Scene one of act two highlights the differences between Prior and Louis in the traumatic context of the worsening of Prior\u2019s condition. Their reactions to an episode of poor health are indicative of their personalities and perspectives on Prior\u2019s condition. Prior is clearly desperate and pleading with Louis for help and support when he\u2019s in his moment of need on page 49 and 50. Louis responds to this by immediately leaving the room and announcing that he\u2019s going to call someone else to deal with it. This dichotomy is clearly drawn and illustrates the incompatibility of Prior and Louis in their current states. Louis\u2019s aversion to any sort of trouble or challenge or hardship is incredibly hard on Prior as he grows increasingly conscious of the possibility of Louis leaving him at the hospital as he explicitly stated on page 50. The scene ends with Prior unconscious and Louis quietly saying, \u201c…I can\u2019t I can\u2019t I can\u2019t,\u201d (50). As if to verbalize what the readers knew from their prior conversations about Louis \u201cwalking out\u201d on their relationship: his inability to cope with the impending death of his partner (40).<\/p>\n
Within the differences highlighted in this scene, there are a few similarities. Both Louis\u2019s and Prior\u2019s reactions to this apparent manifestation of Prior\u2019s condition are rooted in fear. Louis fears the death of his partner. He experiences denial earlier in the play on page 39, but when faced with symptoms correlating with worsening condition, Louis can no longer ignore the fact that his partner is dying. This causes him to be hysterical and likely feel incapable of taking care of him, thus calling the ambulance to take Prior somewhere where he can be better taken care of. Prior\u2019s fear is very complex. He is afraid of dying, of course, but he is also afraid of being abandoned by the person that he loves. If he was dying beside an unquestionably supportive partner who took care of him and didn\u2019t break down and “get too upset” at the mention of a development in Prior\u2019s condition, Prior would potentially be less averse to being hospitalized (39). The knowledge that Louis could leave Prior at the hospital brings that fear of abandonment together with any minute apprehension surrounding the hospital, resulting in Prior\u2019s desire to stay in their home with Louis for as long as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scene one of act two highlights the differences between Prior and Louis in the traumatic context of the worsening of Prior\u2019s condition. Their reactions to an episode of poor health are indicative of their personalities and perspectives on Prior\u2019s condition. Prior is clearly desperate and pleading with Louis for help and support when he\u2019s in … Continue reading Prior and Louis are similar?! (…kinda)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5703,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344663],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1561,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions\/1561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}