ABSTRACT
MELANY, AMBAR FATAH. Fragmentation as a Medium to Revalue momen’s Position as Seen through Marlene’s Life in Caryl Churchill’sTop Girls.Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2015.
Top Girlsis a play produced by Caryl Churchill. All of the characters in this play are women. This play tells about Marlene’s getting promoted as a managing director in ‘Top Girls’ Employment Agency and her need to leave her family and her only daughter since she was young to get a successful life. Churchill uses fragmentation as her narrating style and method.
There are two objectives of this study. The first objective is to know how the play is fragmented, and the second is to elaborate how the fragmentation is used as a medium in revaluing women’s position.
This study is conducted in a library research method. The primary source of this study is Caryl Churchill’sTop Girls play script. Some written and internet based sources are also used in analyzing the work. The writer uses the Postmodern Feminism approach to analyze the problem formulation of this study.
ABSTRAK
MELANY, AMBAR FATAH. Fragmentation as a Medium to Revalue momen’s Position as Seen through Marlene’s Life in Caryl Churchill’sTop Girls.Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.
Top Girls adalah sebuah drama karya Caryl Churchill. Para pemeran dalam drama ini adalah kaum wanita. Drama ini bercerita tentang Marlene yang berhasil dipromosikan sebagai manajer direktur di ‘Top Girls’ Employment Agency dan pengorbanannya yang harus meninggalkan keluarga dan anaknya demi meraih kesuksesan. Churchill menggunakan fragmentasi sebagai metode dan gaya penuturan cerita dalam drama ini.
Ada dua tujuan dalam penelitian ini. Tujuan pertama dari penelitian ini adalah menganalisis bagaimana drama ini terfragmentasi dan mengelaborasi kepentingan dari fragmentasi tersebut sebagai medium untuk menilai ulang posisi kaum wanita.
Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kepustakaan. Sumber utama dari penelitian ini adalan naskah drama Top Girls karya Caryl Churchill. Beberapa sumber tertulis dan sumber berbasis internet turut dipergunakan untuk membantu menganalisa karya tersebut. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan Postmodern Feminisme untuk menganalisa masalah yang tersaji di penelitian ini.
FRAGMENTATION AS A MEDIUM TO REVALUE WOMEN
’
S
POSITION AS SEEN THROUGH MARLENE
’
S LIFE IN CARYL
CHURCHILL
’
S TOP GIRLS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
AMBAR FATAH MELANY
Student Number: 114214071
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
i
FRAGMENTATION AS A MEDIUM TO REVALUE WOMEN
’
S
POSITION AS SEEN THROUGH MARLENE
’
S LIFE IN CARYL
CHURCHILL
’
S TOP GIRLS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
AMBAR FATAH MELANY
Student Number: 114214071
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
vi
DO IT NOW, SOMETIMES ‘LATER’ BECOMES ‘NEVER’
(Anonymous)
You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream. (C.S. Lewis)
Whatever you do, DO IT LIKE A BOSS!
vii
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thesis writing is not an instant process. It takes time and energy to finish it. Time
and mood management are the key to success in writing this thesis. It was impossible for
the writer to finish this thesis without any help from family and friends. Here, the
researcher would like to mention some names who were willingly to help her
academically and emotionally to finish this thesis.
The researcher would like to thank God for His guidance from the beginning until
the end of this thesis writing. A sincere gratitude is directed to Dr. F.X. Siswadi, M.A., her
academic and thesis advisor, who has supported the writer since the beginning of this
thesis writing. He always encouraged her to do her best and finish this undergraduate
thesis sooner for the better. The researcher would like to express her gratitude to J. Harris
Hermansyah S., S.S., M. Hum, her co-advisor, for his valuable second opinion for the
finishing touch of this thesis.
The researcher would also like to thank Umi and her adoptive parents for their love
and support, financially and emotionally. A big thank is also directed to her Sprache
friends especially Angel and Arum, and USD 2011 Class C friends for the great time and
all the positive vibes. Without all the positives vibes, this thesis is impossible to finish in
time. To all people who have willingly helped in this long process, the writer would like
to say thanks.
ix
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH ... v
MOTTO PAGE ... vi
A. Fragmentation Depicted in the Play ... 21
1.Fragmented Character ... 23
2.Fragmented Setting and Plot ... 27
B. Fragmentation as a Medium to Revalue Women’s Position ... ... .. 34
1.Women as Seen in the Traditional View and Women’s Liberation Movements ... 34
2.Fragmentation as a Medium to Revalue Women’s Position ... .. 38
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ... 48
x
ABSTRACT
MELANY, AMBAR FATAH. Fragmentation as a Medium to Revalue Women’s
Position as Seen through Marlene’s Life in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2015.
Top Girls is a play produced by Caryl Churchill. All of the characters in this play are
women. This play tells about Marlene’s getting promoted as a managing director in ‘Top
Girls’ Employment Agency and her need to leave her family and her only daughter since
she was young to get a successful life. Churchill uses fragmentation as her narrating style and method.
There are two objectives of this study. The first objective is to know how the play is fragmented, and the second is to elaborate how the fragmentation is used as a medium in
revaluing women’s position.
This study is conducted in a library research method. The primary source of this
study is Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls play script. Some written and internet based sources
are also used in analyzing the work. The writer uses the Postmodern Feminism approach to analyze the problem formulation of this study.
The discussion indicates that the fragmentation is depicted in Marlene’s
characterization and the setting and plot of the play. Marlene as the fragmented character is told to have different characteristics depending on whom she is with. When she is with her imaginative friends who have the same power as her, Marlene becomes a good responsive listener and never uses any harsh words. When she is with her co-workers and Joyce who have lower power, she tends to be an ignorant person and uses harsh words a lot. Setting and plot are combined for the sake of the ease for understanding. Churchill uses a non-linear plot to narrate her story. Each scene of the play happens in different time and place. Besides analyzing the intrinsic element of the play, it also elaborates how women are seen in traditional view and some women movements happened years ago. Both are useful to give the reader an acknowledgment of the value of women before the
analysis goes further to the revaluing women’s position. Fragmentation that has been
mentioned earlier becomes Churchill’s medium to trigger her audience to be actively
involved in her play. To get to understand the message of the play, the audience needs to rearrange the plot, observes the motif of using fragmentation and interprets its relation to the real life. The result of the whole discussion of this study is that fragmentation is the
only proper medium to help Churchill to voice her view in the need of revaluing women’s
xi
ABSTRAK
MELANY, AMBAR FATAH. Fragmentation as a Medium to Revalue Women’s
Position as Seen through Marlene’s Life in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.
Top Girls adalah sebuah drama karya Caryl Churchill. Para pemeran dalam drama ini adalah kaum wanita. Drama ini bercerita tentang Marlene yang berhasil dipromosikan
sebagai manajer direktur di ‘Top Girls’ Employment Agency dan pengorbanannya yang
harus meninggalkan keluarga dan anaknya demi meraih kesuksesan. Churchill menggunakan fragmentasi sebagai metode dan gaya penuturan cerita dalam drama ini.
Ada dua tujuan dalam penelitian ini. Tujuan pertama dari penelitian ini adalah menganalisis bagaimana drama ini terfragmentasi dan mengelaborasi kepentingan dari fragmentasi tersebut sebagai medium untuk menilai ulang posisi kaum wanita.
Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kepustakaan. Sumber utama dari penelitian ini
adalan naskah drama Top Girls karya Caryl Churchill. Beberapa sumber tertulis dan
sumber berbasis internet turut dipergunakan untuk membantu menganalisa karya tersebut. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan Postmodern Feminisme untuk menganalisa masalah yang tersaji di penelitian ini.
Fragmentasi dalam drama ini bisa dilihat dari penokohan watak Marlene serta setting
dan alur cerita. Marlene, sebagai tokoh yang terfragmentasi, dikisahkan mempunyai watak yang berbeda tergantung dengan siapa dirinya sedang berada. Ketika ia sedang bersama teman rekaannya, Marlene menjadi seorang pendengar yang baik dan tidak pernah menggunakan kata-kata yabg kasar. Sedangkan ketika ia sedang bersama rekan kerja dan Joyce, ia merupakan orang yang acuh dan sering menggunakan kata-kata kasar.
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A.Background of the Study
Play has been seen as a result of someone‟s expression toward certain condition or
even ideology. It was also used by women playwright during nineteenth century. For
women playwright at that time, play was used as a medium to protest an imposed silence
and it was an expression of the need to create new lives for women. Thus, it could be
seen that 19th century play constituted feminist themes in that they portray the social and
psychological restrictions placed upon women in a male dominant society (Friedman,
1984:70).
Cavanagh and Cree states that “Feminist has drawn attention to sexist attitudes
implicit in social policy and practice, and to the existence of powerful patriarchal
structure which oppress women as service-users” (1996:3). From that quotation, it is
seen that women were oppressed by certain sexist attitudes from their working mates.
One example of sexist attitudes is the existence of traditional view from society that
women belong in the home, not working as only men who have responsibility to earn
money. By that such stereotype, women hardly got better living because they could not
get a promising job and salary like men. Society thought that women were only
responsible for their children, husband, and parents so that there was no deal with getting
job outside home. Although they got a job outside, women were treated differently from
men; it is that they got disproportionatelylower wage than men (Cavanagh and Cree,
Starting from the 1960s, women playwrights in Britain took their places to re-voice
gender equality by producing some play performances. It was a continuation of former
playwrights in the 1920s-1930s which were unsuccessful in voicing gender equality
(Gale and Gardner, 2000:23).
Caryl Churchill was one of the famous feminist playwrights in the late 19th century.
She had her own way in voicing the existence of women and gender equality. She packed
all her idea related to that sort of theme into a play entitled Top Girls which was first
performed in 1982. In this play, she introduced a unique way by having only women as
the actresses.
Amelia Howe Kritzer, a lecturer of University of Wisconsin, in her journal states
that:
That brief moment in which the not possible is realized communicates Churchill‟s
confidence in the potential of oppressed people to transcend the limitations of their material conditions, and her challenge to audiences to go beyond what she has been able to imagine in the process of re-forming society (1989:131).
Churchill usually tries to challenge her audience to seek every single possible ideas from
her story. It means that there is no limitation for her audience to interpret her story.
Churchill actually has given us space to go beyond her story. Top Girls is a feminism
themed work using postmodernist style in its writing. This is what makes the study more
interesting. While other researchers seek for feminism aspect, this study might do a bit
different thing by looking deeper at the significance of using fragmentation, traditional
postmodernist style, in a feminism themed work.
not so much what is going to happen next but what is happening? „What does the
action of the play represent?‟ (Esslin, 1968:406).
Top Girls is a fragmented play. Its fragmentation can be seen from the non linearity
of the plot, mixed characters, and fragmented setting and place. There are time and place
differences from scene to scene. Furthermore, in the very first scene, which is in Act One,
it is shown that Marlene as the main actress has all her guests who come from different
period of time to her dinner party. In order to get the message of the play, the audience
needs to be more focus on every detail of the play: the character, plot, setting and place.
Through the time gaps showed in Top Girls, Churchill might want to share her idea
that there is the similarity and also the difference(s) between women in the past and
present. By the traditional stereotype of women in the past, women were seen as the ones
who cannot be successful in men‟s world. In the present time, women are still seen as
inferior because of the patriarchal system that has lasted for so long and it has become a
social structure that can be hardly changed. Despite of that fact, women actually has
struggled and sacrificed to revalue the traditional image and change the social structure
that has made them suffer for so long by re-voicing gender equality through some
feminist movements and tried to succeed working in men‟s world. Thus, it is obvious that
through Top Girls, Churchill has tried to revalue women‟s position.
The beginning of second wave feminism, the term now usually used to described the post 1968 women‟s movement were thus marked by new political groupings and campaigns such as those organized around abortion legislation, demands for legal and financial equality, and equal opportunity at work (Sim, 2001:41).
It could be seen from Marlene‟s life. She is a successful woman with a promising job
Based on the short explanation above, it is obvious that the significance of Top
Girls‟s fragmentation to revalue women‟s position is worth to analyze.
B.Problem Formulation
In this study, there are two problem formulations to focus on to the further analysis.
They are:
1.In what way is the play fragmented?
2.How does the fragmentation(s) reflect the idea of revaluing women‟s position?
C. Objectives of the Study
This study is intended to present an elaboration on how the play is fragmented and
an analysis on the use of that Postmodernist‟s fragmentation as a medium to revalue
women‟s position as seen through Marlene‟s life in Caryl Churchill‟s Top Girls.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misunderstanding of certain terminology, the writer would like to
define the term mentioned in the title of the study and in the problem formulation.
1.Fragmentation
Fragmentation is a breaking to form a structure that would convey a hidden
message rather than the obvious message to its audience (Tycer, 2008: 45).
Fragmentation can be seen as both method and style of plotting a story by
breaking it into some parts which the detail will be different from one to another
to make the audience realize that there is a hidden message built in the story. Its
existence is to help the audience to dig the details of the play so that they could
2.Revalue
To revalue means to consider that someone or something is important. In this case,
women‟s position is revalued. It means that women‟s position is also as important
as men‟s. Women in the traditional view were not seen as something important
because their position is lower than men. Therefore, there is a need to revalue
women‟s position to assure the society that women are as important as men. They
6
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A.Review of Related Studies
The study on Caryl Churchill‟s Top Girls was also done by other researchers. In this
section, there are some short passages taken from journals. The first is from Rebecca
Cameron‟s journal entitled “From Great Women to Top Girls: Pageants of Sisterhood in
British Feminist Theater” who writes:
... however, this production expresses a feminist ideal more than they do a material reality; the performance of united sisterhood shows signs of strain with a certain degree of self-awareness (2009:143).
From that short sentence, Cameron tells the reader that Top Girls only reveals the
idea of feminism through the sisterhood of all the characters who come from different
cultures and period of time. From Cameron‟s point of view, the play being discussed only
deals with the „feminist ideal‟ which means it is on how men and society should treat
women.
However one interprets the play, the experience of these six women exemplifies how male domination in the patriarchal system has occurred since centuries ago and is supported by most sacred institutions of the Church and flourishes in the marriage institution (Djunjung, 2002:174).
A bit similar to Cameron, Jenny M. Djunjung also writes that Top Girls deals with
the idea of the existence of patriarchal system in that era that women could not resist.
They hardly resist that kind of male domination because it had already existed long time
ago. Although there were some feminist movement, or what so called as suffrage
movement, they run ineffectively because Church which was supposed to be neutral
After reading the other studies perspective toward Caryl Churchill‟s Top Girls, there
is a need to seek for a further learning point of the play. The previous studies only
focused on one main point in which feminism took its place. It is the existence of
patriarchal system and feminist ideal. Besides, like what Kritzer had said earlier,
Churchill actually has given the reader space to go beyond her story (1989: 131).
A short passage below is from Hua Ni and Dawei Lian‟s journal entitled “Study of
the Fragmented Structure in Oracle Night as a Metafiction.”
Fragmented narration at least has the following function in Oracle Night. In the first
place, fragmented narration provides infinite space for the writer‟s imagination. ... In this kind of writing, we would have difficulty assuring ourselves whether the writer is narrating a real experience or is just simply creating a fiction (Ni and Lian, 2012: 545).
From the quotation above, it is seen that fragmentation could help the audience to
see something beyond the story itself. The researcher agrees that fragmentation exists to
make the audience of Top Girls become more critical on the postmodern style in writing
such a feminist themed work. Fragmentation is used simply to deliver Churchill‟s
message on how the society has changed, which the researcher explains in the next
chapter on the analysis part. If Hua Ni and Dawei Lian, through their journal, wonder
„whether the writer is narrating a real experience or is just simply creating a fiction,‟
through this study, the researcher tries to explain how actually Churchill does both thing
in her Top Girls.
Together with the fragmentation of the main figure, their remarks contribute to the transformation of the dramatic space, from the realistically depicted bedroom to non real landscape (Kolecka, 2009: 117-118).
Anna Suwalska Kolecka, through her work “Fragmentation and Discontinuity in
from something to something else. In her work, she states that the „transformation‟
being discussed is the change from „the realistically depicted bedroom to non real
landscape‟ (2009: 118). In other words, fragmentation takes charge in transfiguring new
identity of something. The researcher agrees with Kolecka‟s work. It means that
fragmentation can be a media in „transforming‟ a new identity.
This study is a development of the other studies that have been mentioned earlier. It
explains how the fragmentation as seen through the non linear plot, mixed characters
coming from different period of time, and the fragmented setting are described in the
play being discussed. This study also examines how the fragmentation style used in Top
Girls makes a twist in each end of the scenes to trigger the audience thinking about
women‟s position and the fragmentation itself as a medium in revaluing women‟s
position.
B.Review of Related Theories
In this section, the researcher presents several theories that are applied in analyzing
the work for this study. They are theory of feminism, postmodernism, and postmodern
feminism.
1.Theory of Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a movement originated within the arts and architecture. It
is now a term which encompasses various approaches, including discourse analysis,
genealogy, deconstructionism, textuality. What binds postmodernists is their rejection of
modernity; they question, for instance, the Western knowledge (systems), the social
construction of dominant interpretations, rationality, and are concerned with forms of
Certainly many subsequent authors have done their best to sledge-hammer these four literary cornerstones into oblivion. Either plot is pounded into small slabs of events and circumstances, characters disintegrated into a bundle of twitching desires, settings are little more than transitory backdrops, or themes become so attenuated that it is often comically inaccurate to say that certain novels are „about‟ such-and-such (Sim, 2001:126).
It seems that plot, character, setting and theme are several main problems for
postmodernist writers. What it means by problem is that they need to find a way to
deliver their message to the reader by not following the mainstream. Since the
postmodernist writers distrust the wholeness and completion associated with traditional
stories, they prefer to deal with other ways of structuring the narrative. As mentioned by
Sim earlier, the plot, character, setting and theme might be divided into several parts in
order to restructure the narrative. Postmodernist writers distrust the unity only as a
narrating style and method. They believe that unity can not really help them to voice
their main idea. Thus, they prefer what so called as fragmentation which can be both a
method and a writing style. Generally, fragmentation itself means the breaking of
something. The text is broken into pieces so that the reader needs to rearrange it in order
to get the message. Fragmentation is merely a piece that has survived the destruction of a
whole (Hart, 2004: 69). Therefore it is considered as an important „part‟ of the literary
work.
Fragmentation points a hidden center in each part. Therefore, it signifies the
breaking rather than building up of information, to form a structure that would convey a
hidden message, the reflection on concepts of reality and on its own status in reality. As
such, postmodern drama addresses the fragmentation and constructiveness of every
“That narratives are discredited and fragmented is no reason to assume that they
need always be so. This merely poses us a problem that we must direct our efforts
towards resolving” (Sim, 2001: 33). Fragmentation exists of course for a certain reason.
The aim of breaking down the narratives into pieces is to help the reader to reach an
agreement of what should be done with those pieces. As mentioned earlier, since it is not
for building up an information, fragmentation exists to guide the reader to dig every
single detail of a story so that they could solve the „riddle‟ in the story and get the
writer‟s idea. Through the pieces of text, the reader has already triggered to think why it
is so which generates the first problem to solve. The next problem could be seen when
the reader is able to identify the main point in each piece of the broken narratives.
There is no one central meaning to any text, but a plurality of possible meanings. From such a perspective conventional criticism is a pointless act, since it is based on the notion that each text has an essential meaning which it is the critic's duty to present to the reader. Active interpretation represents an explosion of this assumption, since by its manipulation of the text's language it continually discovers new meanings (Sim, 2001: 179).
Since a postmodern work always provides multiple meanings, interpreting is the
proper way to solve the problem. Active interpretation is Derrida‟s term of not so much a
reading of a text. Active interpretation here is in the standard sense of a critical
interpretation, or „explication de texte‟ Derrida calls it (Sim, 2001:179). It is designed to
reveal the text's underlying meaning. In sum, to interpret is to negotiate the value of
several possible meanings in order to get the most suitable one (Sim, 2001: 179-180).
2.Theory of Feminism
Feminism has many divisions. In this section, there are only three divisions of
socialist/materialist feminism.
In short, radical feminism supports the separation from male dominated culture.
Apart from liberating women from men‟s power, radical feminists also emphasize
women‟s superior characteristics (Tycer, 2008: 15). Bourgeois feminism emphasizes on
the struggle for equality with men within existing social structures. Women need equal
opportunities for professional job, equal education, and also equal pay. Bourgeois
feminism is also known as liberal feminism which women want to be „like men‟ (Wandor,
1981: 134). Socialist feminism, also known as materialist feminism, focus on the
economic relationship.
Rather than assuming that the experiences of women are induced by gender oppression from men or that liberation can be brought about by virtue of women‟s unique gender strengths, that patriarchy is everywhere and always the same and that all women are „sisters‟, the materialist position underscores the role of class and history in creating the oppression of women ... Not only are all women not sisters, but women in the privileged class actually oppress women in the working class (Case, 1988: 82-83).
The quotation above is from a feminist theater scholar, Sue-Ellen Case, who simply
differentiate materialist feminism and the other feminisms. Women are not only oppress
by men but also the other women from the upper class. During the 1970s, British
socialist feminists found that they were underrepresented in labor hierarchies and
struggled with the sexism. Therefore they tried to work with their union „sister‟ to enact
the role of state institutions in a capitalist society. Socialist feminist writers in the 1970s and early 1980s tended to concentrate on issues such as employment, domestic labour and state policy (Welch, 2001).
Social feminists try to achieve sexual equality through working in masculine world. They
work hard there to get public‟s interest to make them realize the recognition of sex
discrimination. What makes social feminism different from the other feminism is that it
refers to the fact that women actually are not only oppressed by men but also by women.
In a word, lower class women, or they who are in the working class, are oppressed by not
only the upper class women but also the working class women who have higher power
and position than them.
3.Theory of Postmodern Feminism
Feminist experts have reacted to postmodernist thought in a number of ways. Some
reject it directly, while others try to get a synthesis of feminist and postmodernist
approaches. Some feminists believe feminist theory has always dealt with postmodern
issues and indeed, has more to offer women than male-centric postmodern writers. Thus,
it is seen that postmodern feminist attempts to criticize the dominant order.
Postmodern feminists offer women differential power relations that allow them to
be constructed as women in the first place. According to the existentialist Simon de
Beauvoir in her Second Sex, women are socially constructed as the Other (Sim, 2001: 43).
In this case, women's exclusion is not an accidental omission but a fundamental
structuring principle of all patriarchal discourses. It is called as a fundamental structuring
principle because it is like what Beauvoir, in The Routledge Companion to
Postmodernism, states that women have, historically, been considered “deviant,
inferior compared to men. Woman at that time had represented the Other that can
confirm man's identity as Self, as rational thinking being. Thus, in that patriarchal system,
women seemed to have no rights to be equal to men because of what society had labeled
them as the inferior, the „different‟ one. They were different because they were not men.
Women, according to Kant, are passive rather than active. They are dependent
creature. They are made for a dependence on man. Kohlberg has responded to the initial
Gilligan critique. He has argued that the differential performance of women and men
reflects variations in education and job experience (Assister, 1996: 100-1003). Women
tend to have lack of education and job experience than men. This is what makes women
hardly get a promising position for their job.
As the evolutionary philosopher Herbert Spencer, put it: „the deficiency of reproductive power among upper class girls may reasonably be attributed to the
overtaxing of their brains—an overtaxing which produces a serious reaction on the
physique‟ (Asisster, 1996: 115).
Furthermore, in the late nineteenth century, in Britain and elsewhere, theories about
natural sex differences were used to refuse women access to higher education and to
justify differential treatment of the sexes. This is what makes women could not get equal
rights to have equal wage as men.
Borrowing Gaten‟s words that is cited in Assister‟s book, the subject is always a
sexed subject. Patriarchy is, in her view, not a „system of social organization that
enhances the value of the masculine gender over the feminine gender. Gender is not the
issue; sexual difference is‟ (1996: 121).
Below is a quotation from World Bank cited in Marchand and Parpat‟s book on how
the women‟s position in the 1980s:
close to home. As a result, women‟s productivity is frequently depressed well below
potential levels—and this carries a cost in economic efficiency. Women are, in a
sense, wasted ... women feel reluctant to seek help for themselves or their children ... In some societies where women are not encouraged to think for themselves, authority figures have helped persuade women to seek health or family planning services, continue breastfeeding, and so on (Marchand and Parpat, 1995: 228).
The quotation above shows how women are seen as the Other, like what Simone de
Beauvoir in her Second Sex. Women are bound by tradition and gender based difficulties.
Women have problems with their own self confidence by means that they could not voice
what is on their mind. Therefore, there is imposed silence from women who are too
afraid to state the oppression they had experienced for so long.
In many cases, feminist theorists only speak up only as women so that they only
theorize things based on their own desires. Some postmodernist French philosophers
embrace them in the context of responding to the “contemporary crisis of the rational
subject” (Sim, 2001: 206). Since the postmodernists embrace the feminists, it is now
known as postmodern feminism. The vision of postmodern feminism itself is to respond
the pessimism of postmodern philosophy by “embracing its emphasis on the fragmentary
nature identity while retaining a politics, ethics of a sexual difference” (Sim, 2001: 207).
The difference between traditional feminism and postmodern feminism lies in their
point of view of what to show to public. Traditional feminism goes public with “no more
masks” (Sim, 2001: 310). On the other hand, postmodern feminism argues that “we are
nothing but masks” (Sim, 2001: 310). Postmodern feminism tends to expose all the
sexual roles as nothing more than performance. Women tend to represent themselves as
C.Theoretical Framework
The criticisms that are discussed in this chapter are needed to help the writer to
analyze her object of this study. Those criticisms have given information about how
feminism and the idea of patriarchal system depicted in Caryl Churchil's Top Girls.
Those three theories being mentioned in the Review of Related Theories are useful in
helping the researcher to analyze how the play is fragmented and elaborate its
significance in revaluing women‟s position through Marlene‟s life in Top Girls.
The theory of Postmodernism helps the researcher to analyze how the play is
fragmented, while the theory of Feminism and Postmodern Feminism help the researcher
16
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A.Object of the Study
Top Girls is a play produced by a famous British female playwright Caryl Churchill.
It was produced in the 1980s and was first performed at Royal Court London and Public
Theater New York in 1982. Caryl Churchill got her Obie Award for Playwriting from this
play. Since its first debut, Top Girls had been performed in many theaters around Europe,
United States and Australia. It also was filmed by the BBC in 1991.
Caryl Churchill wrote Top Girls as a response to political event in which Margaret
Thatcher became the first female prime minister in Britain and that of Thatcherism took
its place. Churchill wrote and produced this play in opposition to Thatcherism existing at
that time. What makes Churchill felt the urge of producing Top Girls was that there was a
shift from socialist mindset to capitalist one; it is of which women are not only oppressed
by men but also by the other women of a higher position.
Top Girls is a play that all the actresses are female. Using the overlapping dialogue
technique, non-linear plot, fragmented characters, and fragmented settings, Churchill
tries to expose her criticism on capitalism by showing not only how women became very
ambitious in pursuing power and money but also how the main character needed to
abandon her daughter to reach her success.
This play is actually about how Marlene, the main character, abandons her daughter
and taken care by her sister just for the sake of gaining power and money. She wants to
can also reach their successful life although her competitors are men. She is
described as a successful career woman who gets a promotion for a higher position in her
agency. Ironically, she has to leave her only daughter for getting her success.
B.Approach of the Study
Postmodern feminism approach is used in this study for giving further explanation
on the significance of fragmentation as a medium to revalue women‟s position reflected
through Caryl Churchill‟s Top Girls. Top Girls is a play which has a fragmented plot,
fragmented characters, fragmented setting, overlapped dialogue, and unclear ending.
This approach challenges the oppressive and patriarchal construction in which women
suffer from for so long.
„One is not born a woman, but rather becomes one‟ (Butler, 1999: 143). That is what
Simone de Beauvoir has stated in Butler‟s book Gender Trouble. Beauvoir argues that no
one born with a gender because gender is something that needs to be acquired. , there is a
difference between sex and gender. Sex is only an attribute of a human so that there is no
human who is not sexed. Besides, sex does not cause gender. Gender is the „variable
cultural construction of sex‟ (Butler, 1999: 143). Thus, it is obvious that sex is what
human have naturally, but gender is what they need to acquire.
The mainstay of women‟s oppression lies in a symbolic system that is dominated by
the „male imaginary‟ (Assister, 1996: 31). Women‟s oppression lies in some feature of
women‟s experience, for example women‟s domestic canon that they only suppose to
work only at home, parenting, and being a care-taker of her dependent family member(s).
While socialist feminists focus on the material realities of women within the world
socialist feminist difference of class and gender (Marchand and Parpart, 1995: 39).
In the male-centric world, working women are double oppressed by not only men
but also the other women who have higher position. There is still distance between men
and women. Postmodern feminism, through language, tries to remove the boundary
between sexes. It sees women are equal to men. They have no difference. Thus, from
those gender equality, there are no more „women‟s rights‟ to claim.
From those brief explanation above, it is clearly seen that postmodern feminism
approach is an appropriate tool to explore Caryl Churchill‟s Top Girls. This approach is
applicable in this study as it is helpful in relating the use of postmodernism‟s
fragmentation with its significance as a medium to revalue women‟s position.
C.Method of the Study
The study was conducted in a library research method. Written sources from many
books, journals, and articles were used in analyzing the work. Some sources from the
internet were also used for additional information related to the study. The primary
source of this study was a play script entitled Top Girls which was written by Caryl
Churchill, while the other sources were some books and journal of the related theories
and studies that were related to postmodernism, feminism, and also
postmodern-feminism.
The study was done in some steps. The first step was close reading the script and
note taking so that some important keys were not missed. Close reading was also a
proper way to help formulating the problems that later were written in the problem
formulation part.
YouTube. Watching the play online was also helpful to see details of the play like
how character, setting, and plot were arranged and how the dialogues were overlapped.
The third step was gathering and close reading some sources, written and online,
related to the questions in problem formulation which were about postmodernism,
feminism, and postmodern feminism. They all were used in analyzing the work and
explaining the answer for the problems.
After gathering and close reading the sources, the fourth step was that the theory of
fragmentation was applied to answer the first problem. It was to get the point on how the
character, setting and plot were fragmented. And then using the approach of postmodern
feminism, the writer answered the second problem which is about the significance of the
use of fragmentation as a medium in revaluing women‟s position.
The last step was drawing conclusion of the analysis. It was done by relating all the
data in the analysis based on the theories and approach that the writer used, then made it
20
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
Top Girls could be seen as a typical feminist writing. Its existence is to criticize the
patriarchal idea at that time and also what existed before it. It is true that Top Girls is a
work that has direct implication with Churchill‟s own political background as a feminist.
Churchill in her interview with Betsko and Koenig says:
When I was in the States in „79 I talked to some women who were saying how well things were going for women in America now with far more top executives being women, and I was struck by difference between that and the feminism I was used to in England which is far more closely connected with socialism (1987:77).
From what Churchill has said to Betsko and Koenig, we know her stand point that she is
more a social feminist. She presents her Top Girls as the reaction towards not only men‟s
domination but also other women‟s domination.
Top Girls is a 1980s play that was produced as a direct response to political event. It
is that Top Girls produced in opposition to Thatcherism (Tycer, 2008: 13-17). Margaret
Thatcher was elected as Britain‟s first female prime minister in 1979
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/margaret_thatcher). While people in general saw it as a
victory for equal representation, Churchill saw it only as a shift to a capitalism where
things would get worse under Thatcher.
Top Girls is written in postmodern style. Churchill uses fragmentation to deliver her
message. The story is broken down into seven parts that are within three Acts. What has
A.Fragmentation Depicted in the Play
Before analyzing the fragmentation depicted in the play, it is important to know the
definition of the word fragmentation itself. In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English, it is written:
Frag-ment /fræg‟mənt $ „frægment, fræg‟ment/ v [I,T] to break something, or be
broken into a lot of small separate parts - used to show disapproval: the dangers of
fragmenting the Health Service －fragmented adj: a fragmented society － fragmentation/͵frægmən‟teɪʃən, -men-/ n[U]
From the dictionary, it is clear that fragmentation means the breaking of something, so
does in literature, it also means to break up the text into pieces. It is similar to what
Schlegel in Kevin Hart‟s Postmodernism Beginner’s Guide states that “fragment is
merely a piece that has survived the destruction of a whole (Hart, 2004: 69). Thus it can
be seen that there is no difference between the definition of fragmentation in the
dictionary and in literature book as both states that fragmentation is the break of
something.
Fragmentation was firstly known simply as “the fragment.” It is the term first
popularized by Samuel Taylor Coleridge through his poem “Kubla Khan” and later
developed by Friedrich Schlegel in the late 1700s, which is known as Romanticism
period. Writing in fragment was first popular as a poem writing style in the 1700-1800,
from Coleridge to Wordsworth (Hart, 2004: 68). The term fragmentation was in its peak
position as a popular feature of twentieth-century art and culture.
There is a difference in the usage of fragmentation between the Modernist and
Postmodernist. The difference lies in the mood or attitude towards the fragmentation
itself. In Modernism, there is a tone of lament, pessimism, and despair when using
Postmodernist sees fragmentation as an „exhilarating, liberating phenomenon,
symptomatic of our escape from the claustrophobic embrace of fixed systems of belief‟
(Barry, 2002: 84).
Fragmentation in general has characteristics as follows:
First, it posits a hidden center in each text. Second, it is considered as a self-enclosed item without due regard to the spacing between itself and other fragments. Third, it was required to be relatively short. And fourth, it remains in fee to identity: not a formal unity, to be sure, but a supposedly higher, imaginative wholeness (Hart, 2004: 72).
Fragmentation in general is supposed to have a hidden message in each text. Although in
many cases it seems to ignore the “spacing between itself and other fragments” (Hart,
2004: 72), fragmentation also respects either the interval, interruption, or even silence
that space each text. Fragmentation could be resolved in unity, but supposedly only in
more imaginative way. It means that to resolve the fragmentation, the audience need to
think deeper and go beyond the story so that they could formulate the message of the
story in a complete wholeness. Actually there is no fixed rule for the writers to strictly
use those characteristics of fragmentation. As the literary world developed, they could
have their own style in their writings.
In this study, the subject being discussed is the fragmented writing method and style
in Caryl Churchill‟s Top Girls. Considered as a leading feminist text in its first London
debut in 1982, Top Girls let its audience have several interpretation for its main point,
feminism. Using postmodern format, fragmentation, Churchill might want to challenge
the social ideology at that time. It is on the female stereotypes that she wants to speak up.
1.Fragmented Character
Rather than having all characters portrayed from only one time, either from past,
present, or present time, Churchill prefers to have them from both present and past time.
In Top Girls, there are characters representing the present time and characters
representing some various periods of time. From the present time, there are Marlene as
the main actresses, the Waitress, Joyce, Angie, Win, Nell, Mrs. Kidd, Shona, Kit, Jeanine,
and Louise. While Isabella Bird, Lady Nijo, Dull Gret, Pope Joan, and Patient Griselda
come from various periods of past time. In this section, it is only Marlene that is being
discussed.
The reason why Marlene is the only character to be discussed is that she is the main
character here. Therefore she is the prominent figure to be analyzed. The other characters
are also important as they also contributes in this play. Each of them has its own
contribution. Without them, Marlene could hardly be analyzed deeper.
Marlene is portrayed as a successful female in male‟s patriarchal world. She beats
her male rival Mr. Kidd and gets the promotion to be a managing director in her agency.
In the beginning of the play, she holds a dinner party to celebrate her promotion. She
invites all her imaginative friends coming from different period of time to keep her
company.
MARLENE. Now who do you know? This is Joan who was Pope in the ninth century, and Isabella Bird, the Victorian traveller, and Lady Nijo from Japan, Emperor‟s concubine an dBuddhist nun, thirteenth century, nearer your own time, and Gret who was painted by Brueghel. Griselda‟s in Boccaccio and Petrarch and Caucer because of her extraordinary marriage. I‟d like to profiteroles because they‟re disgusting (Churchill, 1990: 74).
All of her (imaginative) friends share different stories portraying women in their
Prince, become a Pope, travel throughout the world, or become a nun, but there is a
price to pay. They need to sacrifice something for those sort of success.
In Act One, it is seen how Marlene is a good listener and quite good in responding
all her friends‟ stories.
MARLENE. But Griselda, come on, he took your baby.
GRISELDA. Walter found it hard to believe I loved him. He couldn‟t believe I would always obey him. He had to prove it.
MARLENE. I don‟t think Walter likes women.
GRISELDA. I‟m just sure he loved me, Marlene, all the time.
MARLENE. He just had a funny way / of showing it (Churchill, 1990: 74). ...
JOAN. St. Peter‟s to go to St. John‟s. I had felt a slight pain earlier, I thought it was something I‟d eaten, and then it came back, and came back more often. I thought
when this is over I‟ll go to bed. ... Far away I heard people screaming, „The Pope
is ill, the Pope is dying.‟ And the baby just slid out on to the road.*
MARLENE. The cardinals / won‟t have known where to put themselves (Churchill, 1990: 70-71).
Marlene rarely interrupt when her friends are speaking. Although the dialogues are
overlapped, they always listen to each other well and focus on who is speaking at that
time. Marlene shows good attitude towards all her imaginative friends all the time. It is
because she considers herself as equal to them. She also breaks the traditional women‟s
stereotypical ideals just like what they have done in their period of time. This scene is
like a surreal thing to happen in the real world. The audience may spot this scene as
Marlene‟s imagination because of those surreal characters. She does not have real friends
in her real world. Therefore, she invites her guests from her imagination to attend her
diner party.
In Act Two, Marlene is shown to be a high-qualified lady in her work. She has two
co-workers, Win and Nell, whom also have good qualification for women at that time.
achiever student at school. She also travels and is always successful at sales. She
tells it all through her speech to Angie (Churchill, 1990: 119).
JEANINE. I‟m saving to get married.
MARLENE. Does that mean you don‟t want a long-term job, Jeanine?
JEANINE. I might do.
MARLENE. Because where do the prospects come in? No kids for a bit? JEANINE. Oh no, not kids, not yet.
MARLENE. So you won‟t tell them you‟re getting married? JEANINE. Had I better not?
MARLENE. It would probably help (Churchill, 1990: 85).
In the interviewing process, Marlene keeps on asking about Jeanine‟s personal life
and told her that she is better to not naively tell people in her future job about she‟s going
to be married. Through her speech, Marlene seems to warn Jeanine that if she does so,
she could not get her own successful life because she has no other choice rather than
taking care of her family. From that short quotation, it is seen that marriage and having
children is still acceptable in the workplace, but it would be a burden for a woman to
reach her success. Therefore, Marlene tells Jeanine that it is better not to tell about her
desire in marriage and having kids in the interview because it can degrades her value.
Unlike in the first Act, in the rest of the play, Marlene shows another side of her.
Starting from the Act Two, she uses more abusive words in her speeches. She uses the
word „fuck‟ mostly as adjective word. For example when she says „fucking tube
(Churchill, 1990: 103)‟ and „don‟t you fucking this fucking that fucking bitch fucking tell
me what to fucking do fucking (Churchill, 1990: 133).‟ She also shows her quality of
being an ignorant person. It could be seen from the fact that she leaves her family since
she is young and abandons her only daughter, and also does some abortion in her life. It
is proven in the Act Three which shows that she abandons her only daughter, Angie. She
woman who does not want to have a daughter, and that is why she leaves her
biological child to be looked after her sister.
JOYCE. You didn‟t want to take her with you. It‟s no good coming back now,
Marlene, / and saying －
MARLENE. I know a managing director who‟s got two children, she breast feeds in the board room, she pays hundred pounds a week on domestic help alone and she can afford that because she‟s an extremely high-powered lady earning a great deal of money (Churchill, 1990: 134).
She thinks that it is good to raise a child only when she has promising position and good
salary as well. That is the reason why she abandons Angie and has two abortions in her
past life. At that time, she has such no good life as what she has the present life.
MARLENE. I‟ve had two abortions, are you interested? Shall I tell you about them? Well I won‟t, it‟s boring, it wasn‟t a problem. I don‟t like messy talk about blood / and what a bad time we all had. I don‟t want a baby. I don‟t want to talk about gynaecology (Churchill, 1990: 135).
From the brief explanation above, Marlene has a price to pay for her good career at her
recent job. She abandons Angie and she also rarely visits her family. From the short
explanation above, work and having a high achievement seem to be the most important
thing in her life rather than family thing. When she maintains to reach her success and
gains more power, she thinks that she is better not to have a husband nor children. It is
like what she tells Jeanine that domesticity could not work well in the workplace.
From the short explanation above, it could be seen that the character of Marlene is
fragmented. She has different characteristics when she is with certain person. For
example, when she is with her imaginative friends, she tends to be a good lady. She
becomes a good responsive listener and never uses any harsh words. It is different from
when she is with her co-workers and Joyce. She „switches‟ her good quality to bad one.
not care with her competitor‟s condition and the worst is that she abandons her only
daughter.
2.Fragmented Setting and Plot
In this section, setting and plot are combined because they are closely related to
each other as in this play, the narration does not work well without the setting. However,
to ease the process of understanding, the writer decides to combine them.
Rather than having a linear plot which always consistent runs from the past to
present or vice versa, Top Girls jumps the plot from the present to the past to the present
and the past again.
Here is how the plot of Top Girls is developed. Starting from the Act One, it opens
with the dinner party scene. Act One takes place in the restaurant on Saturday night
(Churchill, 1990: 53). It is the night when Marlene hosts a dinner party to celebrate her
getting promoted to be a managing director at „Top Girls‟ Employment Agency.
MARLENE. This is Joan who was a Pope in the ninth century, and Isabella Bird, the Victorian traveller, and Lady Nijo from Japan, emperor‟s concubine and Buddhist nun, thirteenth century, nearer your own time, and Gret who was painted in Brueghel. Griselda‟s in Boccacio and Petrarch and Caucer because of her extraordinary marriage (Churchill, 1990: 74).
She invites five guests from different periods of time and they are either historical
figures or fictional characters from literature and art as has been mentioned earlier in the
previous part.
Her first guests who arrive in the dinner party are two historical figures. The first is
Isabella Bird who is a woman traveller in the Victorian era, in the 1831-1904 (Churchill,
Nijo who is a Japan‟s Emperor‟s courtesan who lives in the thirteenth century
(Churchill, 1990: 52). She always says that she belongs to the Emperor because that is
what she is brought up for. Nijo becomes a Buddhist Nun after she is expelled from the
palace. As a nun, she walks throughout Japan on foot (Churchill, 1990: 66). The next
guests who arrive in the dinner party are Pope Joan and Dull Gret. Dull Gret is the
subject of Brueghel‟s painting tiled Dulle Griet (Churchill, 1990: 52). She rarely speaks
during the play. If only the other women in the play does not direct her, she is not going
to respond what they are talking about. Gret only makes the one and only long speech in
the end of the Act One. Pope Joan is considered as a child prodigy. She disguised herself
as a man from her age of twelve just for getting a better education. Later she becomes a
Pope and enjoys the extravagance of being a Pope who is always praised by the people.
The mood of this scene changes from happy to sad when Joan tells a story that her
gender is revealed when she is in the public procession. She gives birth to her first child
on the street during that procession. After the cardinals and the people know the fact that
she is actually a woman, they stone her to death and she believes that her children die
because of that.
MARLENE. Total Pope.
JOAN. ... Great waves of pressure were going through my body, I heard sounds like a cow lowing, they come out of my mouth. Far away I heard people screaming, „The Pope is ill, the Pope is dying.‟ And the baby just slid out onto the road.* ...
MARLENE. So what did they do? They weren‟t best pleased.
JOAN. They took me by the feet and dragged me out of town and stoned me to death (Churchill, 1990: 71).
Not only Joan, Lady Nijo also shares her story of her four children. She must give up her
children due to the societal pressure and never sees them.
plum-red / small sleeved gown. Akebono‟s wife had taken the child because her own died. Everyone thought I was just a visitor. She was being brought up carefully so she could be sent to the palace like I was. I never saw my third child after he was born, the son of Ariake the priest. Ariake held him on his lap the day he was born and talked to him as if he could understand, and cried. My fourth child was Ariake‟s too. But oddly enough I felt nothing for him (Churchill, 1990: 72).
After that, Griselda comes in as the last guest who arrives in Marlene‟s dinner party.
Griselda is a character that appears in Chaucher‟s Canterbury Tales (Churchill, 1990: 52).
Griselda is married to a marquis named Walter. She has to obey whatever Walter wants
no matter how extreme it is, like (not actually) killing their own two children (Churchill,
1990: 76) and arranging her husband‟s second marriage.
GRISELDA. And he stayed behind and put his arms round me and kissed me. / I fell half asleep with the shock.
MARLENE. And he said, „This is your daughter and your son.‟ GRISELDA. Yes (Churchill, 1990: 79).
Surprisingly, Walter reveals that actually the girl whom he sets to marry is their
daughter and the page is her son. He secretly allows their two children grow up. After
getting contented by his wife‟s unquestioning obedience, he reunites their family.
The scene is ended with the women‟s talking in their own context and not being
responsive to each other.
GRET. We come into hell through a big mouth. Hell‟s black and red. / It‟s like the
village where I come from. ... I‟ve got a sword in my hand from somewhere and I fill a basket with gold cups they drink out of down there. You just keep running on and fighting / you didn‟t stop for nothing. Oh we hive them devils such a beating (Churchill, 1990: 81-82).
It begins with Gret‟s monologue telling the audience that she becomes a leader of a
group of women to fight against the devils in hell. She is motivated to have a battle with
the devils because two of her ten children died because of the wartime horror with the
not get her children back unlike Griselda. Then, Isabella‟s story of her last trip to
Morocco, Marlene‟s getting frustrated of men after listening to Griseda‟s story, and Joan
who prays in Latin prayer (Churchill, 1990: 82-83).
Act Two Scene 1 takes place in Marlene‟s office at the Top Girls Employment
Agency. This is the shortest scene in the play.
JEANINE. I‟m saving to get married.
MARLENE. Does that mean you don‟t want a long-term job, Jeanine? Because where do the prospects come in? No kids for a bit?
JEANINE. Oh no, no kids yet.
MARLENE. So you won‟t tell them you‟re getting married? JEANINE. Had I better not?
MARLENE. It would probably help (Churchill, 1990: 85).
The stage opens with Marlene‟s interviewing Jeanine who seeks for a job placement. She
suggests Jeanine not to tell her potential employers that she is going to be married. It is
because they will think that Jeanine will leave the job to grow up her children. Therefore,
it is too risky to tell them about her marriage. In the end of the scene, Marlene places her
in a lampshade company (Churchill, 1990: 86).
Act Two Scene 2 takes place in Joyce‟s backyard in the evening. Joyce is Marlene‟s
sister who lives far from London. In this scene, Angie, a 16-year-old, and Kit, a
12-year-old, are talking about their future. While the imaginative Angie dares to kill her
mother and have Kit watch it, Kit who is clever student in her school plans to be a
nuclear physicist one day (Churchill, 1990: 88-90). They are busy chit-chatting in the
backyard while Joyce is repeatedly calling Angie to clean up her room. After Joyce tells
them that she will lock the back door, both of the kids appear and they go inside.
ANGIE comes out. She has changed into an old best dress, slightly small for her.
JOYCE. What you put that on for? Have you done your room? You can‟t clean your room in that.
KIT. I suppose you thought you‟d do it with a brick (Churchill, 1990: 98-99).
Instead of cleaning up her room, Angie comes out from her room putting on a blue dress
which is too small for her. In the end of the scene, she tells Kit that she uses the dress to
kill her mother and plans to visit Marlene in London.
Act Two Scene 3 takes place back at the Top Girls Employment Agency on a
Monday morning (Churchill, 1990: 99). The scene opens with Win and Nell who are
busy gossiping about Win‟s having an affair with a married man. After that, Win
interviews Louise who also seeks for a job placement.
LOUISE. I had management status from the age of twenty-seven. I‟ve built up a
department. ... I don‟t expect attraction by making mistakes, everybody takes it for granted that my work is perfect. They will notice me when I go, they will be sorry I think to lose me, they will offer me more money of course, I will refuse (Churchill, 1990: 106).
Louise feels that she is not appreciated by her boss nor her co-workers in her recent
job. She never does any mistakes and all her works are perfect. Getting frustrated,
therefore, she looks for another job. From the quotation above, it is also seen how she
gets terribly disappointed that she does not want to go back to that office although they
offer her some money.
In the other place, Nell interviews Shona who builds up a story that she is a
high-flying woman who always succeed in her job. Unfortunately, Nell realizes that she
only tells a pack of lies (Churchill, 1990: 115-117). Surprisingly, Angie comes in. She
tells everyone that she wants to meet Marlene, her aunt.
MARLENE. Are you suggesting I give up the job to him then? MRS KIDD. It had crossed my mind if you were unavailable after all for some reason, he would be a natural second choice I think, don‟t you? I‟m not asking. MARLENE. If he doesn‟t like what‟s happening here he can go and work
somewhere else.
was going too far but he‟s right. You‟re one of these ballbreakers / that‟s what you are. You‟ll end up miserable and lonely. You‟re not natural.
MARLENE. Could you please piss off? (Churchill, 1990: 113)
The atmosphere is increasingly intense when Mrs. Kidd comes to see Marlene
asking as if she would give her promotion to Howard who is depressed by the fact that he
fails to get that promotion. Rather than saying yes to her, Marlene directly asks her to
piss off. The scene is ended with Angie‟s confession that she wants to work in „Top Girls‟
Employment Agency but everyone there doubts that because she has no enough
credential.
Act Three is the last staging in this play. This scene is actually the earliest scene. It
takes place in Joyce‟s kitchen on Sunday evening a year earlier. It is told to be a
Christmas day. Angie manipulates Marlene into her family-visit after years. Angie tells
Marlene that Joyce wants to see her, but in fact it is Angie who wants to see Marlene.
Marlene gives Angie a fancy blue dress which appears earlier in the Act Two (Churchill,
1990: 123-125).
JOYCE. So what‟s that got to do with you at the age of seventeen?
MARLENE. Just because you were married and had somewhere to live－don‟t be
stupid.
JOYCE. You could have lived at home. Or with me and Frank. You said you weren‟t keeping it. You shouldn‟t have had it if you wasn‟t going to keep it (Churchill, 1990: 134).
After Angie goes to sleep, Marlene and Joyce reminisce their terrible childhood as
Marlene blames her alcoholic father for being abusive to their mother. Then, it is
revealed that Angie is Marlene‟s daughter whom she abandons to be grown up by Joyce.
Marlene gets pregnant at her age of seventeen and she does not want to take care of the
baby because she is busy pursuing her career. Therefore, she gives it to Joyce. It is also
