In the play sympathy is not di
Top girls is very different sort of play, it reflects the view of the writer (Caryl Churchill) and expresses it in such a way that it makes people who read the book see the world as she does. There are many characters within this book and each one have an impact in one way or another. The play is split into three acts and each one is different considerably however one character stands out in all three, Marlene.Marlene is the 'Top Girl'; she got a high paid and high status job within an employment agency which in the mid eighties was very hard thing to do. Marlene is presented forward as the modern lady, the women who has strove to challenge man and who has succeeded. Marlene however is the only character throughout the whole play that does not draw much sympathy from a reader or audience mainly because she does not say anything to be sympathised and she is so confident there is no need for it. There is however a little room for some sympathy from the audience when we find out that Angie is in fact her child that she had to give up, sympathy can be given but not much as she gave Angie up selfishly to help her self get to where she is but sympathy all depends on the view of the audience members. Some people might think that
Moving to Joyce who has had a lot of bad events occurring in her life, she took Angie and raised her as her own which is a very nice thing to do but because of the hard lifestyle of looking after a kid especially one as bad as Angie she lost her own baby, this does deserve sympathy and an audience would react and certainly be shocked because of this. Marlene and Joyce are sisters and looking at the last Act where these two argue about life, politics and everything about them the things that Marlene was holding back came out. They both did not have a great childhood and Marlene clearly shows not much love for her parents especially her Dad who used to beat up her mother. Again we see a little hint of sympathy however because of the way she talks about her mother "F!*?#@g awful life she's had" we feel nothing as that is not an appropriate way to speak of your own mother. she shouldn't of given her child up as she was being selfish but then other people could sympathise because the only way she could do well is to give her child up and the fact that she had to make a hard decision such as that. We feel sorry for Lady Nijo as she was from very young age used as the Emperors concubine, this to us as a modern audience is very saddening that a girl of a young age had to go through with it, and what is saddening even more is that she says that "I belonged to him, it was what I was brought up for" she says it as though there was no problem even though with the fact that he had practically raped her at such a young age. The first act has six different and influential women involved, they al represent a different kind of woman from different times thus reflecting on how the status of women has changed over the years. You could say that it would have a different affect on a eighties audience than a post millennium audience which is slightly true but women today are still not totally considered equal and so today's audience will still see it as a sad story but there will also be a lot of anger as attitudes have changed seeing the way in which these women are acting seems stupid to modern day people. So as you see during this scene a lot of pain and suffering is expressed yet most of the time they are blaming themselves for what has happened in their lives. Then we have Pope Joan, she had to disguise herself as a man to become the pope though we see her do great things she still has to disguise herself as a man. Practically all the characters deserve and have sympathy directed towards them; this does have a profound effect on the audience as it makes the story a sad one as there is so much pain. Also when she was pregnant and eventually had a baby the way she had it and the fact that it was dead out in front of her is very sad indeed. Five of them (not Marlene) talks about there struggles in life and what happened after and how they coped with it. The fact that while some were talking they released emotions in the form of crying which is a really powerful way of showing troubles within a person and obviously shows that they find what they've been through saddening. Other things include her husband cheating on her after she thought he loved her, the fact that Joyce has "4 cleaning jobs" going at the same time we feel that she is working had to keep herself afloat and to also raise Angie the best she can but because she has four jobs we can see that she is struggling and if Angie was not with her she probably wouldn't be in the same situation.
Common topics in this essay:
Moving Joyce,
Marlene Marlene,
Pope Joan,
Caryl Churchill,
Marlene Joyce,
Five Marlene,
Lady Nijo,
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pain suffering,
deserve sympathy,
sympathy audience,
caryl churchill,
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Acceptance Essays
