Top Girls By Caryl Churchill

In analyzing portrayals of women, it is appropriate to begin with the character of Margarita. For, within the text, she embodies the traditionally masculine traits of bravery, resilience, and violence as a means of liberating herself from an existence of abuse and victimhood. Even more, the woman plays upon stereotypes of femininity in order to mask her true nature. The reader witnesses this clever deception in a scene where the character endures a “wholesome thrashing” from her huge, violent, and grizzly bear-like husband, Guerra (81). Although Margarita “[submits] to the infliction with great apparent humility,” her husband is found “stone-dead” the next morning (81). Here, diction such as “submits” and “humility” relate to the traits of weakness, subservience and inferiority that are so commonly expected of women, especially in their relationships with men. Yet, when one

She realises her role as the wife of Martin Guerre, “she understood her position in the household, [a] part of [the] structure.” However, once Martin defects from the manor, she is subservient to the condemnation she receives from Monsier Guerre anger that “[his] son should become a thief is [his] greatest shame.” Bertrande’s plight mirrors the issue of a woman’s place in society and challenging the ideology of a restricted homemaker role with a lack of control over life choices and education. Lewis considers the strength needed in order to defy the constraints society places one into and the potential a woman has to independence. Lewis teaches her readers the tenacity one must have in adversity, disregarding the restrictions placed upon a person’s gender.

She states that `to pose woman is to pose then absolute Other' (821). `The other' is referred to women who are classified as being different to men even though both share a human body. Women are also not seen as `a subject, a fellow human being.'(821). This is caused by men who believe a myth of females through experiences of which Beauvoir states as feelings and thoughts, rather then the reality of women themselves. Men see women as what they think they see because of the way they feel about women. Men have opinions in ways of physical or knowledge of women. These opinions created are myths which men believe to be the true women. These men usually belong in the western patriarchal society. Men hold myths against women and "placed women beneath men and held them to be the property of men" (Guerrero). Being "placed beneath men" can show that women are treated unequally in a patriarchal society where they are not respected. This is the woman in a patriarch world.

At first, after discovering she had frequent migraines, Didion denied her predicament. She felt embarrassed, like it was a secret that would enforce to others her negative qualities. Eventually, she began to accept the fact that migraines were simply something she would have to get used to.

Presenting literature to the public that is meant to be a commentary on social or political issues, masked under the guise of entertaining and fictional, is a tool implemented by authors and activists for centuries. While not all satire is as overt as Jonathan Swift’s suggestion that we eat the babies, it does not diminish the eyebrow raising suggestions that are conveyed once the meaning has been discovered. In Aphra Behn’s The History of the Nun and Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina, the established expectations of the female role within society are brought into question then directly rejected. These expectations establish that women should be deferential to men, morally unblemished, and virtuous at all times. Men, however, are not held to these expectations in the same way. The masculine roles assumed by Isabella and Fantomina demonstrate a private rebellion against the established patriarchal society as it warns against the under-estimation of women and proves that women exist independently.

These literary writings address how women were influenced by a “hermeneutic” belief system that placed women mutually in unity to abide by a societal “patriarchal” power (King and Morris 23). Again, women could not communicate their feelings receptively likewise, their values and conceptions were a reflection from their husbands. Essentially, the essay

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros tells the story of Esperanza Cordero growing up in the Puerto Rican community of Chicago in the form of short stories and poetry. Esperanza longs to own a house that she idealizes as happiness. She strives for a better life outside of the stereotypical gender roles that have suppressed the woman she grew up around. Female genders roles is a strong theme in the novel.

The feministic movement has been one that has provided many an author with a starting point for novels, films, etc. Through this movement many others began to look into emasculation and if this could be an outcome of feminism. Mary Wilkins’ “The Revolt of Mother” has become a prime example used for this very case according to Michael Grimwood. Grimwood’s journal article delves deep into masculinity and femininity, gender roles and architecture. The author explains how many have used Wilkins’ work as a case for modern feminism; however, he reputes this by using her autobiography as a source demonstrating that it isn’t feminism that drives “Mother” to revolt but “lost patriarchy” that allows her to do so. Although the author acknowledges that this piece can be easily be mistaken for feminism, he argues that the true focus is not on just one character but on both “Mother” and “Father” and how they came to life from her personal experience. His detail and evidence allows the reader to understand how Wilkens’ thought and how she might have assumed life had become. The character’s growth and understanding for one another, as Grimwood explains, could be her deepest desires for what she would have wisher her life to be.

American Literature has always been about men and for men. In this essay, we are going to analyze the women’s role in the book, as inferior and weaker gender.

Simone De Beauvoir in The Second Sex suggests that to resolve the tension between bad faith and authenticity, people must regard women as subjects and not objects. They must also collectively fight against the idea of womanhood in order to remain authentic to themselves.

The battle for equality snowballed since the birth of feminism. At the frontline of the battle, have been women enraged at the thought of the superiority of men. However, some women believe in taking a violent approach to demolish the ideas of oppression. In the poem “The Rights of Woman,” Barbauld reveals that the oppression of women emanates from impulsive anger by showing the power of emotion in decision making, the ineffectuality of paroxysm, and the irrefutable rule of nature. Barbauld attempts to undermine the false pride of women who believe men are evil and who resort to irrationally regarding the only solution to oppression as attacking the will of men. She takes an interesting approach in arguing against feminist rage by having the narrator seemingly side with violence and later suddenly display the imprudence of acting on impulse.

653. This is the same mindset that Sartre applies to the anti-Semite- the refusal to consider the complexity of the world in favor of a system that provides easy answers to all life’s questions. Only, unlike the anti-Semite, the woman is turning her hatred inward; does she hate herself because she fears freedom or because she feels she is not worthy of it? De Beauvoir seems to believe that fear is the primary cause for this willing dependency. She cites the psychoanalytic view that women’s obsession with love does not comes from a desire for men at all, but from a desire to return to the secure dependency of childhood. This explains the lifelong refuge some women take in infantile (“cute”) behavior and appearance, but psychoanalytic explanations for human behavior have proven to be far less than perfect, and a woman’s self-worth (or, in this case, lack thereof) has far more complex roots than a Freudian theorem.

An exploration of Oscar Wilde's presentation of women in 'A Woman of No Importance' in comparison to John Fowles' views of women in 'The French Lieutenant's Woman', in light of the view that Oscar Wilde has a more sympathetic view of woman in his time.

Within Top Girls, Caryl Churchill explores a range of ideas that can be analysed through lenses to reveal different critical interpretations. Beauvoirian ideas from The Second Sex and Marxist ideas from The Communist Manifesto are used to compare and contrast these ideas, further supporting this an assortment of literary techniques.

Lastly, “femininity” refers to behavioural activities or interests that are assigned to the female sex, such as cleaning and cooking (Beauvoir, 617). Although many critics have read her text and become confused due to her stylistic choice to fuse her voice with the voices of famous men, it can be said that the text ultimately leads the reader to begin to question what society sees as a woman (Zerilli, 1-2). Despite Beauvoir’s The Second Sex appearing to recognize the oppression of women throughout the world without giving an actual solution, I will argue that Beauvoir’s evaluation of each “natural” aspect of female oppression allows readers to recognize that the only thing holding themselves back as a woman is society’s unnatural definition of their body, relation to men, and personal freedoms. Of course, when it comes to one's freedom, it is difficult to obtain when your body feels like a