Top Girls

             Characterization of Feminism in Top Girls
             Caryl Churchill's play Top Girls contains many social observations about the modern woman. This is done mainly by great characterization. In the play Top Girls we come to know many women, both modern and historical, who appear to be extremely successful. At the time this play was written, in 1982, feminism, and the successes of the modern "business women" was an earthshaking movement that had an extreme effected on society. This feminist movement is the backbone that shapes all of the characters in the play Top Girls.
             The characters in Act I, Scene I (p. 1604) of Top Girls, stand as symbols of successful women in various times and places through out the past 1200 years. In this scene Marlene, who has been recently promoted to head of the Top Girls Employment Agency, is hosting a dinner party for other successful women in history to celebrate with her. The guest include; Pope Joan of the 9th Century; Isabella's Bird, a well traveled Scottish woman of the 19th Century; Lady Nijo, a 13th Century courtesan to the Japanese emperor and later a Buddhist nun; Dull Gret, a hearty peasant woman pictured battling the devils in hell in a 16th Century painting; and Patient Griselda, a devoted wife who appears as a character in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales". Each of these women share a common thread; they succeeded in a male dominated world by ignoring
             their own femininity and taking on male roles, or male characteristics in order to come out on top. The highest of these feminine roles that each character forsake is that of being a mother. Each character has lost or given up a child in some way or anther in order to gain independently in the successful role that she has taken on. An example of this accrued on pg.1609 when Joan confesses that she was pregnant when she was the Pope, and when she gave birth and her secret was known she was stone...

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Top Girls. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 06:28, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/76184.html