Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches Justice and Judgment Quotes
How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line)
Quote #1
Joe: The truth restored. Law restored. That's what President Reagan's done, Harper. He says "Truth exists and can be spoken proudly." (1.5.63)
Joe sees President Reagan as the ultimate source of justice in the country. From his perspective, Reagan is righting the wrongs that have happened to America over the last few years.
Quote #2
Louis: It's not the verdict that counts, it's the act of judgment. [...] It's the judge in his or her chambers, weighing, books open, pondering the evidence, ranging freely over categories: good, evil, innocent, guilty; the judge in the chamber of circumspection, not the judge on the bench with the gavel. (1.8.48-52)
To the highly intellectual Louis, justice is a very complicated thing. Somebody isn't just bad or good – people are defined by the many (probably contradictory) things they've done. To Louis, there's no such thing as good or evil – the world just isn't that simple.
Quote #3
Prior: Justice...
Louis: ... is an immensity, a confusing vastness. Justice is God (1.8.71).
Some see God as the ultimate judge who defines right and wrong. Louis also seems to see God as justice, although in a way that's a lot more complicated than most people's notions.
Quote #4
Prior: I like your cosmology, baby. [...] but it seems to me that it lets you off scot-free. [...] No judgment, no guilt or responsibility. (1.9.91-93)
Could Louis' complex ideas of justice just be an excuse to let him off the hook for abandoning Prior? It's obvious that Louis feels incredibly guilty about it. Could it be that deep inside, he knows that abandoning someone you love in his time of need is just plain wrong?
Quote #5
Roy: They're gonna try and disbar me. [...] Because I don't see the Law as a dead and arbitrary collection of antiquated dictums, thou shall, thou shalt not, because, because I know the Law's a pliable, breathing, sweating... organ, because, because...
Martin: Because he borrowed half a million from one of his clients [...] And he forgot to return it. (2.6.36-42)
It's interesting that both Louis and Roy try to expand their notions of justice beyond traditional ideas of right and wrong. It's also interesting that both of them have done things that most people would consider wrong. Roy has basically stolen money, and Louis has abandoned the person he loves. How do their rationalizations hold up against the things they've done?
Quote #6
Joe: I just wondered what a thing it would be... if overnight everything you owe anything to, justice, or love, had really gone away. Free. [...] To shed our skin, every old skin, one by one and then walk away, unencumbered, into the morning. (2.7.49)
Joe seems to view justice as something that is controlling, that gives us a structure by which to live. By this point in the play, however, Joe is coming to question everything he's ever believed in. At this moment, he longs to be free from his old notions of right and wrong.
Quote #7
Prior: Criminal.
Louis: There oughta be a law.
Prior: There is a law. You'll see. (2.9.20-22)
Prior accuses Louis of being a criminal for deserting him while he's in the hospital. Louis doesn't seem to disagree that he's done a terrible thing. Here Prior seems to imply that there is some universal system of justice that will punish Louis for what he's doing.
Quote #8
Belize: I've thought about it for a very long time, and I still don't understand what love is. Justice is simple. Democracy is simple. Those things are unambivalent. But love is very hard. And it goes bad for you if you violate the hard law of love. (3.2.122)
Unlike Louis, Belize doesn't think justice is complicated – there's right and there's wrong. Love, on the other hand, is completely unknowable to him. It's a little ironic, then, that he thinks something so indefinable can have very definite rules.
Quote #9
Roy: If it wasn't for me, Joe, Ethel Rosenberg would be alive today [...] I was on the phone every day, talking with the judge [...] Was it legal? F*** legal. (3.5.19)
Roy is proud that he broke the law to make sure Ethel Rosenberg, an alleged Soviet spy, was put to death. Roy sees his breaking the law as justified, as long as justice prevailed.
Quote #10
Roy: You want to be Nice, or you want to be Effective? Make the law, or subject to it. (3.5.19)
To Roy, the law is not the end-all, be-all of justice. It's up to each individual to create his own justice. Though the things Roy has done have been pretty darn sketchy, could he be right in theory? Can you think of any examples from American history of someone who had to break the law in order to achieve justice?