Top Girls

Question 1

How does Churchill use Marlene?

Answer 1

Churchill uses Marlene as an indictment against thatcherism

Question 2

What does Marlene say she believes in?

Answer 2

Marlene: ‘I believe in the individual, look at me’.

Question 3

What is Marlene’s opinion on the working class?

Answer 3

‘I hate the working class… it doesn’t exist anymore, it means lazy and stupid.’

Question 4

What does Joyce say about Angie and her attributes, what does she ask?

Answer 4

‘She’s stupid, lazy, and frightened, so what about her?’

Question 5

What is Angie’s quote at the end?

Answer 5

‘Frightening…Frightening’

Question 6

What question does Angie ask Marlene about belonging and being wanted?

Answer 6

‘Don’t you want me?’

Question 7

What does Angie say about the dress she puts on?

Answer 7

‘I put on this dress to kill my mother’

Question 8

What does Marlene say about Angie’s future?

Answer 8

‘Packer in Tesco more like… she’s not going to make it’

Question 9

What does Marlene say about the 80’s?

Answer 9

‘I think the 80’s are going to be stupendous… for me’

Question 10

What does Marlene say about helping the working class?

Answer 10

‘If they’re stupid or lazy or frightened, I’m not going to help them’

Question 11

What does Caryl Churchill use the novel ‘Top Girls’ as?

Answer 11

As a polemic against Thatcherism.

Question 12

What type of structure is used in Top Girls?

Answer 12

A non linear structure

Question 13

What type of theatre is similarly used in Top Girls?

Answer 13

Bertoldt Brecht’s epic theatre

Question 14

What are some characteristics of Brecht’s epic theatre?

Answer 14

V-effekt:
Historicisastion:
Gestus:
Doubling of parts:

Question 15

What is the v-effekt?

Answer 15

V-effekt: presents an everyday thing as surprising to try and expose an existing social system

Question 16

What is historicisation?

Answer 16

Historicisation: a contrast between past and present

Question 17

What is gestus?

Answer 17

Gestus: a piece of physical action communicating a social meaning

Question 18

What does Mrs Kidd say about Marlene?

Answer 18

‘You’re not natural’

Question 19

What does Marlene say about getting out fast enough?

Answer 19

‘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?’

Question 20

What does Marlene say about the little woman?

Answer 20

‘They’re waiting for me to turn into the little woman’

Question 21

What is a polemic?

Answer 21

It’s a piece of writing that acts as a critical attack on an opinion

Question 22

What is an indictment?

Answer 22

A thing that serves to illustrate a system as bad and needing to be condemned (judged+disapproved).

Question 23

What is Thatcherism? (5)

Answer 23

It is the idea of individualism, self-reliance, entrepreneurial spirit, hard work, and civic responsibility.

Question 24

How does Joyce describe the people she works for?

Answer 24

‘I hate the cows I work for’

Question 25

What (just) question does Joyce ask about Angie?

Answer 25

'What about Angie?'

Question 26

What is Joyce's reaction to seeing a Rolls Royce?

Answer 26

'I spit when I see a Rolls Royce'

Question 27

What does Joyce say about Thatcher being prime minister?

Answer 27

'What good's first woman if it's her?'

Question 28

What does Joyce say is the reason for her losing her baby?

Answer 28

'I lost it because I was so tired looking after your fucking baby'

Question 29

What does Joyce say Angie's children will say about Angie?

Answer 29

'...what a wasted life she had...nothing's changed and it won't with them'

Question 30

What do critics say about Thatcherism?

Answer 30

They believe it exacerbated social inequality as policies such as privatisation often benefited the wealthy and powerful, leaving behind marginalised and vulnerable groups.

Question 31

What do you call views regarding Thatcherism?

Answer 31

Thatcherite views

Question 32

What was the time period and country for Thatcherism?

Answer 32

Late 20th century Britain

Question 33

What does Caryl Churchill's play serve as (message) to its audience?

Answer 33

It serves as an allegory and polemic

Question 34

What is Marlene an embodiment of?

Answer 34

She is an embodiment of Margaret Thatcher and her beliefs.

Question 35

Whose tasks does Marlene carry out, how does she do it, and what does this do to women?

Answer 35

She carries out the tasks of the patriarchy by being a woman in power, preventing them (women) from breaking free from their oppression.

Question 36

How does Marlene 'weaken' women in the play? What other word can used in place of 'weaken'.

Answer 36

She debilitates women by being in a place of power, similar to that of the patriarchy.

Question 37

What are the characters present for the doubling of parts?

Answer 37

Dull Gret = Angie Isabella Bird = Joyce

Question 38

What is the sequencing like in the play for the events that occur? Act 1(3) + Act 2(2)

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Who are the characters present within the first celebratory scene? (Total=6)

Answer 39

Marlene Dull Gret Isabella Bird Pope Joan Lady Nijo Patient Griselda

Question 40

Describe the doubling of roles between Angie/Dull Gret in the play Top Girls? What do they represent, and how are they significant?

Answer 40

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.

Question 41

Name all the characters in Top Girls, no matter how insignificant. 4-5-3-4 (16 Total)

Answer 41

Marlene, Joyce, Angie, Kit Dull Gret, Isabela Bird, Pope Joan, Lady Nijo, Patient Griselda Jeanine, Louise, Mrs. Kidd Win, Nell, Shona, Howard Kidd

Question 42

What does the doubling of roles do to the characters' fixedness?

Answer 42

It undermines the fixedness of roles, questioning the certainty of the charcaters' predicament.

Question 43

Describe the doubling of parts between Isabella Bird/Joyce in the play Top Girls?

Answer 43

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.

Question 44

Where is Dull Gret from?

Answer 44

●From a 16th-century Brueghel painting

Question 45

Describe Lady Nijo as a character. (2 points)

Answer 45

●13th century concubine ●oppressed by the nobility

Question 46

Describe Patient Griselda as a character. (2 points)

Answer 46

●A character from European folklore ●Married a nobleman of high rank

Question 47

Describe Pope Joan as a character. (2 points)

Answer 47

●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

Question 48

Describe Isabella Bird as a character. (3 points)

Answer 48

●REAL 19th century English explorer and writer ●Never had children ●work was honoured in her lifetime

Question 49

What realisation changes Marlene's perspective of Jeanine?

Answer 49

The realisation that Jeanine is pursuing more lucrative employment in order to finance a wedding causes Marlene to change her opinion of her.

Question 50

Which characters in the celebration event in Top Girls are real? (2)

Answer 50

Lady Nijo and Isabella Bird

Question 51

What is another way to say a play is 'put on'?

Answer 51

'staged'

Question 52

What to think of when you see significance?

Answer 52

How are meanings encoded?

Question 53

What are the main ideas in the little woman book by Louisa May Alcott?

Answer 53

●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