Angels in America

Angels in America

by

Tony Kushner

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Angels in America: Perestroika: Act 1, Scene 2 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Louis leads Joe Pitt into his apartment—continuing the final scene of Part One. Joe tells Louis that he’s feeling uncomfortable, and he remembers Louis’s boyfriend being sick. Louis claims that they can practice safe sex—he says he’d coat his entire body in latex for Joe. Joe insists that he can’t stay. As Joe hugs Louis goodbye, Louis smells Joe’s cologne. Smell, Louis says, is sexy.
In this seduction scene, Louis tries to get Joe to stay with him, recognizing that Joe is extremely unfamiliar with male sexuality. Louis’s promise that he’d coat his entire body with latex (so as not to spread STIs like AIDS) is in and of itself pretty kinky, and was probably intended as such.
Themes
Homosexuality in the AIDS Era Theme Icon
Prophets and Prophecies Theme Icon
Louis and Joe begin to kiss. Then Joe breaks away, insisting that he has to go. But Louis continues to touch and kiss him, and Joe tells Louis that he’s going to stay after all.
Joe conquers his fears of his own sexuality surprisingly quickly. In part this is because of the economy of the play (Kushner has to “condense” a lot of psychology and history), but it also suggests that Joe is finally acting on his own true desires, and so everything feels better and more natural for him.
Themes
Homosexuality in the AIDS Era Theme Icon
Prophets and Prophecies Theme Icon
Fantasy, Escape, and Tragedy Theme Icon
The Clash between People and Principles Theme Icon