Explore how Carol Churchill presents woman in the role of mother in "Top Girls".
Jessica Rape
English Literature
Explore how Carol Churchill presents woman in the role of mother in “Top Girls”.
You should consider:
- Griselda and Nijo
- Joyce, Marlene and Angie (Act Two Scene Two and Act Three.)
In the first act, Churchill has created a surreal environment for all of the women. We find, during the course of the meal, that all of the women have things in common. Each of the women had children apart from Isabella. Lady Nijo and Griselda however, had to live without knowing their children because of their husbands, in both cases the husbands removed the children. Dull Gret is slightly different, she experienced living with her children and bringing them up, however her oldest and youngest were killed during war. Pope Joan does not know what happened to her baby, as she was stoned to death as soon as she gave birth, she assumes they killed it. Marlene, the leader of the women had a completely different story to tell, however she does not talk of it during Act One. Marlene became pregnant at 17 and let her sister, Joyce adopt the baby because at the time Joyce could not become pregnant. Marlene has since, had two abortions.
Griselda, Lady Nijo and Marlene are all similar in the fact that they all had to sacrifice their children for a particular reason. Griselda sacrificed her children to make the man she loved happy. Griselda does not arrive to the meal until quite late, the other women are all drunk and merry and Griselda appears un noticed. She appears polite but shy and does not want to make a fuss but eventually gives into a pudding, “Oh if everyone is. I don’t mind.” Marlene automatically puts her in the spot light by introducing her as having the “fairy-story” life. All of the women become interested in Griselda’s story and begin questioning it. Griselda, whilst talking appears still faithful to the Marquis, “But of course a wife must obey her husband. And of course I must obey the Marquis.” Throughout the story of Griselda’s life, Marlene acts as if she is almost showing off that she already knows the story, “Oh, you wait.” This shows that Marlene feels a need to be included and in control at all times. Unlike Lady Nijo, Griselda spent six weeks with her first born, a girl, Nijo finds this hard to believe, “Much better to do it straight away.” Only Nijo truly understands Griselda’s life and she has been put in the same position, Marlene finds it an outrage that she let the Walter take her baby, “Walter was bonkers” and obviously, it will be hard for Gret to accept as she brought up her own children, “Bastard”. Even when everybody else is being un fair and negative about Walter, Griselda remains with her upbeat attitude, whilst still shy she shows her feelings. Griselda takes up much of the conversation when she arrives, and when this conversation has ended she doesn’t talk much more. Throughout Act One and throughout Griselda’s life story Lady Nijo listens, and doesn’t talk an awful lot about her background and history. She talks about her past in and amongst everyone else’s conversation, although they listen to her, they do not pay as much attention to her as they do to Griselda. Lady Nijo does not appear as hurt and as faithful to her children as Griselda did to hers, this is probably because Griselda spent a short time with her children and Nijo did not. Lady Nijo’s first baby was Akenbono’s, a girl and he received it and brought it up with his wife. Her second, was to an unknown and the third and fourth children were Ariake the priests. Nijo never saw her third child after it was born and admits feeling nothing at all for her third son, her fourth child. I think that this is because Ariake had died before the birth and she was still grieving him, “I didn’t want to see anyone.”
