Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches Versions of Reality Quotes

In a play full of fantastical sequences, this scene between Harper and Prior really takes the cake. Kushner even admits in his stage directions that the scene is "bewildering" (1.7.1). So what level of reality does this exist on? It seems like somehow we are in both Harper's hallucination and Prior's dream. Somehow these two characters, who have never even met, have stepped out of themselves and crossed paths in the world of imagination.

Harper is trying to figure out how someone she's never met, Prior, could possibly be in her hallucination. What do you think of her theory here? Are we unable to think of anything that is totally new?

Harper is incredibly skilled at hiding from reality in her dream worlds. Here she admits that the one thing she can't hide from is her love for Joe. Unable to face the fact that Joe can't love her the same way she loves him, she escapes into a Valium-induced wonderland.

What do you think; is the voice that Prior hears real, or is it all just in his head? What level of reality does the angel who bursts through his ceiling exist on? Is she a figment of Prior's imagination, or, in the world of the play at least, an actual heavenly being?

Here Joe claims that all of Harper's paranoia about evil, knife-wielding men has been caused by him. He seems to think that Harper has always known that he was gay and that, unable to deal with that directly, she is plagued by these faceless, malicious men. Of course, earlier in the play, Joe also hints that Harper may have been physically abused as girl. Might that also contribute to her nightmares?

Prior's nurse in the outpatient clinic, Emily, suddenly starts speaking Hebrew. This is kind of crazy, since neither she nor Prior presumably even know Hebrew. Is Prior somehow connecting to a deeper spiritual reality?

It's interesting that Harper fully recognizes that she's hallucinating her journey to Antarctica. Somehow she's able to give herself over to this fantastical reality while still knowing that it isn't real. (Kind of like when you know you're dreaming but you still don't wake up.)

Now it's Roy's turn to hallucinate, when he sees Ethel Rosenberg, an alleged Soviet spy whom Roy broke the law to help execute. Wait a minute, though, is Roy imagining this, or is she a ghost? Either could be true. Later in the scene, Ethel picks up the phone, dials 911, and speaks to the operator. What level of reality does that put her in exactly?

Prior imagines that he's dancing with Louis just before the angel arrives. Of course, if we take this "spectral" vision of Louis at his word, then this is more than mere imagining. We could be in the same version of reality as the scene in which Harper and Prior meet in a shared dream.

In the final moment of the play, the divine reality of the angel comes crashing into Prior's bedroom. The ending of the first part of Angels in America is a total cliffhanger. Is the angel real? Has Prior gone totally nuts? You'll just have to read the second part of the play to see what new realms of reality the drama takes us to.