Angels In America, Part I: Millennium Approaches

When people make decisions sometimes they do not think about the responsibilities that come with those choices. They believe that they won’t have consequences for their bad decisions, or those consequences do not appear to them before the make their choice. This is a common theme found in the play, Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches. The play fallows a homosexual couple, a straight couple, and a lawyer as they must make decisions during hard situations. Each decision they make will affect them in many ways, and each of them deals with the results of their decisions differently. The theme freedom with responsibility can be broken down into two parts. The first part is freedom, which is the capability to make whatever decision you want. The

One example of how freedom with responsibilities plays out in Angels in America is Joe’s and Harper’s relationship. The freedom was in their decision to get married in the first place. Nobody told them that they had to go through with the marriage, but they did anyways. Joe married Harper, because he wanted to hide his homosexuality. He was raised to believe being gay is a sin, and he wanted to prevent himself from sinning. Furthermore, both Joe and Harper were both in denial about Joe’s sexuality, and it negatively impacted them and their marriage. The responsibility was in the way their marriage played out. They both got married when they shouldn’t have, and they had to be held responsible for the decision they had made. One of the consequences for this choice is that they are both stuck in an unhappy marriage. Joe is constantly feeling guilty for not being sexually attracted to Harper. He really wants to be but can’t make himself feel that way about her. This is Joe’s punishment for his selfish choice in marrying Harper. He is forced to feel guilty until he comes out to Harper and lets her go. Harper is extremely miserable, which causes her leads her to be addicted to vallum and has