Women in the World of Gays: An Exploration into the Female Characters in Angels in America

Through a thorough text analysis, this paper aims at finding the root cause of the ambivalence demonstrated by the two female characters in Angels in America. The contradiction in the double faces of Harper and Hannah, the wife being both neurotic and clear-minded, and the mother being both considerate and indifferent, reflects the well-established social discrimination by heterosexuals against homosexuals. By reviewing the image of women created by female playwrights on the stage and the two stereotypes of women created by male authors in history, the paper also argues that the double faces of the two characters display an obvious contradiction of the playwright himself in characterization. This contradiction and ambivalence in Kushner‟s creation of Harper and Hannah might also mirror something that is equally contradictory and ambivalent of the playwright himself