Context & Writer's Techniques (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes

Context & Writer's Techniques

Historical and social context

Understanding the world in which Top Girls was written and set is essential for analysing Churchill's intentions and the play's key themes. The early 1980s was a period of significant political and social change in Britain, particularly regarding women's roles in society and the workplace.

Patriarchal society and feminism

Churchill's play directly engages with the concept of patriarchy—a social system in which men hold primary power and dominate positions of authority. In such societies, men enjoy privileges and opportunities that women are systematically denied. There are two main forms of patriarchy: traditional patriarchy, which places older men in positions of superiority over younger men, and modern patriarchy, which distributes power based on institutional authority rather than age.

The character of Marlene actively challenges the gender inequalities present in male-dominated society. She deliberately seeks leadership positions and refuses to accept the limitations traditionally imposed on women. In Top Girls, Marlene manages the Top Girls Employment Agency with the explicit goal of placing ambitious women in positions of power and overturning patriarchal workplace structures.

The influence of second-wave feminism is evident throughout the play. This feminist movement, which gained momentum through the 1960s and 1970s, argued that society held biased expectations of women—that they should be expressive, nurturing and dependent. These stereotypes limited women's opportunities and reinforced inequality. Marlene in Top Girls rejects the traditional roles of raising her daughter Angie and caring for her mother Joyce. Instead, she pursues aspirations typical of ambitious professionals of that era. Her goal is to become an active participant in what she calls 'sexual politics' in the workplace—the power dynamics between men and women in professional settings.

Britain in the late 1970s

Churchill set Top Girls during a turbulent period in British history. The play was written in 1982 but references the social unrest of the late 1970s, particularly the Winter of Discontent. In autumn 1978, the Labour government led by Prime Minister James Callaghan imposed a pay rise cap of just 5% for public sector workers. This measure was designed to control the severe double-digit inflation affecting the United Kingdom. However, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) rejected this cap and demanded a 30% increase instead.

The resulting dispute triggered extensive union strikes across Britain. The situation became dire: rubbish piled up uncollected in London streets, dead bodies remained unburied, and nurses joined picket lines. This period became known as the Winter of Discontent, a phrase borrowed from the opening line of Shakespeare's Richard III (1593). The strikes finally ended in February 1979, with the TUC settling for a 17% increase, but the political damage to Callaghan was irreversible and contributed to his government's downfall.

Youth culture during this period was heavily influenced by the punk music movement. The punk group Sex Pistols, formed in 1975, helped drive this rebellious musical style with songs like 'God Save the Queen' (1977). Punk rock fashion involved bright colours, spiked hair, leather jackets and boots. The lyrics typically addressed sensitive social and political issues, challenging mainstream thinking. Punk groups also played a significant role in movements like Rock Against Racism (RAR), which emerged in 1976. In Top Girls, the character Angie represents a young teenager growing up during this time when youth were actively voicing their opinions about societal problems. Angie's rebellious nature reflects the strong youth culture of the era.

Margaret Thatcher and politics

Margaret Thatcher's rise to political power forms a crucial backdrop to Top Girls. The character Marlene expresses support for Thatcher and believes she will achieve significant accomplishments as Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) became Europe's first female Prime Minister when she led the British Conservative Party to victory. She served three consecutive terms from 1979 to 1990, implementing controversial policies that transformed British society.

Marlene's flashback conversation with her sister Joyce reveals her enthusiasm for Thatcher, believing the new Prime Minister will make positive economic changes. This admiration is significant because it highlights a particular form of feminism—often called Thatcherite feminism—that emphasises individual achievement and competition rather than collective progress for all women.

Thatcher's background shaped her political philosophy. Born on 13 October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, she came from a middle-class family. Her father Alfred Roberts served as a conservative member of the town council, influencing her political beliefs. After studying chemistry at Oxford University and serving as president of the Oxford University Conservative Association, she graduated in 1947.

Like Marlene's journey in Top Girls, Thatcher's rise to leadership was challenging but she remained focused on her goals. She ran unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1950, then studied for the bar examination while working as a research chemist, qualifying as a barrister in 1954. She entered the House of Commons in 1959 and eventually became secretary of state for education and science. In February 1975, she was elected leader of the Conservative Party, and in 1979, after a decisive electoral victory, she secured the position of Prime Minister.

During her tenure, Thatcher advocated strongly for individual independence from state support. She condemned communism and partnered with Ronald Reagan in opposing the Soviet Union. Internal party struggles led to her resignation in 1991, though she continued serving in Parliament until 1992. She established the Thatcher Foundation in 1991 to promote free enterprise and democracy.

In Top Girls, Marlene respects intelligent, ambitious women like Thatcher who face challenges with courage and lead with confidence. However, Churchill's play also reveals the limitations of this individualistic approach to feminism.

Writer's techniques

Caryl Churchill employs distinctive theatrical techniques associated with Brechtian epic theatre to challenge audiences and prevent them from simply accepting Marlene's version of feminism. These techniques encourage critical analysis of the social and political issues presented in the play.

Brechtian epic theatre

Churchill draws heavily on the dramatic theories of German playwright Bertolt Brecht. Brechtian epic theatre deliberately disrupts traditional theatrical conventions to create what Brecht called the Verfremdungseffekt or alienation effect. This technique prevents audiences from developing emotional identification with characters, instead encouraging socio-political analysis of the action on stage.

Traditional theatre often aims to create empathy, drawing audiences emotionally into characters' lives. Brechtian theatre does the opposite—it constantly reminds viewers they're watching a constructed piece of theatre designed to convey political messages. By preventing emotional absorption, Churchill forces audiences to think critically about Thatcherite feminism, class oppression and women's struggles across different historical periods.

Non-linear episodic structure

The play's structure breaks from traditional chronological storytelling. Act One presents an anachronistic dinner party where Marlene celebrates her promotion by hosting historical and mythological women from vastly different time periods—including Pope Joan, Lady Nijo, and others. This impossible gathering appears before the 1980s-set scenes of Marlene's actual life, deliberately disrupting the audience's sense of time and reality.

This non-linear approach historicises gender struggles, demonstrating that women's oppression isn't a modern phenomenon but has persisted throughout history. The structure also prompts audiences to question the concept of 'progress'—are contemporary women like Marlene truly better off than their historical counterparts, or have the forms of oppression simply changed?

The overlapping and slashed dialogue (indicated by forward slashes in the script) further disrupts traditional Aristotelian dramatic flow. Characters interrupt each other mid-sentence, particularly evident in the dinner party scene where conversations overlap and clash. This technique reflects real conversational chaos but also prevents the smooth emotional experience traditional theatre provides. One example from the script includes the line 'This is the Emperor of Japan?/This is the Emperor of Japan', where the slash indicates simultaneous speech that disrupts understanding.

Multi-role casting

Churchill's script requires an all-female cast of seven actors to play twenty-one different roles across various timelines. This multi-role casting serves multiple purposes. Firstly, it defamiliarises identity, preventing audiences from seeing characters as fixed individuals. When the same actor plays multiple roles, viewers are constantly reminded of the performance itself rather than losing themselves in the story.

The technique also reveals social class through physicality rather than psychology. For example, Gret's voracious eating at the dinner party embodies peasant starvation and working-class deprivation—it's a 'gestus' (physical gesture revealing social attitudes) that signifies historical scarcity. When Winston Churchill appears as a waitress, the casting choice itself becomes a political statement, challenging assumptions about power and servitude.

The collective focus created by multi-role casting also supplants individual tragedy. Rather than following one protagonist's journey, audiences must consider the experiences of multiple women across different contexts. This directly relates to the Marlene/Joyce debate about whether feminism should prioritise individual achievement or collective advancement—Churchill's casting technique suggests the latter matters more.

Symbolic historization

Act One's fantastical banquet operates symbolically to represent feminism's costs and sacrifices. Griselda's story of losing her children symbolises the sacrifices women make for male approval. Nijo's silenced songs represent the ways women's voices and creativity have been suppressed throughout history. The circular structure of the play—returning to Angie's 'Frightening' as her final word—underscores generational replication of women's struggles.

The dinner party also allows Churchill to critique what she sees as 'Superwoman' ideology. Thatcher-proxy Marlene's individual success appears to exploit working-class women like Joyce rather than liberating all women. The historical women's stories demonstrate that exceptional women have always existed, but their individual achievements haven't dismantled patriarchal systems.

Overlapping speech

Throughout Top Girls, characters frequently interrupt and speak over each other, particularly in Act One. These fragmented interruptions mimic real conversational chaos where multiple people try to speak simultaneously. The script uses asterisks and forward slashes to indicate these overlaps, such as when characters say 'minding the sheep*' while others speak simultaneously.

This technique forces active interpretation from audiences rather than passive consumption of dialogue. Viewers must work harder to follow conversations, preventing the comfortable absorption of information that traditional theatre provides. The overlapping speech also suggests that women's voices have historically competed for attention in male-dominated spaces—no single woman's story can be heard completely because there are so many untold narratives demanding recognition.

Gestus and props

Physical staging in Top Girls carries ideological significance. Marlene's gift of a too-small dress to Angie serves as a gestus that marks the class gulf between them. The dress literally won't fit Angie's body, symbolising how Marlene's lifestyle and values don't fit working-class realities. It becomes 'history on her body'—a physical reminder of class division.

Similarly, peasant Gret's gluttonous behaviour at the dinner party signifies wartime scarcity and poverty. Her physical actions reveal her social position and historical context without requiring psychological explanation. Churchill deliberately uses minimalist staging throughout the play, allowing these gestures and props to carry maximum ideological weight. Without elaborate scenery to distract audiences, attention focuses on the physical interactions between characters and what those interactions reveal about power, class and gender.