Success Is Measured in Different Definitions in Caryl Churchills Top Girls - Book Report/Review Example

Success is measured in different definitions in Caryl Churchill's Top Girls. Caryl Churchill wrote Top Girls in three Acts in 1982. The title gives the impression that the play is about successful girls. The women are referred to as girls because they are immature. They each think they have attained some measure of success in their lives. 'Top Girls' is also the name of the Employment Agency where Marlene works. This essay explores the different meanings of success for the different 'girls' in this play. Act One opens at the restaurant scene. A table of six is set to celebrate Marlene's success with her promotion to the post of Director. Her success comes at a price. She tells Isabelle Bird, the first guest to arrive, that she has no time to go away on a holiday although she would like to. A woman who is chained to her work desk does not seem to be like a successful woman. Isabelle thinks she is successful because of her vast travel experiences. She prides herself on being correct in as many matters as possible. She thinks highly of herself because she has met the Emperor of Morocco, has a clergyman father, and got married only at the advanced age of fifty after she lost her father. When she lost her father, she replaced him with a husband. A woman who depends on men for her self esteem is not a successful one. Lady Nijo joins the party and she talks about her successful past serving her Emperor. Nijo is aware that she has been made used of as her Emperor's mistress but she is proud of her social status. Her superficiality shows when she mentions that it is her accorded privilege to wear thin silk. When Nijo professes her repentance by becoming a travelling nun, Marlene challenges her by reminding her that she has used her own will in her choice and that Nijo's practices of a nun does not fall into the normal conventions of a nun. Marlene acts like a hostess and moderator in this dinner conversation. Nijo does not really regret her past life. She still revels in it by the way she talks about it. Her life is spent as a subjugate woman who serves men and she is proud to be of service. Nijo's success is measured in terms of her feminine beauty and charms in pleasing men. She lost her success when she lost her Emperor. Joan differs from Isabelle and Nijo in that she does not measure her success by her reliance on men. She has attained success as a Pope by imitating a man. She gave birth on a public street during a procession. When Joan tells that the people 'took me by the feet and dragged me out of town and stoned me to death.', it is realised that Act One is a fantasy. At this point, Griselda arrives. Marlene makes the formal introductions and the historical lady characters are properly introduced. This confirms that all the guests are not real or are ghosts. Griselda tells her story of success as an obedient wife to her Marquis, Walter, who removes her two children away from her to test her loyalty and obedience to him. He is rather sadistic although he finally relents and reunites Griselda with them. Griselda now questions her husband's actions, saying; 'I do think - I do wonder - it would have been nicer if Walter hadn't had to.' By her pauses and uncertainty, she is still unsure of taking her independent stand apart from Walter. She does not seem to be a successful woman, wife nor mother because she is powerless. Marlene maybe the sole 'top girl' who has not used a man to achieve her current position of success. However, she has sacrificed her time and is a prisoner to her work. It seems Marlene drowns her frustrations in alcohol as she orders more drinks, drinks steadily and even takes over Isabelle's brandy. Act One ends in a riot with the girls showing the effects of alcohol. The dinner party to celebrate Marlene's success is not a successful celebration because each 'girl' celebrates her own success and it ends with many girls successfully intoxicated. Act One is a fantasy. The different girls could be Marlene's different personalities who are talking to her in the subconscious analysis of her life. Isabella represents the personality of Marlene who abandons her daughter Angie with her sister, in order to seek success as a city worker. Dull Gret talks in monosyllables, just like Angie. Gret can be a manifestation of Angie or Marlene before she became a mature, successful worker. Pope Joan represents Marlene's tough, masculine trait that makes her successful by working hard and being insensitive to others. Act Two, Scene One, shows how successful Marlene is at work with her sharp insight. She seizes up Jeanine, a job seeker candidate and makes the correct assessments about her. Marlene does not mince her words to get her work done as she tells Jeanine her opinion on what is good for her. Marlene then assigns appropriate interviews for Jeanine to attend. Marlene is a successful interviewer who takes care of her job seeker candidate more than her clients who might be hiring her recommendations. This can be seen as a type of selfish attitude because Marlene takes care of her success as a recruiter over other factors. Act Two, Scene Two, introduces the family background of Marlene. It is a natural curiosity to know the background of a successful person. Marlene's sister is Joyce, who has a sixteen year old daughter, Angie. Angie hates her mother, Joyce. This sets the context for the following scenes. Scene Three shows the interaction between Nell and Win, who are workers in Marlene's 'Top Girls' office. They are intelligent workers who help to contribute to Marlene's success in the office. These are real top girls who do not need to boast about their achievements because they are confident of themselves. In Act Two, Scene Three, Angie meets her Aunt Marlene in the 'Top Girls' office. Marlene questions Angie but she is unsuccessful in getting out the truth because she does not know that Angie has run away from home. Mrs. Howard Kidd, the wife of Howard, who has been passed over for promotion in favour of Marlene, visits Marlene in office to plead for her husband's case. Marlene tries to be polite in her refusal to bow out to let Howard have her promotion. Win and Nell are loyal in their support of Marlene and they offer moral support for Angie too. They show some socialism in their office worker feminism attitude. Their behaviours contrast with the dinner guests in Act One. They do not boast about themselves and show some concern for their job applicants, Shona and Angie. Marlene's image of a successful Director handling various aspects of life is shown in Act Two. She has to be ruthless in her work in order to survive. Act Three begins with Marlene visiting her sister Angie in the country. They talk about how Joyce took in Angie, similar to the way Griselda's husband Walter took away her children. The difference is that Marlene gave up Angie voluntarily to Joyce. Marlene maybe a successful Director but she failed as a mother. Even in her chosen limited capacity as Angie's Aunty Marlene, she failed to visit Angie during the last six years. Marlene is a successful feminist who has carved out a good working career but she has failed in other aspects because she lacked socialism. Her feminism is individualistic and her success is personal. (Aston 2003). She could not share her success with Joyce. Joyce tells how she took Angie because she didn't have the heart to let a stranger take her niece; 'Or what Have her put in a home Have some stranger / take her would you rather' Later, when Joyce was pregnant and experiencing difficulties caring for baby Angie and her own health, she told Marlene but Marlene did not do anything. Marlene was heartless and ungrateful and she revealed this when she confessed; 'Well I forgot.' She did not help Joyce although Joyce was helping her by caring for Angie. Marlene's ruthlessness had cost the life of Joyce's unborn baby because Joyce suffered a miscarriage as a consequence. This focus serves to highlight that individual feminism is not a good model for society. The play ends with Angie waking up to reality by calling Marlene as Mum but Marlene refuses to acknowledge her. Angie could have been eavesdropping upon the conversation between Joyce and Marlene. Marlene chooses to adhere to her own lies as she wants to continue in her present lifestyle. Marlene tells Joyce that she thinks she is going to be successful because she is 'going up up up' in the eighties. She praises 'Maggie' as a tough lady. This 'Maggie' is Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister during the time this play was written. Aston tells that; 'When Top Girls was first performed it was some three years after Thatcher came to power (1979) and a year before her re-election for a second term of office.' (Aston 2003). Marlene says she supports the ideals of 'monetarism' and individualism and their 'First woman prime minister'. However, Argy and many other economists have written about how Thatcher's policies made the income gap between the social classes even wider. (Argy 1994). Marlene seems to have emulated Thatcher's ideals for success because she worked for money, to advance her individual career, and her feminism encouraged her to compete with the man (Howard) on the same playing field. Marlene only experienced some gender role conflict in abandoning her motherly role to Joyce after sixteen years. She blamed Joyce for wanting to take Angie away from her. However, she contradicts herself when she reveals that she never wanted a child because she had two abortions. After her heart to heart talk with Joyce, she remains the same. Angie wanted to reconcile with her when she called Marlene as Mum, but Marlene flatly denied the bond and pushed the responsibility back to Joyce. Joyce criticises Marlene for being ashamed of her humble roots and sister. Marlene confirms this by telling that she 'hate the working class / which is what you're going'. Marlene is truly ruthless in her climb up the social ladder. Although she suppressed her maternal instincts towards Angie, she shows some redemption when she is willing to believe that Angie will survive. Marlene is also willing to believe that Joyce has 'got what it takes' to survive in the world. Marlene supports a new kind of socialism that is group orientated. She recognises that Joyce, Angie and their Mum and Dad belong to a group because they are in the same family. It seems that she is confused because earlier, Marlene said that she would not help the stupid, lazy or frightened people get a job. Yet, she is ready to believe that Angie, who Joyce says is stupid, lazy and frightened, can survive. Marlene seems to preach a brand of British socialist feminism when she says that she believes 'Anyone can do anything if they've got what it takes.' Joyce seems to belong to this group. She helps Marlene, Angie and her mother. She is loyal to her class and roots and even argues with Marlene to defend her working class. She has personal integrity and pride because she refuses to accept money from Marlene, even if it is for keeping Angie. Joyce has no commercial success but she is, in her own sense, a top girl. Marlene, in contrast, has no scruples. She is insensitive when she says that she hates the working class, knowing full well that Joyce works as a cleaning woman and is part of the working class. Joyce, in comparison to Marlene, is successful in her own right and she is the better choice of a 'top girl'. (Churchill, 1982). The end. Works Cited. Argy, Victor. (1994). International Macroeconomics: theory and policy. UK: Routledge Aston, Elaine. (2003). Feminist Views on the English Stage: Women Playwrights, 1990-2000. By Elaine Aston U.K.: Cambridge University Press. Churchill, Caryl. (1982). Top Girls. In Methuen (Ed.), The Methuen Book Of Modern Drama. Plays Of The '80s And '90s (pp. 5-100). Great Britain: Methuen Publishing Limited. Read More