Doll's house & Top Girls

essay by cheryl yow

This essay compares two plays:
Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
Churchill’s Top Girls

Ibsen’s A Doll’s House

http://www.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=Ibsen%20A%20Doll%E2%80%99s%20House%20picture&imgurl=http://whiteoftheeye.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/images-dolls-house

A Doll’s House is an 1879 play
by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.

The play was controversial and it is sharply critical
of 19th century marriage norms.

A Doll’s House is often called the first true Feminist play.

The play focuses on the intricacies of marriage.

It raises questions about the female self-sacrifice
 in a male-dominated world.

 Nora is a ‘wife and child’
to her husband, Torvald helmer.

She is his doll , his plaything ,
his display to the world

and is of little intellectual value
and even less utility in his life, nothing else.

 Thus it is shocking and unacceptable for him
to discover that

Nora is able to manage financial affairs,
she can act alone and indepdendently without him.

When ‘dependent' Nora eventually decides
to walk out of her meaningless marriage,

breaking free of the oppressive marriage,
 Torvald becomes hysterical.

Though the marital madness,
Ibsen questions the roles of both husband and wife,

he questions the domination within a relationship
when one person is demeaning to the other.

Churchill’s Top Girls

http://www.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=Margaret%20Thatcher%20%20picture&imgurl

=http://danshas.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/margaret-thatcher.jpg

 Caryl Churchhill’s ‘Top Girls’

is a 1982 play, set in Britain,

it implicitly condemns

the increasing influence of Thatcherite values

in the society.

It argues against the type of feminism

that turns women into new patriarchs

and argues for a more socialist feminism

which is about caring

for the weak and downtrodden.

 Marlene left her poor life,

her family and her illegitimate child

with her sister

to become a career woman,

she works at the ‘Top Girls’ employment agency.

Marlene is the tough career woman,

she is soulless and she exploits other women

while suppressing

her innate caring instinct in the cause of success.

Question
Compare the endings of A Doll’s House and Top Girls
Take into account how different kinds of production and
performance may affect -and perhaps even ‘change’-the
endings of these plays.

• The ending of A Doll’s House is from pg 64 onwards
when Helmer says: ‘You too, of course; we are both saved…’

• The ending of Top Girls is from pg 81 onwards
when Marlene says: ‘I have been on the pill so long
I’m probably sterile.’




The ending of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House presents realistic
portrayals of the rigid roles that people are forced into
and are blindly following them. Though divorce was
considered scandalous, Nora makes a courageous decision in
spite of the limitation independent women would face at that
time. Nora is a woman ahead of her time; she serves as a
symbol for women fighting for equality and liberty.
Churchill’s Top Girls, written a century later, at the height
of Thatcherism raises many uncomfortable questions about
where feminist movement is heading. Both endings focus on
the psychological concerns and challenges of the position of
women in the society.



Though the endings of both plays are set 100 years apart, both
women felt similarly oppressed in an exclusive male society.
Confined in domestic comfort, Nora realized she ‘must stand
quite alone ‘(Ibsen p 67) to escape from man’s dominance.
Marlene, trapped in poverty, wants to escape from being
downtrodden. Nora seeks to pursue her beliefs while Marlene
seeks success and power in a man’s world. Additionally, both
endings paint a bleak picture of women’s sacrificial roles.
Nora commits a crime to save her husband and has to choose
between her home or independence. Marlene has to give up her
child and family lifeto achieve success in career. In
Joyce’s case, staying home and taking care of Angie is a
sacrifice. Women have to choose between career or a family
life while men can have both. Ironically, independence which
is supposed to empower women seems to oppress Marlene instead.



In A Doll’s House, men are very much in control. Nora reveals
how she is moulded first by her father then by her husband
according to their ideals. The roles of women are prescribed
by males and defined within the domestic domain - ‘Before all
else you are a wife and a mother’ (Ibsen p 68). Women’s
‘sacred duties’ are duties to her husband and children. In
contrast, in Top Girls, there is an absence of men implying
that men are redundant. Nora is treated as helpless and
childlike whereas Marlene has stepped into the male public
realm and has to imitate men to succeed.



Both endings indicate that men and women lives are dictated
by the values of the society. They seem to live in an
illusion embedded in the ‘social lie’. Torvald denies
reality by trying to pretend everything is back to normal
and to continue to live under the illusion of the ‘lie’ of an
ideal marriage. Nora, however, questions the values of the
society: she no longer believes the books she read, she does
not know what religion is and she is not even convinced that
the law is right. In Top Girls, politics invades personal
lives - sisters are divided by class and status. Marlene
believes in individualism, dreams and freedom. She hates the
working class –believing ‘they’re too stupid, lazy or
frightened,’ (Churchill p 86) to make any change.
Indignant, Joyce justifies by painting a pessimistic view
of the working class, she talks about their father ‘working
in the fields like an animal’ and ‘…couldn’t afford a
whiskey’ (Churchill p 84). She affirms their mother had a
‘wasted life’ and their parents’ lives ‘were rubbish’
(Chruchill 84/85). Joyce believes that nothing can change.
Top Girls’ ending seems to implicitly condemn the increasing
influence of Margaret Thatcher’s policy that celebrates
individualism, neglecting the weak and the downtrodden.
Successful, over-individualistic women are not helping
other women to achievesuccess. The issue here is about to
what extent feminism is advancing women if individualistic
women are gaining success at the expense of the future
generations.



There could be other different valid interpretations of these
endings that will alter their meanings and elicit different
audiences’ response. In an alternative ending, a vindictive
Nora may start speaking in a cynical tone. With Torvald
taking on a pleading tone ‘I have it in me to become a
different man’ (ADH Ibsen, p 70). She realized now she is in
control of him. The children might be woken up and appear at
the scene, this will further stirs Nora’s maternal instinct.
The ending could be:

Nora: I don’t believe any longer in wonderful things
happening. It has to be so changed that …’
(in a manipulative tone)

Torvald: But I will believe in it. Tell me, so changed that?
(pleading tone)

Nora: That I had to be taken seriously, not as your shadow,
not as your doll but as an individual, an equal
partnership, you and me.
(vindictive tone, walking towards him and standing
above him, looking down on him)

Silence

Torvald: We both deserved that chance.
Lessons not just for you but for us both.
A chance for the most wonderful thing.
(Standing up, putting his arms around her)

Nora: The most wonderful thing.
(ominous tone with a glint in her eyes)



The stage setting could have more obvious reminders of the
children’s presence, perhaps displaying a family portrait
taken with the children or a teddy bear lying around. Nora's
status can be elevated by sitting on a separate chair
that is higher than the sofa where Torvald is sitting on.
This setting could be in the nineteen century where divorce
is scandalous and society does not support independent women.
It makes sense that Nora choose to stay on although with
a different motive on different terms. Here Nora is less
vulnerable; she can be dangerously manipulative. This time
around it will be on her terms, she will manipulate him
and he will be her toy instead. The objective here is to
make known once a caged woman wakes up from illusion and
stop playing the prescribed ‘ideal’ role, there is no
limitation to what she is capable of.



An assertive Nora set in twenty-first century would be
determined to leave where there is more support for
independent women. With such determination as well as the
business acumen she has shown in saving her husband, she
would perhaps become more successful than Torvald. In
contrast, a confused Nora might speak in an array of tones
(helpless, anger, frustration) in a disconcerted manner. She
may be moving a lot, her gestures trembling and facial
expressions showing great despair. The furniture are more
clustered, for example, the coffee table, the sofa and a
chair could form a barrier between them as Nora moves around
them in a haphazard manner. The clustered furniture could
represent an inescapable maze where she feels trapped in. She
might end up in an asylum or perhaps commit suicide; a sign of
woman’s madness, triggered by her disillusion. Audiences may
be drawn into her state of mental anguish, feeling deep
sympathy for her and anxious for her future.



In Top Girls, a different ending could focus on the Marlene’s
isolation. Marlene’s career defined her existence and it is
the only identity she has. Yet beneath that mask of success
lies a troubled soul devoid of emotion and intimacy. A barren
life – no family and no friends - an empty existence.
The ending could be:

Angie: Mum? (Angie heard the fiery conversation, she is
giving Marlene a chance to acknowledge her
as her (Marlene's)daughter.

Marlene: No, It’s Aunty Marlene.
(assertive tone, aware that Angie might
have heard the conversation.Angie
might have overheard the conversation

- where Marlene discloses that Angie is her daughter,
Marlene does not want Angie to acknowledge
her as Angie's real mother).

 

Angie wanted to switch on the lights.

Marlene: No. Leave the lights off. There is warmth in
this darkness.

Silence

Angie: Are you happy?

Marlene: Happy? (pause)… is a difficult word.
(tone - choked on her emotion)
Comfortable, yes.

Angie: Sometimes lonely?

Marlene: Sometimes lonely (affirmative tone),
(quickly wiping away her tears)
but other times too busy to be lonely.
(cynical tone)

Angie: It’s all worth it?

Marlene: It’s a choice.
And life is a choice between being downtrodden
or being unfulfilled. That’s life.
(a hollow, resigned tone)

Marlene here is vulnerable, isolated and she seeks comfort
in the darkness.



Another interpretation of Marlene could feature her as cold
and impassionate. The society has moulded her into an
emotionless working machine. Here she is void of any feeling,
she just goes on each day on a perfunctory existence. This
time the tone would change:

Angie: Mum?

Marlene: 'Your' mum, she just gone to bed.
(cold, indifferent tone even though she suspects
Angie might have overheard the conversation
- where she discloses that Angie is her daughter.
Marlene does not want Angie to acknowledge
her as Angie's real mother).

(There is an awkward silence).

Angie: Are you happy?

Marlene: Happy? There are more important things in life
than happiness.
(cold and emotionless tone)

Angie: Have you ever felt lonely?

Marlene: Lonely? (cynical laugh) I am so busy having
countless appointments, meetings, and if I am
lucky I get a full night sleep.

Angie: It’s all worth it?

Marlene: Once I stop working, I’ll be useless or if I am
stupid enough, I become a man’s slave. A successful
woman thinks, works rather than feel. Feelings are
unproductive, an obstacle, a trap. Success means
respect and financial security. And success equals
freedom, that is what I need most.

This ending is ironic. In imitating men for success, Marlene
loses her femininity,innate emotion and her soul. It is an
illusion to think that success equal freedom. Although she
freed herself from poverty or male dominance, in reality she
is trapped within herself.



Roles of women have evolved. Marlene could be seen as an
evolved Nora.During 1800s, women are gradually becoming
more independent. However, even with the freedom modern
women have, their dilemma still exists –the choice between
career or motherhood, and if they choose both, how
effectively can they stay balancing on a tightrope?
Additionally, the continuous changing of gender roles also
resulted in pressing mental confusion for both men and
women.

( 1566 words)



Bibliography

Churchhill, Caryl. Top Girls, Methuen Drama, 2005

Ibsen Henrik, A Doll’s house, Dover Publications, INC,
1992.

VCD 1-3, A Doll’s House, The Open University

VCD 4-6, Top Girls, The Open University



Marks: 80

Tutor Comment:

Dear Cheryl
You have analysed the two endings quite well and have been
very creative in developing different possible endings
with some additional dialogue and stage props. Well done.
Souk Yee