Churchill presents the women in Act I as hopelessly fractured - there is no
sisterhood - India Fahey
Though Churchills creates a world where women from astonishing backgrounds are all
placed at the same dinner table, it cannot be ignored their differences and frantic
interruptions and disagreements with one another. However from their past and their
experiences there is a rooted similarity between them, through pain and triumph there
is a clear arising of sisterhood and bonding which surrounds and unites each of the
women.
Preeminently, though the women appear fractured and ruined during the opening Acts
of Carol Churchills ‘Top Girls’, it cannot be ignored the sisterhood that blossoms when
each shares their past experiences and bonds over their pain and loss. It is the paradox
of Lady Nijo from her drawn out ramblings of her accustomed attire and rich outer
wear when she served her emperor; ‘i enjoyed the most being the emperor's favourite /
and wearing thin silk’ that truly allows us to notice the alteration of tone and the
sincerity when she states ‘when your lover dies - one of my lovers died / the priest’
interrupted by joans ‘have we all got dead lovers?’ Noticing the slight frantic dash,
deviating from her once confident and boastful demeanour allows us to see a sincerity
about her pain and loss, then elevated by Joans resembled mourning of the loss of her
friends allows the opening of a sisterhood thought the usage of their experiences with
loss creating a heartfelt moment which appear to unite the sisterhood through death.
However it is Marlene’s cold and uninterested - ‘not me, sorry’ to which there is
minimal language and simplistic vocab to which Carol ignores basic connectives,
allowing the speech to appear dismissive and ignorant. Perhaps Carol used this
uninterested and slightly rude language to deviate Marlene from the other women
singling her out as a vessel rather than a character due to her lack of background and
experiences, making her appear less dimensional and therefore incapable of
understanding their loss, potentially dismantling their sisterhood altogether.
Alternatively, it cannot be ignored that the sisterhood evidently arises when the women
announce moments of power and anger that they hold dear come to light, connecting
the sisterhood in a way that they are inspired by each other to come forward about their
achievements. Significantly, it is the point of anger which allows the women to unite,
when each are sharing a moment which disgusts and fuels them, deviating from the
ideals of women 1980s hard working women being able to control and belittle their
emotions separating them from ‘work’ and ‘domestic tasks’ in order to truly fit into a
man made world. However Churchill uses their anger to inspire one another; starting
with Lady Nijo’s defence against the emperor - ‘I hit him with a stick!’ in which
Churchill uses the exclamation mark as a heightened moment for Nijo and her triumph,
using forceful but simplistic language of ‘hit’ along with the animalistic and natural
defence of a ‘stick’, resorting back to a more primal sense that resonates with the other
women, and being the start of a chain reaction which finishes in the first monologue of
sisterhood - India Fahey
Though Churchills creates a world where women from astonishing backgrounds are all
placed at the same dinner table, it cannot be ignored their differences and frantic
interruptions and disagreements with one another. However from their past and their
experiences there is a rooted similarity between them, through pain and triumph there
is a clear arising of sisterhood and bonding which surrounds and unites each of the
women.
Preeminently, though the women appear fractured and ruined during the opening Acts
of Carol Churchills ‘Top Girls’, it cannot be ignored the sisterhood that blossoms when
each shares their past experiences and bonds over their pain and loss. It is the paradox
of Lady Nijo from her drawn out ramblings of her accustomed attire and rich outer
wear when she served her emperor; ‘i enjoyed the most being the emperor's favourite /
and wearing thin silk’ that truly allows us to notice the alteration of tone and the
sincerity when she states ‘when your lover dies - one of my lovers died / the priest’
interrupted by joans ‘have we all got dead lovers?’ Noticing the slight frantic dash,
deviating from her once confident and boastful demeanour allows us to see a sincerity
about her pain and loss, then elevated by Joans resembled mourning of the loss of her
friends allows the opening of a sisterhood thought the usage of their experiences with
loss creating a heartfelt moment which appear to unite the sisterhood through death.
However it is Marlene’s cold and uninterested - ‘not me, sorry’ to which there is
minimal language and simplistic vocab to which Carol ignores basic connectives,
allowing the speech to appear dismissive and ignorant. Perhaps Carol used this
uninterested and slightly rude language to deviate Marlene from the other women
singling her out as a vessel rather than a character due to her lack of background and
experiences, making her appear less dimensional and therefore incapable of
understanding their loss, potentially dismantling their sisterhood altogether.
Alternatively, it cannot be ignored that the sisterhood evidently arises when the women
announce moments of power and anger that they hold dear come to light, connecting
the sisterhood in a way that they are inspired by each other to come forward about their
achievements. Significantly, it is the point of anger which allows the women to unite,
when each are sharing a moment which disgusts and fuels them, deviating from the
ideals of women 1980s hard working women being able to control and belittle their
emotions separating them from ‘work’ and ‘domestic tasks’ in order to truly fit into a
man made world. However Churchill uses their anger to inspire one another; starting
with Lady Nijo’s defence against the emperor - ‘I hit him with a stick!’ in which
Churchill uses the exclamation mark as a heightened moment for Nijo and her triumph,
using forceful but simplistic language of ‘hit’ along with the animalistic and natural
defence of a ‘stick’, resorting back to a more primal sense that resonates with the other
women, and being the start of a chain reaction which finishes in the first monologue of
