To What Extent Do Top Girls by Caryll Churchill and Dancing at Lughnasa by Brien Friel Agree on the Choices Available to Women?

Femininity is a concept whose attributes are contingent on the culture it is in—what one culture may consider typically feminine traits could largely vary from what another culture views as being feminine. While theater can sometimes subvert theses ideals and present women who function in ways that are not typically feminine, theater can often present idealistic representations of women who exemplify that culture’s ideals of femininity. Take, for example, the female characters in both Guan Hanqing’s Snow in Midsummer and Hroswit’s Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins. While both texts come from largely different cultural contexts—Snow in Midsummer was written in thirteenth century China for a general population whereas Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins was written in tenth century Germany as a closet drama—both texts have female protagonists whose rebellions exemplify feminine ideals of the respective cultures.

In every play, there are several male and female roles. Each role plays a specific part to the narration, and whether the role is large or small, it is an intricate detail to the storyline. In Brian Friel’s play, Translations, female characters are a vital part of the play but do not hold the spotlight of the show. One female character, Sarah, whose role is minor and inconsequential compared to others, speaks a lot about the state of of the voiceless members of Irish society before the potato famine and Englishmen took over. Through Sarah’s silence and inability to speak, Friel suggests the weight of the English movement into Ireland was too much to bear on the older, Irish people and the Gaelic language they knew. The disappearance of Sarah’s character and short regeneration of her prescence at the end parallel to the fluidity of Gaelic and Irish identity.

The role of the theatre during the Irish Literary Revival was central to Irish cultural nationalism and the political dynamics at the start of the 20th century. As a playwright and a co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, Lady Gregory created the backbone of the group that drove the Irish cultural identity towards a more nationalist outlook. Yet as an Irish nationalist, her participation in political causes was often muted; not because of her political views, but because of her gender. Though Lady Gregory played a large part in the literary revival during the Irish nationalist movement, she was wary of rekindling a past that was built upon the oppression of women. This essay will discuss the influence Gregory’s early life on her works, the portrayal of women by other prominent male playwrights at the time, her depiction of women in her plays, and the characterization of the female character Grania. Using the play Grania, Lady Gregory explores possibilities for Irish women to defy gender

In the early 1900´s women did not have the same rights as men and are not respected as much as men either. Women did not get their voting rights till 1920, four years after the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell. In the play women are suppressed by men and society, Mrs.Hale and Mrs.Peters prove that women are not constrained by society's rules and are in fact, the most astute characters in *Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles”*.

The first essay, “The Roles of Women in British Drama,” represents my first exposure to a new genre of literature. The essay was also one of my first formal and interpretative essays at the college level. As a woman and a student of literature, I feel a special connection to this essay’s topic of women’s roles in literature. In addition, this essay shows my “knowledge of the social, political, philosophical, and religious forces that influence authors and the people they write about” (Oral/Portfolio). After reading some of the most prominent British plays of the twentieth century, I observed a discontinuity in the roles of women in this genre. Sadly, women’s roles in literature were very similar to their role in society. During the twentieth century, women were still trying and failing to emerge out of the roles they had been cast in by a male dominated society. Even though women were almost always portrayed as inferior to men, I found a strong exception to this stereotype through the role of Thomasina. I admire Thomasina’s intelligence and wit, but I truly admire Tom Stoppard for creating this character.

Debra Brett is a 36 year old single mother housed in rented social housing on a south London high-rise housing estate. She is dependent on council contractors for repairs, with four children the flat is overcrowded,she feels invisible and hopeless.Debra Brett’s low income from benefits effect her education chances by her not being able to afford childcare, and are also effecting her older daughter’s education who is supplementing the family income by working part time while also at college.This will dictate the type of jobs possible for Debra and her family and prospective income of the family. The family relationship and future is dictated by their current “life chances”. The Confino family live geographically quite close but have very different “life Chances”, a large house which they own, both parents are in well paid professional work. Extra activities, classes, computers and educational resources also support the children learning, they have space to study. The Confino’s have choice in education, they have enough money and transport to travel to schools out of area and of their choice. The family enjoys a busy social life with theatre trips, holidays and meals out. They look forward to a good life which they can to afford to plan for in the

In the late ninetieth and early twentieth centuries women were thought of as dolls, puppets, or property. In many cases, they weren’t allowed to make decisions for themselves. Women were only good at worrying about frivolous housework and lighthearted pleasantries. In the two plays “A Doll House” by Heinrich Ibsen, and “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, there are several exploitations of this way of thinking.

The plot of both Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” and Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll House” provides scope for a few scenes that lack the presence of all or any men. These scenes, consisting of communication between the female characters, assist in developing the theme of women openly defying the fact that the society they live in is primarily run by men. All the power and authority in their society, no matter the situation, belongs to the men while the women are simply excluded. The women in these plays defy the norms set by society and manage to evade the expectations of their patriarchal societies.

For centuries, society has taught its men and women to behave in a clear way and to expect certain things from each other. Due to this, women have been placed second, below men, the submissive gender. Women have been taught to aspire to marriage, to not be too smart, to live their life according to society who tells them how to please a man. In fact, when women saw this degradation of themselves they decided to create a movement known as feminism, the social, economic and political equality of the sexes. Due to this standard of society passed through generations, an average reader would interpret Joan Murray’s “Play-by-Play” to be a poem about older women lustfully longing after younger men and fulfilling their purpose. However, if one were to delve deeper into Murray’s poem, it could be argued that she is taking a satirical approach to the way men objectify women. Marilyn French once said, “The same men who are blind and deaf to feminism are acutely sensitive to what threatens their dominance and privilege.” In looking at the symbols, diction, and tone in Murray’s poem, one can plainly see her disdain towards the societal standard and objectification of women.

The most prominent woman figure in this play is Linda, but the male characters in this play also give us insight into women’s roles and help feed the feminist analyses

This paper intends to study her feminist concern with women's independence at central stake in the play, though she herself declines to be even a female writer by saying "I am a playwright....You wouldn't refer to Eugene O'Neill as one of America's foremost male playwrights." (Wright, 85) Sally Burke insists Hellman deserves a place among the feminist playwrights of the era between the first and second waves of the women's movement for more than just one reason. To start with, her work meets with the meets the criteria of what playwright Megan Terry has said "anything that gives women confidence, shows them to themselves, helps them to begin to analyze, whether it's a positive or a negative image, is nourishing", and Vivian Patraka has called herself "The Dramatist of the Second Sex" to add to the fact. Moreover, her work has "dramatized the inequalities of a patriarchal, capitalist system; repeatedly exposed instances of injustices and oppression; and was committed

Maureen and Mag are isolated because of their physical location and their relationship with each other. Maureen dreams of being free of her mother’s house and small town life in Leenane. She blames her mother and her sisters for her circumstances; however, she is faced with the hard truth that men don’t come to call. Farming towns like Leenane were previously communities built on supporting each other, but over time families grew more isolated from one and other, leaving people like Mag and Maureen without the help of friendly neighbours.

It is often said that marriage is the extension of a family. Through marriage, one family is linked to another. In this regard, we have a third kind of women who are victims of the institution of marriage. In The Boarding House, Mrs. Mooney’s daughter Polly is the victim of the ingrained institution of marriage. After she learns of the affair between her daughter Polly and Mr. Doran, Mrs. Mooney forces him to marry her daughter in a rather tactful and cunning way:

The Beauty Queen of Leenane, a deep, twisted play by Martin McDonagh, is a symbolic work of art. The symbols within this play, powerful as they may be, do not jump out at the reader. They are instead embedded into the simplest objects and the relationship of the main characters. Martin McDonagh portrays his symbols with such an ironic eloquence; the dark, powerful symbols are inextricably linked in such a beautiful way, that once the reader makes the connections, the entire aura of the play changes. From symbols as simple as hot oil and a rocking chair to the mother-daughter relationship of Mag and Maureen, the reader learns more and more about Ireland during its time of troubles.

The play Kamala is an indictment of male society in which the characters, Sarita and Kamala find themselves on the common platform of sexual slavery in this male dominated world. Kamala is sexually exploited in the bazar and Sarita at home. Sexual exploitation is thus, rampant in both the public and private spheres of a woman’s life.