Kushner uses Harper\u2019s character to illustrate how repressing sexual identity and conforming to a societal or religious expectation of identity is harmful not only to oneself, but to ones partners and family as well. Additionally, this plays into the larger theme of the play which is to acknowledge and attend to ones own pain to empathize with others diverse experiences of pain; each character is uniquely lonely, but they share in common the consequences of a society which stigmatizes gayness and ignores the AIDS crisis.<\/p>\n
Kushner introduces the relationship between Harper and Joe from an objective perspective, which depicts Harper\u2019s abuse of Valium and suggests her mental health is harming their marriage. Joe infantilizes his wife and denies her requests for affection and love, as seen in the language he uses to address her: \u201chey buddy\u201d, along with deciding when they will share an (extremely unerotic) moment of affection: \u201cbuddy kiss\u201d. Joe uses shaming tactics to essentially gaslight Harper into believing her problems are separate from their relationship, or that her \u201cemotional problems\u201d impede any potential attraction to her. This causes Harper to be stuck in a cycle of self-loathing in which she turns again to Valium to escape. However, there are moments which Harper interrupts this cycle to defend herself and express her autonomy; \u201cif I do have emotional problems it\u2019s from living with you\u201d (Act I Scene 5). Here it is made clear that Harper does not assume responsibility entirely for her mental health or addiction, nor does she blame it on her upbringing, a tactic Joe uses later on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is made clear that Joe is projecting the pain and shame he carries around onto his wife, who is no longer accepting of this dynamic. During her confrontation with Joe addressing his sexuality, Harper says, \u201cYes I\u2019m the enemy. That\u2019s easy\u201d (Act I Scene 8), showing that she is recipient of Joe\u2019s frustration, but she knows that she doesn\u2019t deserve it either.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There are multiple forces acting on Joe which cause him to repress his sexuality, the main being his following of Mormonism. Kushner makes clear the complex dynamic of religion and how it is not as simple as denouncing it (which we might want Harper to do) or ignoring its teachings to free oneself from their harm. After inadvertently confessing to be homosexual, Joe gives a final attempt at blaming Harper for his own shame: \u201cYou want to destroy me, but I am not going to let you do that\u201d (Act I Scene 8). Joe now represents Harper directly as the guilt and shame he feels about his sexuality; both due to his lack of attraction to her and her knowledge of this shared \u201csecret\u201d. He believes that accepting gayness will destroy him, but repressing it further will only harm his marriage and Harper\u2019s potential for happiness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kushner uses Harper\u2019s character to illustrate how repressing sexual identity and conforming to a societal or religious expectation of identity is harmful not only to oneself, but to ones partners and family as well. Additionally, this plays into the larger theme of the play which is to acknowledge and attend to ones own pain to … Continue reading Harper is Gaslit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4995,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","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\/4995"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}