Prior Walter

Prior Walter, Louis’s boyfriend, a club designer/caterer was characterized by the play as a genuine and modest person. He had an eerie sense of humor and what had struck me most with my first encounter in the play was that he was weird and gullible. When he attended Louis’s grandmothers funeral, his comments were a bit creepy “cemetery fun. Don’t want to miss that (19)”. I was also taken aback to hear Prior say he wanted to get the rabbi’s number so he could bury him, who actually thinks of that. Whiles probably making fun of that he had no idea sickness and death were nearer that he had joked. Of all the characters in A Gay Fantasia on National Themes Angels in America, Prior was the most vulnerable from an emotional and physical sense. His relationship was vulnerable with Louis after he had realized he contracted the deadly disease AID’s. Even though others see his character as delusional, it was undeniable that he was true to himself. He faced the possibility of dying, being abandoned by his lover, feeling lonely and yet still defiant to want to live.

Prior evolved to become a ‘prophet’ from the earlier parts of the play but it was easy for followers not to take him serious. A prophet is someone who calls forth things before they happen. Besides his encounter with angles, Prior had exhibited some prophetic characteristics. He had predicted certain things at different stages in the play and they surely did come to pass. In Act 1 scene 8. After Prior had told his bizarre story to Louis of his ancestor who was a ship captain, he ironically was implying something else. Prior: “I think about that story a lot now. People in a boat, waiting, terrified, while implacable, unsmiling men, irresistibly strong, seize …. Maybe the person next to you, maybe you, and with no warning at all, with time only for a quick intake of air you are pitched into freezing, turbulent water and salt and darkness to drown. While time is running out I find myself drawn to anything that’s suspended, that lacks an ending (41, 42)”. He was implying his unpredictable ending as a person and his relationship to Louis. I am sure he had sensed what was about to happen. His interpretation of the people who were in the boat and the cold hearted crew terrified him at the same time signified his fears for the future. The fact that these people were made to believe they have been rescued and was going to make it and yet they were thrown back into the sea as the boat got crowed gave him a wake up call. He was for warning Louis of how he couldn’t trust him as a partner and knew he had the potential of betraying him at some point. He had felt insecure knowing that what he has could not exist in a moment. Eventually what he had predicted in relation to that story had happened in reality and it couldn’t be more prophetic than that.

Prior was marginalized in a lot of ways, as a gay man who had contracted a deadly disease AIDS, he was weak and demeaned and that made him a victim. I find it admirable to see prior beyond all the limitations he faced his spirit fought and finally rose above his plaque to evolve as a new character of heroism.