Gone, But Not Forgotten
Pushed away, forgotten, damned, left, desert, abandoned: every person has once felt these universal feelings of desertion. This makes it a rather popular theme choice in many songs, books, movies, and the like. In the play, Angels in America by Tony Kushner, the theme of abandonment appears almost everywhere, but it appears most prominently in the relationship between Louis and Prior. After looking at the relationship between these two characters, the song “Not About Angels” sung by Birdy looked like it largely reflected the theme of abandonment in love seen with Louis and Prior’s relationship.
Louis and Prior were together for years before Louis left, a long time to develop strong emotions and connections with each
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The song talks a lot about angels, and the lyric, “It's not about, not about angels” represents that betrayal of her relationship and love from that person (Birdy 19). Angels are symbolic in both Angels in America and “Not About Angels,” however, the angels here are representative of the betrayal the singer felt, and she is saying it is not about the act of the betrayal, but about the love she still has for whoever is abandoning her, much like Prior and Louis’ situation. One of the most significant quotes Louis states, “You can love someone and fail them. You can love and not be able to” shows that he knows he is hurting Prior, not with leaving but with loving ( Kushner II.ix.84). He is saying that he can love, but still go. This actions is deliberate, even when it hurt Prior. This shows Prior that his love is not enough to make him stay. Every person remembers how someone makes them feel, but not necessarily what they did to make them feel how they remember. It is human nature. The song and Prior are both saying, it is not what they did, abandon, but how they made them feel, abandoned. They will remember that feeling forever; it cannot be forgotten like they were. The reason it is so hard to feel abandoned by love, like how the singer and Prior felt, is because they both very much loved the one abandoning them, making them feel inadequate to ever love