Top Girls Blog

Mark Jeremiah

5/8/2011

Eng 15

Top Girls Blog

                I'll be perfectly honest and start by saying "Top Girls" is not a play I particularly enjoyed or would recommend to anyone else. The characters and the plot were all over the place and disorganized, and the climax of the story was altogether lackluster. This play was tedious to read, and I would have been upset if I paid admission and confused with the different character 'jumps'. The play begins with six women meeting for dinner at a restaurant and discussing their life experiences, however the women were historical or literary figures from different time periods and different walks of life (except for the main character Marlene.) The stories told by the woman having dinner were actually interesting, and the best part of the play. However the playwright Churchill  abandons them in scene II, leaving the reader wondering if Act I Scene I was a dream or some strange hallucination and why they were there at all, and what relevance did those women have to the play overall?

The rest of the play dealt with main character Marlene and how she is an independent woman in the 1970's or possibly 1980. (Not knowing the setting of the play until almost the ending was another annoyance) I came to the conclusion about the date because in Act 2 Scene 2, Marlene tells Joyce, "I think the eighties are going to be stupendous."(p. 502)

Marlene is a business woman in a seemingly male dominated industry, or world. The reader realizes this is a female empowering play dealing with female issues because of the various male dominating remarks, such as: "My father taught me Latin although I was a girl." (by Isabella in Act 1 Scene 1 p.478); "..Also women weren't allowed in the library." (by Joan p.479 Act1 Scene 1) ; "I thought God would speak to me directly. But of course He knew I was a woman.";  "..Exactly and I shouldn't have been a woman. Women, children and lunatics can't be Pope." (by Joan p.481 Act 1 Scene 1) And lastly when Griselda's children were being taken away to be killed (or so she thought at the time) and she says, "It was Walter's child to do what he liked with." (p.484) All these statements set the reader up for the female liberation theme of this play. However this female liberation comes with a price; these 'top' girls don't seem to be especially happy with their liberation. All the historical figures from Act 1 Scene 1 enjoyed a high status but all endured crushing tragedies.  Marlene even made the comment while listening to Isabella, Nijo, and Joan's stories (simultaneously, since they all loved to speak over one another), "Oh God, why are we all so miserable?"  (p.482) I believe Marlene and the women that worked for her were miserable because they became like the men they wanted to be liberated from.  In Act 2 Scene 1, Nell is interviewing Shona and tells her what an employer wants from a salesperson; "They think we're [women] are too nice. They think we listen to the buyer's doubts. They think we consider his needs and his feelings." (p.495) Ironically, having feelings and caring about the buyer's needs and wants would actually make a successful salesperson, then as well as now. At the end of the play (Act 2 Scene 2) Joyce tells Marlene exactly what she thinks of her 'top girl' status; "...I'm ashamed of you, think of nothing but yourself.." (p.502)  It seems as if the title "Top Girls" is actually a warning; a person whether male or female can be 'on top', but don't forget about the little people you've left behind.