Angels in America/ Master Harold and the boys

The play "Angels in America," by Tony Kushner revolves around two troubled couples, one straight and the other gay. In "Master Harold…and the Boys," the story is about two black servants and their white teenage master. In “Angels in America,” Joe, a lawyer that offers his protégée a chance to work with the Justice Department in Washington makes a bad decision which turns out to start a conflict between Joe and his wife, Harper. On the other hand, Prior informs his lover Louis that he has AIDS, so they ended up separating. Joe gets into an emotional attachment with Louis after meeting him shortly, and Harper and Prior meet in a strange coincidental dream. It turns out that the actual reason as to why Roy wants Joe is to cover up his tracks of corruption. The final act ends with most of the people reconciling, Roy dies, and Harper loses her mind while Prior sees visions of ghosts and ancestors that proclaims that, "the great work shall continue" (Kushner). The two servants, Sam and Willie, respect their master Hally, but later Hally snap and disrespect them before coming back to his senses. These two stories evoke similarities and differences in various themes and perceptions in both stories.

Both stories have similarities when it comes down to the subject of being betrayed. In "Angels in America, Joe betrays Harper when he secretly has homosexual feelings but decides to keep them away from her until it's too late into their marriage. On the other hand the gay couples; Louis and Prior also had an agreement when Louis realizes that his partner has AIDS. Louis realizes that his partner has been having an affair with some anonymous person, and that is why he contracted AIDS.

 

 Roy betrays Joe as he insists that Joe comes and works for him but inside he has a hidden agenda, as he wants Joe to cover up his mischiefs and wrong doings. In "Master Harold and the boys," Harold feels betrayed by his father when he receives a call that his dad will be getting back home. Fugard & Athol affirm (pg. 47)

Affirm that Harold's idea of a father was that of a loving and caring man, which he did not receive from his biological father but their two servants Willie and Sam. Later on, when an argument ensues between Sam and Harold, Harold spits on Sam's face and insists that Sam should call him, "Master Harold." Sam feels betrayal inside him as he reflects on the good times that they have had with Harold ever since he was a child and is only consoled by Willie, his mate.

In the two plays, a lot of characters are living in denial as they try to imagine and grasp that the realities are illusions and vice versa. In, "Angels in America," Joe is a straight married man that lives with his wife even though he has secret gay feelings that he thinks will fade away.  Joe has gay feelings and attachment for Louis that he denied in the first instance, but as the play comes to an end, he ends up getting intimate with Louis in his apartment. Joe is equally gay even though publicly he detests the ways of gay people and insists that they are inferior beings. Reality only dawns on him when he is diagnosed with AIDS. Tony Kushner (pg. 57) affirms that Roy is also a corrupt lawyer and government official that pretend to be a person of integrity but in the real sense, he is evil and corrupt as he went out of his jurisdiction to ensure that a Soviet spy was executed. In "Master Harold…," Hally despises the behavior of his drunk, crippled father and he even cautions his mother against bringing him back home from the hospital. Hally instead develops an intimate relationship between their two black servants even though he knows that the chances of friendship between the blacks and white in that era were minimal. Hally is stuck between his intolerant father’s outlook of him and the two servants. Sam, on the other hand, has been close to Hally and has been a father figure in many instances including the time he made a kite cheer up Hally after he was disgraced by his drunken father. Sam sadly tells Hally, he made the bench that he was sitting on which was written, "Whites only."

The aspect of segregation is evident in both plays as in "Master Harold…," Sam saw a bench written on "whites only." Sam came to the realization that even though he was close to Hally ever since he was a child, he was black and that fact was never going to change. The blacks in this set up are segregated and discriminated as Harold boldly spits in Sam's face despite their longtime friendship. Harold equally stresses that Sam calls him "Master Harold" and not "Hally." Harold in his rage after the call describes his father as an outright racist meaning that he did not treat his servants with dignity. Sam tells Harold to leave the "whites only" bench or face the threat of always being alone.  Kempe & Andy (pg.130) are of the opinion that Sam's statement was symbolic as he insisted that racism would cost Harold the only two real friends that he had. In "Angels in America…," the American society at that time was judgmental and did not approve of gay people. Roy sees himself as a powerful, influential and principled individual who cannot be gay as according to him gay people are inferior intellectually and lack principalities. Hannah Joe's mother who holds strong religious beliefs is also surprised by the fact that his son was gay.

The black servants in Harold's household are not entitled to any opinions, as their relationship with the whites is that of the master-slave relationship. When Sam and Harold hold a discussion concerning Abraham Lincoln, the most influential social reformer in history, Harold rejects Sam's idea concerning Abraham Lincoln because Sam is not considered a slave.

 In previous instances, Harold's father insisted that the servants treated Harold as their master and not as a friend as according to him they should address him using the name "master." According to Harold, Sam has never been a slave as he states that he should drop the discussion about Abraham Lincoln in their discussion. In the real sense, the working and living conditions of Sam and Willie are similar to those of slavery as they were not opinionated.  In the "Angels in America…," despite the fact that gay individuals were outcasts and weirdoes in the society, they were entitled to their opinions. Louis and Prior were open gay couples that lived in New York (Tony Kushner pg. 47). Joe on the other hand openly told his mother and wife that he was gay. So although most of the main male characters were gay in the play, they were not subject individuals as in the case of the servants of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Cultural and morality aspects have deteriorated or are non-existent in the event of the "Angels in America…" Despite Joe having a history of a religious upbringing evident from his mother's religion, he still has weird unethical feelings that are deviant. There is a societal break down in this set up as people have gone as far as living together and embraced same-sex relations. Roy is sly and conniving as even though he poses as a people of integrity from the outside, inwardly he has hidden agendas, as he wanted Joe close to him to pursue his selfish self-interests. Roy equally took part in the unlawful execution of the alleged Soviet Union spy that later reincarnates as a ghost. (Kempe & Andy pg. 113) affirm that "Master Harold," the characters are cultural conscious and morally upright as despite the fact that the blacks are enslaved, they do not have evil thoughts concerning their white masters but instead, treat them with dignity.

In an instance when Sam and Harold argue whether ballroom dancing is a real art or not. Sam, later on, assists Harold in his essay concerning choosing a cultural event.

    The climax of the play of Angels in America is symbolized by the abandonment of the lovers by Louis and Joe and the appearance of these angels at the end of the play. The climax of the master Harold and the boy's play is represented by the spitting of Hally on Sam where Sam shifts to address Hally as the Master Harold. The plays use different metaphors to help in the understanding of their stories. For instance, in the Angels in America, the play writer uses the word heaven so as to represent the San Francisco after the earthquake. This is to mean that the San Francisco would act as a new heaven where the victims such as Harper would set off so as to start off her new life. The aspect of grace and mercy at the end of the play is witnessed through the way Prior is seeking for a chance to live more despite all the sufferings that he has undergone. This is symbolic as the last days is when victims reach to a grace period where they depend on the mercies of others just as Prior depended on the mercies of the angels. Who after giving him a chance to live more, they still promise that he could not evade his plague due to the abandonment. According to the play by Athol Fugard, he uses metaphors such as the ballroom to represent the way life should be in a manner that is harmonious, beautiful and graceful. He also uses things like the kite flying activity and bench as symbols of apartheid and segregation.

    The emotional aspect is evident in all the two plays as seen from the actions works in both of the two plays. emotional element applies in the threatening emotional conflicts that the characters experience given that they normally inhabit the world where the notion of time, as well as space, are like a dream or foreign, where the reasons behind their actions remain unknown and a mystery to the audience (Theatre History Studies pg. 279). According to the play by Athol Fugard, Hally is overwhelmed by emotions of stress and he ends up taking his stress out on Sam. In the Angels in America play, during the prayer by Ethel as he leads Louis through the prayer he gets emotional as the prayer is directed towards thanksgiving and forgiveness, which is a prayer for the dead (Fisher pg. 40).

    The theme of non-violence is seen in the Frugal's play throughout the play even where there has been heated argument. After Hally spits on Sam and Sam is patient and fails to hit him back even when he wants to. However, this is different in the play in the angels in America Louis hits Prior after an angry confrontation where they engage in a physical fight.

 

Conclusion

From the two plays, various similarities and differences are evident in defining the real essence of the two plays and their influence on the society.  The two essays have similarities when it comes to the aspect of betrayal, denial, and cases involving segregation. The similarities relate to various instances as well as character traits that build upon the themes and the final plots of the two plays. The differences, on the other hand, are cultural and moral ethics and the rights to opinions as the two plays have different takes on certain issues like gay problems and apartheid respectively that brings out significant differences in their themes and setups. It is the similarities and the differences that evoke a form of mixed reactions as well as build on the plots and the actual meaning of the plays.

 

 

Work cited

            Fisher, James. Understanding Tony Kushner. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2008. Print.

Fugard, Athol. "Master Harold" and the Boys. New York: Vintage Books, 2009.

Kempe, Andy. The Gcse Drama: Coursebook. Cheltenham: N. Thornes, 2002.

            Kushner, Tony, Lisa Govan, Milton Glaser, and Molly Watman. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. , 2013.

Kushner, Tony. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. , 2013.

            Theatre History Studies: Theatres of War. Univ of Alabama Pr, 2014. Print.