their agents. [...] I think we all know what that's like. Nowadays. No connections. No responsibilities. All of us... falling through the cracks that separate what we owe to ourselves and... and what we owe to love.
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Millennium Approaches: Act 3, Scene 2
Quotes
There are no gods here, no ghosts and spirits in America, there are no angels in America, no spiritual past, no racial past, there’s only the political, and the decoys and the ploys to maneuver around the inescapable battle of politics…
Related Characters:
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Millennium Approaches: Act 3, Scene 6
Quotes
Prior: Are you... a ghost, Lou?
Louis: No. Just spectral. Lost to myself. Sitting all day on cold park benches. Wishing I could be with you. Dance with me, babe...
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Millennium Approaches: Act 3, Scene 7
Quotes
I think, if you touch me, your hand might fall off or something. Worse things have happened to people who have touched me.
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Perestroika: Act 4, Scene 3
Quotes
I hate America, Louis. I hate this country. It’s just big ideas, and stories, and people dying, and people like you. The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word 'free' to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on Earth sounds less like freedom to me. You come with me to room 1013 over at the hospital, I'll show you America. Terminal, crazy and mean. I live in America, Louis, that’s hard enough, I don’t have to love it. You do that. Everybody’s got to love something.
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