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Perestroika
It’s only appropriate that Angels in America, a play about the devastation of the AIDS crisis, include a few scenes centered around funerals. It’s clear enough that funerals symbolize the effects of the AIDS crisis in America—and yet, out of the three funerals in the play, only one is held for an AIDS victim. Kushner isn’t specifically concerned with AIDS, so much as he is with the broader question of how we should respond to death and tragedy: should we weep for the victims or celebrate them with song and dance? Some of the funerals in play are somber, quiet affairs, while others are big, glitzy spectacles. This suggests the myriad ways humans are equipped to cope with sadness and the inevitability of death.
Funerals Quotes in Angels in America
The Angels in America quotes below all refer to the symbol of Funerals. 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:
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Perestroika: Act 1, Scene 1
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The Great Question before us is: Can we Change? In Time? And we all desire that Change will come.
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Perestroika: Act 2, Scene 1
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That ludicrous spectacle in there, just a parody of the funeral of someone who really counted. We don't; faggots; we're just a bad dream the world is having, and the real world's waking up. And he's dead.
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Funerals Symbol Timeline in Angels in America
The timeline below shows where the symbol Funerals appears in Angels in America. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Millennium Approaches: Act 1, Scene 1
In the year 1985, a group gathers in a New York synagogue for a funeral. Rabbi Isador Chemelwitz delivers a eulogy for Sarah Ironson, who was “devoted” to her husband...
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Millennium Approaches: Act 1, Scene 5
The scene cuts to the aftermath of the funeral. As he buries his grandmother, Louis approaches Rabbi Chemelwitz. He admits to having ignored his...
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Millennium Approaches: Act 3, Scene 2
...He also mentions that his friend Burt died of tuberculosis. Prior didn’t go to the funeral because the funeral was open casket—Prior is frightened of catching a disease. Back in the...
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Perestroika: Act 2, Scene 1
The scene opens at a funeral, where Prior and Belize are in attendance. Many of the other attendees are dressed in...
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Perestroika: Act 2, Scene 2
Back outside the funeral, Prior explains that Angels have eight vaginas—they’re hermaphrodites—and they live in Heaven, which is a...
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Back at the funeral, Belize tells Prior what he thinks of Prior’s dream-prophecy. Belize suggests that Prior is projecting...
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Back at the funeral, Belize tells Prior that he’s frightened for Prior: he’s not thinking clearly. Belize also disagrees...
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