‘the Past Is Never Dead. It’s Not Even the Past’ Explore the Ways Churchill Presents Women Struggling with Their Pasts in Top Girls, as Informed by Interpretations of Other Readers. Compare the Ways in Which the Past Is

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Top Girls was written in the 1980s, which was a time of change in the world, especially for women. They were becoming more involved within the workplace and were gaining more power. Before the 1980s women were expected to stay at home whilst the men worked but this was changing and women wanted more independence. This change in society is presented by the women in Top Girls and their attitudes towards each other and men. A Streetcar Named Desire was written before Top Girls, in the 1950s. There was also a change in society shown by the divide of the new south and old south which had different traditions. Blanche, a character in the play is split between these two places, not being accepted in either. In Top Girls, Act 1, Churchill creates an imaginary dinner with guests from different points in time. All of the guests present their own struggles with their past which all show similarities, at the end of Act 1 it is shown that the guests pasts have not left them by the way they are acting. Nijo is crying over her children that she had to give away “It was only a girl but I was sorry to lose it...Nobody gave me my children back” Even though Nijo has had to struggle because of her gender she still views females as being inferior to males, this is shown when she says it was ‘only’ a girl. Joan is being sick and Marlene is drinking Isabella’s drink. During all this Dull Gret is trying to unite the women by telling them her story about fighting evil. “I come out my front door that morning and shout till my neighbours come out and I said, ‘Come on we’re going where the evil come from and pay the bastards out’. Gret is trying to show how women need to unite if they want to fight and survive yet none of the women are listening to her. A lack of unity from the women is presented through the actions of the women here. Gret is also talking about how her family was killed

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