The famed saying, “History repeats itself,” explains how those who ignore the past are doomed to danger again, trapping societies in a cycle. From the Puritan settlers’ arrival in the 1640s to the rise of the Moral Majority in the 1980s, American writers have repeatedly valorized marriages by framing it as both a sacred covenant to God and the bedrock of a thriving community. John Winthrop believed marriage was a necessary glue for the new American community. Amidst first-wave feminism, however, Charlotte Perkins Gilman warned against the power of patriarchy to render marriage a trap for women. When calls for heteronormative marriage became louder in the Reagan presidency, Tony Kushner pushed back through his play "Angels in America," which adds layers to both perspectives. Through Harper’s evolution from isolation to empowerment, Kushner challenges the glorification of marriage and expresses the sacredness of non-marital bonds. In doing so, he critiques the hierarchy in Winthrop's founding vision and offers solidarity as a solution to the heteronormative patriarchy in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.

    Through Harper and Joe’s relationship, Kushner debunks the myth that marriage embodies American exceptionalism, revealing the alienation experienced by women in unhappy marriages. In the late 1970s, the Moral Majority’s values took center stage in conservative politics. According to Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell, a woman would find happiness and fulfillment in marriage (Foner, 825). However, Kushner challenges this notion through Harper who, instead of feeling loved and unified in her marriage, laments her loneliness: “People who are lonely, people left alone, sit talking nonsense to the air, imagining… beautiful systems dying, old fixed orders spiraling apart” (Kushner, 16). Although Harper is achieving success according to the Moral Majority, the imagery of “spiraling apart” symbolizes the lack of control Harper feels over her world and life. Her use of the phrase “sit talking nonsense to the air” reflects her own feelings of stagnation and alienation. Kushner ties the emotional crisis Harper experiences in her marriage to the cultural crisis the U.S. experiences in the 1980s; both her lack of satisfaction and the AIDS epidemic remain unnamed and unaddressed, linking problems in her marriage to issues with the myth of American exceptionalism. Through the disconnect between Harper’s helpless loneliness and her marital status, ​​a superficial indicator of her success as a woman, Kushner debunks the myth that marriage represents American exceptionalism. On the other hand, Joe, her husband, believes Reagan makes America great again: “The truth restored. Law restored. That’s what President Reagan’s done” (Kushner, 26). Crucially, Kushner embeds a hidden link between Harper and Joe in the text: Joe’s claim that truth and law have been “restored” conjures Harper’s reference to the old orders as having a “spiral” structure. The “spiral” shape implies that history repeats itself in an ordered, predictable fashion. While Joe and Harper have different takes on the situation, Joe thinking history is restored and Harper seeing an evolution, their common language suggests that although Harper and Joe may not be right for each other romantically, they still belong in the same community.

    Though John Winthrop, like Kushner, emphasizes the value of community, Kushner challenges the hierarchy essential to Winthrop’s vision for America. In the 1640s, Puritans left England for the New World, hoping to escape the religious intolerance of England. During the crisis period when settlers encountered harsh winters and new diseases, Winthrop calls for community under the condition that people understand their place within it: “In all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in subjection… We must delight in each other, make other’s conditions our own… our community as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” (Winthrop, 52, 54). “Delighting in each other” and “making other’s conditions our own” echo the values of marriage. Comparing the community to “members of the same body,” Winthrop asserts a rigid specialization of members, one in which people are bound to their socioeconomic status, in order to avoid conflict and maintain “peace.” The implication of Winthrop’s vision is that the rich remain rich and independent, and the poor remain poor and dependent. In contrast, Kushner argues that chaos is necessary for progress when Harper discusses loss with Prior: “Devastation. That’s what makes people migrate, build things” (Kushner, 263). As Harper’s migration away from marriage allows her to form unexpected bonds with Prior, she embraces change instead of reveling in hardship. Rejecting stasis, but seeking peace, Harper finds a community that embodies progress. Through her pursuit of dignity and self-discovery, Kushner rejects hierarchy within this community: “Joined hands, clasped ankles, and formed a web, a great net of souls, and the souls were three-atom oxygen molecules, of the stuff of ozone, and the outer rim absorbed them, and was repaired” (Kushner, 285). In contrast to her earlier speech, Harper heals her mind through “joined hands, clasped ankles,” and this physical imagery highlights her reliance on the emotional support of others. She is no longer stuck in her head, talking only to herself.  Rather, she helps create a “web” of protection and interdependence. Harper’s feeling of empowerment through connection reveals that, although Kushner rejects Winthrop’s hierarchy, he keeps Winthrop’s emphasis on a mutually supportive community.

    In holding onto the power of collective solidarity, Kushner offers a solution to the conflict in Gilman’s Yellow Wallpaper, which documents only the harmful effects of hierarchy within marriage. By the time of Gilman’s publication in 1892, many first wave feminists expressed frustrations over women’s relegation to the private sphere under the separate spheres ideology. Gilman’s narrative is based on her own experience of feeling isolated within the private sphere (Gilman, 202). After the narrator’s husband John insists his wife has no problem with remaining inside all day, the narrator expresses her grievances about her powerlessness: “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one… what is one to do?” (Gilman, 193). While “husband” suggests unification between characters, the narrator is instead emotionally distant. Similar to Harper, the narrator lacks autonomy. Additionally, Harper’s allusion to the old order as a “spiral” highlights Kushner’s invocation of history, and the history of patriarchy, as repeating itself. Gilman’s narrator reveals her desperation and hopelessness as she asks her journal, “What is one to do?” Her question indicates her paralysis in the face of patriarchy, and like Harper’s soliloquy, her introspection indicates her isolation from other people. Through a hierarchical union, Gilman depicts a consequence of Winthrop’s founding vision. But whereas Gilman does not provide closure for women trapped in the private sphere, Kushner offers a solution to heteronormative patriarchy, calling through Harper for solidarity between seemingly unfamiliar people: 

“Prior: I never imagined losing my mind was going to be such hard work.
Harper: Oh, it is” (Kushner, 196).
Prior, a gay man with AIDS, and Harper, a formerly married Mormon woman, share a mutual recognition of the struggle of marginalization despite their different experiences and challenges. Harper’s validation of Prior’s feelings demonstrates that she has processed her own feelings of isolation. Moreover, her assuring response reveals that she reclaims the power taken away from her and uses this self-awareness to extend solidarity.

    Harper’s success is ultimately demonstrated by her inclusion in the epilogue. In contrast to the centuries of American writers and politicians who repeatedly equate success for women with marriage to a man, Kushner disrupts this historical pattern through constructing a narrative in which Harper finds success through the dissolution of her marriage. As Harper’s final scene depicts her journey West, Harper becomes a symbol of mobility, progress, and hope.