Disclaimer: If you are supposed to respond to my post this week, my post on Angels in America is further down! I mixed up the readings last week.
Because I did the wrong reading last week, I had the interesting chance to read the play after our class discussion last week. People brought up some interesting points: Why does the play take place in a circus tend? What kind of people are emblems? Is the fact that this play argues that individuals don't matter satisfying? Are we just a small part in the grand scheme of history? Why does God say to Job, "I'm God and you're not." However, one of the most interesting points brought up was that of the connection between God and humanity. Our last three weeks of readings have shown us a variety of relationships between humanity and God. Waiting for Godot showed us a relationship in which God was very distant from his creation. He never interacted with the men, and just kept them waiting. JB shows a direct relationship between God and humanity. God actually speaks with humanity. However, in Angels in America, we see a variety of relationships with God. Joe is a fairly devout Mormon. So much so that he keeps his homosexuality a secret, since it goes against what his church believes. Louis and Harper are fairly disconnected from their religions as well, yet they both consider themselves to be Jewish and Mormon, respectively. And then we have Hannah, who is incredibly devout with her Mormon faith. Prior is an interesting case, though. Unless I am not remembering correctly, Prior never identifies with a religion. Yet, he is the one that the Angel visits and names prophet. (Unless he hallucinates the Angel, because of all the pills. That is alluded to be a possibility). Why would God appoint a man without any sort of religion to be a prophet? How would he successfully carry on God's message? Yet, even after being invited to Heaven, Prior turns down the Angel. This shows that, in the world of Angels in America, humanity has the power to turn defy God's will. How dangerous is that?
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AuthorThis page is for my responses to reading assignments for English 4931 - Playing God: Theatrical Expressions of Divinity. Archives
December 2013
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