Top Girls Analysis

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Question 1: Reflect on how Top Girls by Caryl Churchill challenges or endorses your beliefs, attitudes or values through its representation of gender beliefs

Thesis statement: Top Girls endorses my belief that the patriarchy has a detrimental effect on society, by highlighting the internalised misogyny in bourgeois feminism that dehumanises women, by criticising the patriarchal representation of feminine values, and by showcasing the need to share and validate women’s stories.

Paragraph 1

Churchill highlights the internalised misogyny in bourgeois feminism that dehumanises women, that is prevalent in a patriarchal society

Dialogue

• bourgeois feminism: acceptance of the idea of the patriarchy, and the integration of women into society as well, given those slight effects
  • it took until end of 1970s for this to become a visible and effective tendency. one that is massively overloaded with problems
  • Unseen effects of patriarchal society on women
  • Poisoned ideas and infected minds of women to not criticise the patriarchy, perhaps even idolise it
  • accept the patriarchy as part of everyday life
• Nijo fails to see that she has been violated, due to the internalised misogyny present within her social system
• There is no humanity within her words (she objectifies herself), she don’t have an actual character, as if she’s just retelling her story Marlene: Are you saying he raped you? Nijo: No, of course not, Marlene, I belonged to him, it was what I was brought up for from a baby.

Tone

• Joan was killed for being a woman in a traditionally male role
• Joan herself doesn’t see how cruelly she was treated, just for being a woman
• She doesn’t actually see herself as human, as she seems quite indifferent to her death Joan: They took me by the feet and dragged me out of town and stoned me to death…I don’t really remember

both cases demonstrate objectivism

Paragraph 2: Rejection of Patriarchal Representation of a woman

Churchill criticises the patriarchal ideals/internalised misogyny that is so prevalent in a patriarchal society

• Mrs Kidd comes to see Marlene, as her husband (Howard) is ill and refusing to go to work
• Howard’s ego is so bruised by the fact that he has been passed over for a promotion, which was then given to a woman, that he is physically ill, and literally cannot imagine returning to work in an environment in which he is even in title alone beholden to a woman.
• Contrasts the patriarchal ideal wife’s (Mrs Kidd) nature as meek, submissive and in service to her husband as opposed to Marlene’s controversial “carpe diem” attitude and blunt dialogue
  • We can see that Mrs Kidd’s dialogue indicates her meek nature, and her servitude towards her husband
    • she doesn’t want Howard’s image to be hurt, she came on a personal basis
  • This is compared to Marlene’s no-nonsense nature which is indicated with her getting straight to the point, and her not being afraid to voice her opinions

Marlene: Are you suggesting I give up the job to him then? Mrs Kidd: It had crossed my mind…I’m not asking…You mustn’t tell him I came. He’s very proud.

Rebels against patriarchal idea that a woman should be subservient to a man

• Mrs. Kidd represents the effect of internalised misogyny, creating fractures and fissures in relationships with other women.
• Marlene represents Churchill’s rejection of this internalised misogyny, and a call for society to acknowledge it
• The dialogue illustrates the clash between these 2 ideals
• Mrs Kidd’s statement is in reference to Marlene not having a husband, whereas Marlene is implying that she does not need a man to define her strength and happiness
  • “Ballbreaker” refers to someone who is not married, so the fact that this is an insult is reflective of traditional values of a woman
  • From “ball and chain”, a phrase for marriage i.e. jail, i.e. criminal, i.e. bound in service to a man
• Furthermore, Marlene is shown to prioritise her work over worrying about dying alone, showcasing her independence of a partner and rejection of the patriarchy
• “Piss off” is an informal colloquialism that is usually not associated with femininity, and thus serves to break stereotypical representations of women
• High modality language that shows the strength of Marlenes distaste towards hegemony ideals such as traditional marriage
  • High modality language that shows the strength of Marlenes distaste towards the idea that she has to get married and have a family which portrays dominant values of hegemony and a traditional family in a negative way
• Rejects hegemony ideals

Mrs Kidd: You’re one of those ballbreakers/…You’ll end up lonely and miserable Marlene: I’m sorry, but I do have some work to do. Marlene: Would you please piss off?

Women’s Stories/Suppression of free speech

Churchill conveys the need to share and validate women’s stories that is swept under the rug by the patriarchal society that is so frequent in postmodern literature. Realistic conversational dialogue (realism)

• In Act One, a conversation is held in a restaurant between Marlene and various women who lived under the patriarchy in the past
• Very frequently interrupt each other
• Show this through “forward slashes”
• Over the course of the act, the conversations the women hold aren’t necessarily related to each other. This use of dramatic dialogue illustrates Churchill’s choice to imbue her characters with the desire to make themselves heard speaks to her thematic preoccupation with the necessity of sharing and validating women’s stories.
• Linked to disorder and chaos that is prevalent in postmodern theatre Joan: And next day he was ill, / I was so annoyed with him, all the time I was Nijo: Misery in this life and worse in the next, all because of me.