Caryl Churchill Essays

College

Cloud 9

In present-day society, cultural assumptions often dictate that sexuality and gender are mutually dependent categories and that one posits the other. Societal norms imply that gender is divided into men and women, and that appropriate sexual...

College

Top Girls

Top Girls, an all-female play written by Caryl Churchill in the early 1980s, focuses almost exclusively on the new struggles women faced in trying to become integrated into and obtain success in the workplace. This struggle is emphasized most...

College

Top Girls

The goals and struggles associated with the feminist movement have undoubtedly changed over time, transforming as increasing freedom and equality shed light on the more complex issues which surround integrating women wholly into society. Machinal,...

12th Grade

Top Girls

Although the characters’ distinctive individual stories are told in Act I of Caryl Churchill’s play Top Girls, the overall effect is a cumulative chorus of women’s issues. The dinner scene in Act I establishes thematic foundations upon which...

College

Top Girls

Caryl Churchill’s play Top Girls, which appeared in 1982, depicts key themes such as feminism and oppression throughout history. Through the main character, Marlene, we are able to see aspects of individualism, as Marlene abandons her own...

College

Top Girls

Second-wave feminism was incredibly significant in shaping women’s rights. Women were fighting for their right to be equals with men, as they were sick of being stuck in the house, being made to raise a family; while their husbands got to have...

College

Top Girls

German playwright Bertolt Brecht developed his theory of epic theatre as a response to the renaissance of Aristotelian tragic theatre in the latter part of the 1920s (Hecht, 40). Where Aristotle allowed the audience of his theatre the purgation of...