In the Eyes of God
In Greek tragedy, the Chorus served a primary function in the play. In the oldest plays, the Chorus composed of up to fifty members. They were the only people on stage and they didn¯t enact the play but told the story of it. As time passed, the size of the Chorus was reduced and actors were added. In modern plays, there is no separate Chorus. A single character in the play serves the function of the Chorus, providing background information and reacting to actions in the play from the viewpoint of the audience, judging and interpreting what is going on. In Angels in America: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner, Joseph Porter Pitt acts as the Chorus. He provides background information to the play and, being part of almost every sequence in the play, he reacts to what is going on. Angels in America: Millennium Approaches is set in the late Twentieth century in the Eighties. In Joseph¯s conversation with his wife, Harper Amaty Pitt, he describes the political and social background of the play: America has rediscovered itself. Its sacred positio
Reacting to actions of characters in the play, Joseph expresses his opinions from the viewpoint of the audience. In a sense, he tells the audience what to think. He described the moral standards against which actions must be judged as a religious standard, more specifically, a Mormon one. One¯s behavior must be morally correct in the eyes of God. Near the middle of the play, when Roy Cohn asks Joseph to help him in legal matters by moving to Washington and working in the Justice Department, Joseph responds, °Even if I said yes to the job, it would be illegal to interfere. With the hearings. It¯s unethical.± (67) Judging against his religious standards, he concludes that what Roy is asking for is °unethical.± Some members of the audience may think otherwise, relating to Roy¯s viewpoint more than Joseph¯s. However, since Joseph serves the role of the Chorus, the author wants us to interpret the play through his eyes. Roy believes one must do whatever he must do in order to survive, in °politics, the game of being alive.± (68) Joseph views this belief as unethical, thu
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 728
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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