Top Girls Flashcards
How does Churchill use Marlene?
Churchill uses Marlene as an indictment against thatcherism
What does Marlene say she believes in?
Marlene: ‘I believe in the individual, look at me’.
What is Marlene’s opinion on the working class?
‘I hate the working class… it doesn’t exist anymore, it means lazy and stupid.’
What does Joyce say about Angie and her attributes, what does she ask?
‘She’s stupid, lazy, and frightened, so what about her?’
What is Angie’s quote at the end?
‘Frightening…Frightening’
What question does Angie ask Marlene about belonging and being wanted?
‘Don’t you want me?’
What does Angie say about the dress she puts on?
‘I put on this dress to kill my mother’
What does Marlene say about Angie’s future?
‘Packer in Tesco more like… she’s not going to make it’
What does Marlene say about the 80’s?
‘I think the 80’s are going to be stupendous… for me’
What does Marlene say about helping the working class?
‘If they’re stupid or lazy or frightened, I’m not going to help them’
What does Caryl Churchill use the novel ‘Top Girls’ as?
As a polemic against Thatcherism.
What type of structure is used in Top Girls?
A non linear structure
What type of theatre is similarly used in Top Girls?
Bertoldt Brecht’s epic theatre
What are some characteristics of Brecht’s epic theatre?
V-effekt:
Historicisastion:
Gestus:
Doubling of parts:
What is the v-effekt?
V-effekt: presents an everyday thing as surprising to try and expose an existing social system
What is historicisation?
Historicisation: a contrast between past and present
What is gestus?
Gestus: a piece of physical action communicating a social meaning
What does Mrs Kidd say about Marlene?
‘You’re not natural’
What does Marlene say about getting out fast enough?
‘Of course I couldn’t get out of here fast enough. What was I going to do? Marry a dairyman who’d come home pissed?’
What does Marlene say about the little woman?
‘They’re waiting for me to turn into the little woman’
What is a polemic?
It’s a piece of writing that acts as a critical attack on an opinion
What is an indictment?
A thing that serves to illustrate a system as bad and needing to be condemned (judged+disapproved).
What is Thatcherism? (5)
It is the idea of individualism, self-reliance, entrepreneurial spirit, hard work, and civic responsibility.
How does Joyce describe the people she works for?
‘I hate the cows I work for’
What (just) question does Joyce ask about Angie?
‘What about Angie?’
What is Joyce’s reaction to seeing a Rolls Royce?
‘I spit when I see a Rolls Royce’
What does Joyce say about Thatcher being prime minister?
‘What good’s first woman if it’s her?’
What does Joyce say is the reason for her losing her baby?
‘I lost it because I was so tired looking after your fucking baby’
What does Joyce say Angie’s children will say about Angie?
‘…what a wasted life she had…nothing’s changed and it won’t with them’
What do critics say about Thatcherism?
They believe it exacerbated social inequality as policies such as privatisation often benefited the wealthy and powerful, leaving behind marginalised and vulnerable groups.
What do you call views regarding Thatcherism?
Thatcherite views
What was the time period and country for Thatcherism?
Late 20th century Britain
What does Caryl Churchill’s play serve as (message) to its audience?
It serves as an allegory and polemic
What is Marlene an embodiment of?
She is an embodiment of Margaret Thatcher and her beliefs.
Whose tasks does Marlene carry out, how does she do it, and what does this do to women?
She carries out the tasks of the patriarchy by being a woman in power, preventing them (women) from breaking free from their oppression.
How does Marlene ‘weaken’ women in the play? What other word can used in place of ‘weaken’.
She debilitates women by being in a place of power, similar to that of the patriarchy.
What are the characters present for the doubling of parts?
Dull Gret = Angie
Isabella Bird = Joyce
What is the sequencing like in the play for the events that occur? Act 1(3) + Act 2(2)
Act 1 Scene 1- Celebration Scene
Act 1 Scene 2- Jeanine Interview
Act 1 Scene 3- Angie + Kit Movie
Act 2 Scene 1- Louise Interview + Angie’s arrival + Mrs. Kidd
Act 2 Scene 2- Flashback Scene
Who are the characters present within the first celebratory scene?
(Total=6)
Marlene
Dull Gret
Isabella Bird
Pope Joan
Lady Nijo
Patient Griselda
Describe the doubling of roles between Angie/Dull Gret in the play Top Girls? What do they represent, and how are they significant?
Angie/Dull Gret both represent the working class. Their doubling of parts is significant as it shows how the working class is largely affected by the bourgeoisie, as more than 1 character is representative of their characteristics.
Name all the characters in Top Girls, no matter how insignificant.
4-5-3-4 (16 Total)
Marlene, Joyce, Angie, Kit
Dull Gret, Isabela Bird, Pope Joan, Lady Nijo, Patient Griselda
Jeanine, Louise, Mrs. Kidd
Win, Nell, Shona, Howard Kidd
What does the doubling of roles do to the characters’ fixedness?
It undermines the fixedness of roles, questioning the certainty of the charcaters’ predicament.
Describe the doubling of parts between Isabella Bird/Joyce in the play Top Girls?
Isabella Bird/Joyce’s doubling of parts is significant as it highlights the difference in opportunities they both have. Isabella’s life as a traveller is contrasted against Joyce’s interminable entrapment within her working-class hometown.
Where is Dull Gret from?
●From a 16th-century Brueghel painting
Describe Lady Nijo as a character. (2 points)
●13th century concubine
●oppressed by the nobility
Describe Patient Griselda as a character. (2 points)
●A character from European folklore
●Married a nobleman of high rank
Describe Pope Joan as a character. (2 points)
●According to legend, she disguises herself as a man in the Middle Ages
●She eventually became pregnant, which led to her and her child being stoned to death
Describe Isabella Bird as a character. (3 points)
●REAL 19th century English explorer and writer
●Never had children
●work was honoured in her lifetime
What realisation changes Marlene’s perspective of Jeanine?
The realisation that Jeanine is pursuing more lucrative employment in order to finance a wedding causes Marlene to change her opinion of her.
Which characters in the celebration event in Top Girls are real? (2)
Lady Nijo and Isabella Bird
What is another way to say a play is ‘put on’?
‘staged’
What to think of when you see significance?
How are meanings encoded?
What are the main ideas in the little woman book by Louisa May Alcott?
●family important
●It suggests (through the use of the character Jo March) that women can be competent and successful while still having a family and being feminine
