Essay On 'top Girls' - Struggle For Identity 2u6l6m

Denis Zukic

English Lit.

“Caryl Churchill’s ‘Top Girls’ firmly places issues of motherhood at the heart of a woman’s struggle for identity. In this respect she is developing ideas that were dramatized two decades earlier in ‘A Taste of Honey’ by Shelagh Delaney.” In light of this statement, discuss Churchill’s presentation of motherhood in ‘Top Girls’.

“You’re not natural.” – The words that Mrs Kidd uses to describe a woman who, in the social context of today, would be completely normal. Marlene, the protagonist in Top Girls, goes against the stereotypical conventions expected of women, and chooses to focus solely on her rise to the top. Her actions, although typically seen as abnormal for the time, help her to overcome her male competition, but at what cost? Can a woman sacrifice their maternal instincts for the sake of their ambitions, or is it “not natural” to expect such behaviour from a woman, when biologically, they are designed to bear children? It’s these key points that Churchill uses to challenge the audiences’ opinions, and explore society’s expectations of motherhood. Churchill’s presentation of Marlene is the complete opposite of what the audience would expect at the time. The constant disregard of normality is imbedded in the play from start to finish, but what is obvious from the start is that Churchill is always revealing the negative side of what Marlene has achieved. As Eva Meissenpichler suggests in her thesis on British Women in the Second Half of the 20th Century; “Caryl Churchill confronts the audience with the downside of Marlene’s success. The ‘top girl’ has to adapt to a capitalist, patriarchal society in which female equality is prevented by the hierarchical structures that govern it. The 1980s were a time when the steps women had to take to accomplish high-profile posts included an adoption of masculine behavioural and intellectual patterns.”1 Meissenpichler is implying that women had to take on masculine traits in order to succeed in the world of business. By the time the audience reaches Mrs Kidd’s confrontation with Marlene, the term ‘natural’ is like a wake-up call, making the audience consider what the word means, and whether or not they would consider Marlene as ‘natural’. What Mrs Kidd is implying by the statement is that Marlene does not conform to her idea of normality. She is arguing that for a woman to be anything but a housewife and mother is unimaginable, that motherhood is not just a desire, but a necessity. By the time we reach this point in the play, all our assumptions and misconceptions of women have been questioned, so the word ‘natural’ comes to have no depth and meaning at all. The audience is led to consider this abnormality early on in Act 1, scene 1, where the so called ‘nature’ of women is scrutinized by the stories presented by the characters at the dinner table. Although very surreal, the opening scene is designed to seem realistic, as is evident when the characters talk over each other, and seem to speak more voraciously after having a little too much to drink. Churchill has purposefully applied realism to an otherwise impossible scene to make the characters and their stories seem realistic. This relevance gives the 1

Meissenpichler, E. (2009) British Women Dramatists in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century. [ebook] Vienna: p.27. http://othes.univie.ac.at/5777/1/2009-07-09_0007494.pdf [Accessed: 20/03/2013].

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Denis Zukic

English Lit.

audience a sense of mutuality, and makes them feel that it wouldn’t matter whether the women were 16th Century peasant women or 20th Century housewives; they are still women. This scene introduces the purpose of the play; Churchill wants the audience to be shocked by these women, forcing them to compare their own lives with the characters in the play. Each has their own part to play in the struggle for identity that women have faced over the ages. As Meissenpichler suggests, ‘each of her guests occupied an exceptional position in a male-dominated world, and Marlene’s place among these extraordinary ladies signifies that she identifies herself as one of them.’2 In other words, Marlene presumes that for a woman in the Thatcher years to be in a higher position than a man is an achievement worthy of recognition. Churchill’s point in this scene is that the struggle women face is constant, happening not only in the times of the ladies present, but in Marlene’s time as well. Sat at the table are six women, all of whom have faced different struggles in their lifetimes regarding motherhood. Some women, like Isabella Bird, rejected motherhood completely, while some were more rebellious, such as Dull Gret, and Lady Nijo. What Churchill is proving is that these characters, although normal women, are very unnerving to consider in the discussion of motherhood. Moreover, it is evident that this scene displays a distinct leitmotif weaved into the play start to finish. The constantly reoccurring theme of children lost is one that would startle most mothers. Churchill uses this to her advantage, challenging the audience’s perceptions of the mother-child relationship. The ideas brought to life by the women startle the audience, and this leitmotif gives the scene a dark reality, setting up the rest of the play. In conjunction with the controversy throughout, the scene throws all the challenges the women have faced into a melting pot, and the audience must endure it in the very first scene of the play. As is with Churchill’s opening scene, the situation is unexpected, catching the audience off guard. With regards to this, comparing a high class restaurant to a run-down flat on an estate in Manchester would be seen as quite extraordinary. With this in mind, Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey has a great deal in common with Top Girls. Helen and Jo seem more like acquaintances, constantly exchanging crude remarks in a very apathetic fashion. Helen does not realise that Jo hates her choice of living, but Helen thinks Jo should respect her regardless of her opinions; “Children owe their parents these little attentions”. Jo disagrees – “I don’t owe you a thing” – as she knows Helen is more concerned for herself than her daughter. Similarly; Marlene gives up her daughter to her sister Joyce to make a successful living for herself. She didn’t want to tie herself down to an unloving husband and be a housewife for the rest of her life, or in her words; “marry a dairyman who’d come home pissed”. The difference in behaviour between mother and child are undeniably questioned in Act 2, Scene 2 of Top Girls. When Angie is hiding from Joyce, she walks into the back garden to call 2

Meissenpichler, p. 29.

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Denis Zukic

English Lit.

for her. “You there Angie? Kit? You there Kitty? Want a cup of tea?” After a few seconds, her tone changes immediately. “You can stay there and die.” It is clear that this dialogue is meant to shock the audience, particularly when it involves Joyce and Angie, as we know that it is not biologically her child. There is no maternal bond between them. Angie hates Joyce and suspects that she’s her “aunt’s child”. In conjunction, Helen and Jo’s relationship corresponds with that of Joyce and Angie’s. Their conversations are very monosyllabic, showing a lack of comion and interest between them. Jo wants nothing to do with Helen, as shown when she says “I’m sick of you. You’ve made my life a misery”. She wants independence; from Helen and her men. Unlike Churchill, Delaney’s characters tend to “break the fictional world”3, addressing questions directly to the audience, in an attempt to further force them to consider what is being acted out to them. This is deliberate, presenting us with shocking portrayals of mother/daughter relationships, so as to challenge our perceptions of our own relationships with our families, and how they differ from those of the characters. Another area of motherhood that Churchill explores is the confidence a mother has in her child. In Act 2, Scene 3 of Top Girls, Marlene and Win are discussing Angie’s presence in the office. Win praises Angie’s interest in her mother, whereas Marlene responds differently; “Packer in Tesco more like”. Marlene has no confidence in Angie, a judgement which stems from a lack of intimacy between her and her daughter after giving her up at birth. She has predetermined her own daughters’ fate effortlessly. This corresponds with the way Helen feels about Jo in A Taste of Honey. Helen has never attempted to bond with Jo on an emotional level, which is obvious in Act 2, Scene 2, when Jo says: “And all those months you stayed away from me because of him! Just like when I was small”. Helen clearly put her partners ahead of Jo in her list of priorities. This s the idea that there is no maternal link between the mother and the daughter; neither of the two mothers seem to have faith in their child, or show any affection, disregarding the maternal responsibility that is expected of them. The most provocative aspect of controversy in A Taste of Honey is displayed in the character Geof. Although he is gay, he is more of a maternal candidate than anyone in the play, taking care of Jo while she is pregnant; “Oh well, you need someone to love you while you’re looking for someone to love”. (Honey, p. 76) Despite his gender, Geof is undoubtedly a better mother figure to Jo than Helen is, and better still than Jo is to her own baby. Ironically, he treats his relationship with Jo as if they were a couple. Arguably, Geof has no fixed interpretation of ‘natural’ either. He is a gay man acting as a midwife to Jo, while acting as a substitute father to her baby. As Meissenpichler writes; “He, as a man, is capable

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Aston, E. (2008) Foreword: A Taste of Honey - Looking Back. In: Leeming, G. and Aston, E. eds. (2009) Shelagh Delaney: A Taste of Honey. 3rd ed. London: A & C Black Publishers Ltd, p.ix.

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Denis Zukic

English Lit.

of mothering whereas Helen, who actually is a mother, at least in the biological sense, lacks all the qualities that would enable her to do so”.4 The role of women is unarguably represented and thoroughly challenged throughout Top Girls, as it was in A Taste of Honey twenty years earlier. The term ‘natural’ is thrown about so much that there comes to be no set meaning to the cliché term that is always used in the discussion of motherhood. This is what the point of Churchill’s and Delaney’s writing comes to be. Not only does Churchill question what it means to be a mother, but the opinions of others and the hardships women have to face. It can be argued that Churchill characterizes the role of women into two different types; the career driven Marlene’s that work hard for their achievements and overcome men in their rise to the top, and the more submissive housewife-type Joyce and Mrs Kidd’s. The intent of both plays is to allow the reader to decide between one or the other; should motherhood come second to a career, or as Angie puts it in the last line of Top Girls, would such a thought be “frightening?”

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Meissenpichler, p. 20.

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Denis Zukic

English Lit.

Bibliography Primary Sources Delaney, Shelagh. A Taste of Honey. New York: Grove Press, 1956. Churchill, Caryl. Top Girls. London: Methuen, 2001.

Secondary Sources Meissenpichler, Eva. British Women Dramatists in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century. Vienna, 2009 Aston, E. Foreword: A Taste of Honey - Looking Back. In: Leeming, G. and Aston, E. eds. (2009) Shelagh Delaney: A Taste of Honey. 3rd ed. London: A & C Black Publishers Ltd

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