Top Girl

Product Information

In 1997 the playwright Mark Ravenhill wrote that Top Girls "must be the best play of the past 20 years". [17] Betrayed by the police, she finds protection under the wing of organised criminals and falls in love with the local ‘top boy’. However, her allegiances bring terror to her doorstep when gun-toting rivals target her flat – and the authorities answer by taking away her child.

Joan says this while explaining that as she rose through the Church hierarchy, she always believed that God, knowing she was a woman, approved of her ascent. However, when she became Pope and failed to establish a direct connection with God, Joan took this to indicate his disapproval. Joan’s statement is deeply ironic, since to a modern audience the idea of speaking directly with God, even by the Pope, seems ridiculous. However, this statement also indicates the intensity of the gender divide during Joan's time. While women like Mrs. Kidd may look down upon Marlene's promotion over a man, in Joan's time, the patriarchy was so deeply seated that people believed only men could communicate with the Almighty. Joan sacrificed her life in her rebellion against the patriarchy - so at least Marlene is living in a slightly more civil time. In her interview with Win, Louise expresses frustration over the unfair sacrifices she has had to make and the double standards that she has endured to stay in good standing at her company for over 2 decades. The character of Louise represents hidden patriarchal structures that modern women still face in the workplace. Although Louise has the same human and spiritual rights as her male counterparts (unlike Joan or Nijo), she is highly aware that society views her as inferior to the men around her. Instead of accepting it, though, she is finally ready to do something about it, even though Win reminds her how difficult it will be for an older woman to get a new job. Louise is a contrast to Marlene - and shows that even though the feminist movement had made significant advances by the 1970s, gender equality was still a long way off. Bazin, Victoria (2006). "[Not] Talking'Bout My Generation: Historicizing Feminisms in Caryl Churchill's Top Girls". Studies in the Literary Imagination: 115. Kimberly wrote: "Kimberly wrote: "Maddie wrote: "Best books ever: Hunger Games Trilogy and CITY OF BOMES!!"A seemingly bright girl who had a loving mum and stepdad, decides she would rather get into dealing drugs and having underage sex.

Groomed and manipulated from the age of 12, Danielle tells her story with startling candour and extremely graphic detail. She takes full responsibility for some of the things that she has done but when you read the unfathomable trauma that she has endured you cannot help but feel a deep level of empathy for her. In our Indian context , this type of literature will spoil the ethical value of children of adolescent age in general and girls in particular. Lister, David (18 October 1998). " 'Waiting for Godot' voted best modern play in English". The Independent . Retrieved 16 October 2020. Nightingale, Benedict (2012). Great Moments in the Theatre. Great Britain: Oberon Books Ltd. ISBN 9781849437448.

It is quite a frustrating book as the reader sees Danielle building up to yet another bad choice and shaking their head thinking,"don't do it", which is exactly why it's such an important book. The supposed glamour of the gangs and easy drug money is shown to be a squalid ,dirty and dangerous business ,not least for impressionable and naive young girls.. The play is famous for its dreamlike opening sequence in which Marlene meets famous women from history, including Pope Joan, who, disguised as a man, is said to have been pope between 854 and 856; the explorer Isabella Bird; Dull Gret the harrower of Hell; Lady Nijo, the Japanese mistress of an emperor and later a Buddhist nun; and Patient Griselda, the patient wife from The Clerk's Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. [8] All of these characters behave like a gang of city career women out on the town and get increasingly drunk and maudlin, as it is revealed that each has suffered in similar ways.