| Caryl Churchill(1938-)has been described as “one of the foremost,innovative writers for the contemporary stage.” Her plays are dedicated to reflecting women’s experiences from a female perspective,showing her concern for the survival of women and her humanistic concern for the female community.Top Girls is one of Churchill’s most iconic feminist plays,in which she focuses on three types of successful women of high social status or prominent in their respective fields from ancient times to the present day,but behind the success of these characters are their untold sorrows.However,few scholars have so far systematically examined the portrayal of successful women in Churchill’s plays,exploring the theme of “the sacrifices and dilemmas behind successful women.” Beauvoir’s feminism,also known as existential feminism,focuses on the phenomenon of women,and is highly compatible with the depiction of the female condition in Churchill’s play.This paper therefore uses this theory as a guide to analyze the successful women portrayed in Top Girls,and explains the plight they face from these perspectives: their otherness and dependence,their body predicament and the hindrance to self-transcendence,their dilemma and the failure of free choice,and interprets the reasons why they are not truly emancipated.It is expected to broaden the scope of theoretical application of Churchill’s plays and provide a new horizon of interpretation for the study of Churchill’s plays.The thesis is divided into six chapters.The first chapter introduces Caryl Churchill and the current state of research on her work,and theories of existential feminism.The second chapter presents the image of the exalted concubines in Top Girls and analyses how and why they become the male “other”.The third chapter presents the illustrious female Pope in Top Girls and analyses her body predicament and the reasons for her difficulty in achieving self-transcendence.The fourth chapter analyses the outstanding business women in Top Girls,and analyses the dilemma they face and the deviations they make in making free choices.Chapter five clarifies Churchill’s unique life story and the context in which she lived,and analyses her motivation for writing about successful women and her condemnation of patriarchal society and capitalism.The study found that the successful women in Top Girls were “pseudo” successful women,who appeared to be privileged,powerful,socially and economically well positioned in different eras.However,they all succumb to male authority,abandoning their femininity and identity and becoming the other and subordinate to men,leading to female internal oppression and the breakdown of gender relations.It is obvious that the success of these women is rooted in men.Churchill’s portrayal of these three types of women not only demonstrates the progress and limitations of the cause of women’s emancipation,but also reflects Churchill’s thinking on women’s emancipation and gender relations.In her opinion,women must be independent and autonomous,and become the subjects of society,so that they can choose their own lives freely,transcend themselves and truly realize the value of successful women. |
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