The Normal Heart Play Analysis

The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer is a play written and initially staged in 1985, exploring the time between 1981 and 1984 when the AIDS crisis was rapidly unfolding in New York City. It centres around Ned, a gay activist, and the organisation he establishes to raise awareness and support AIDS patients. The play draws the link between silence and its catastrophic consequences, illuminating the indifference from multiple groups in society: be it the media, public officials, medical professionals or the gay community itself. Act II Scene XII encapsulates this conflict, with the Examining Doctor rejecting Dr Emma Brookner’s application for funding into her research of AIDS. The sheer frustration that Dr Emma Brookner has in her fight to be heard,

The start of the scene sees Emma, who is wheelchair-bound, entering and stopping at centre stage, back straight and fingers clasped together tightly on top of a stack of papers in her lap. Her chin is lifted defiantly, her facial expression adopting a grave manner as if preparing for the worst. The Examining Doctor will have been sitting among the audience up until now in the chair directly at the top of the stairs that divide the audience. As he stands up and delivers the first line of the scene, there is surprise in the audience, throwing them off in the expectation that actors are confined to the stage. He walks down the stairs with an air of importance as he speaks, stopping at the bottom. When Emma first speaks, she leans in and clenches her fists. He then turns around and walks up the stairs when he speaks again, stopping at the middle and turning to face Emma when he says, ‘this has slowed things down.’ By closing the distance between them initially, this creates a sense of hope as if he will offer her the funding. However, by turning his back and moving away so that he stands above her, the audience can see the power play at hand and how difficult Emma’s fight has been. It is a reminder of who is in control and this is confirmed by his declaration that her application has been rejected. Emma is seen to have increasing difficulty in supressing her anger, her jaw clenching and chest heaving unsteadily as she questions their decision. The tension boils over when she says ‘Another idiot’ and she begins to wheel herself back and forth horizontally across the stage, occasionally looking at the audience every so often. Her movement allows the audience to see the passionate energy she has up close, making it impossible for them not to be affected by her anguish. Near the end of her rant, she stops and wheels herself to the bottom of the stairs. After her angry shout of ‘Take