Amelioration and Emancipation Oct. 20, 2009

Amelioration The anti-slavery movement developed in the early 1800s was a formidable force in the quest to end slavery. The West India Committee, in a bid to head off attacks, agreed to proposals to improve the condition of the slaves. These proposals were called amelioration proposals and came into effect in 1823. The proposals said that the British government should write to each of the colonial governors, suggesting that the assemblies pass local laws to improve the condition of slaves. The proposals were as follows: 1. Female slaves should not be whipped, and the overseers and drivers should not carry a whip in the fields. . Records should be kept of all lashes given to male slaves and all punishments should be put off for at least 24 hours. 3. Religious instruction and marriages were to be encouraged. 4. Slaves could testify in court against a free man, provided that a minister supplied him with a character reference. 5. Slaves should have time off on Saturdays to go to market, so they would be free to attend church on Sunday mornings. 6. Slaves should not be sold as payment for debts. 7. There should be the establishment of slave savings banks which would help slaves to save money to buy their freedom.The failure of amelioration These measures were met with fierce resistance from colonies such as Jamaica, Barbados, St Vincent and Dominica. Instead of improved conditions for the slaves, they faced increased brutality from the planters. In the end, most of the assemblies passed only a few of the less-important amelioration proposals. Amelioration failed, but it provided one of the major impetuses for the abolition of slavery. It became evident that the planters were unwilling to improve the lives of the slaves and, as such, the only other option was to put an end to slavery.Emancipation 1. All slaves in the British Empire were to be set free on August 1, 1834. 2. Slave children under six years old were to be freed immediately. 3. All other slaves were to se rve a period of apprenticeship. They were to work for their masters for 401/2 hours per week. They would be paid only for overtime. Praedial (field) slaves were to serve six years apprenticeship and non-praedial (domestic) slaves to serve four years. 4. Planters were to continue providing food, shelter, clothing, medical care and other allowances which they were accustomed to during slavery.Apprentices could not be sold and they could buy their freedom before apprenticeship came to an end. 5. A sum of ? 20 million was granted by the British Parliament to compensate slave owners for the loss of their slaves. 6. Stipendiary magistrates (SMs) were to be sent from England to ensure the proper working of the apprenticeship system and to settle all disputes between masters and apprentices. THE APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM Aims of Apprenticeship a) To provide a peaceful transition from slavery to freedom. b) To guarantee planters an adequate supply of labour during the period and prepare for full freedom. ) To train apprentices for freedom, especially working for wages. d) To enable the colonial governments to revise the system of justice and establish institutions suitable for a free society. The stipendiary magistrates were retired naval and army officers on half pay, appointed from Britain and were accustomed to rough conditions and enforcing discipline. They were chosen because they were not connected to the planter class and it was felt that they would not be biased. Duties of stipendiary magistrates a) To supervise the apprenticeship system. b) To settle disputes between masters and apprentices. ) To visit estates at regular intervals and hold court. d) To inspect jail and workhouses. e) To assist in fixing the value of slaves who wanted to buy their freedom. These duties were strenuous and led to the death of many SMs who were not accustomed to tropical conditions and could not afford the high cost of medical treatment. Conditions of employment Salary – ? 300 for the first year then increased to ? 450 for travel expenses and housing. There was no pension for dependants if the SM died in service. There was also no sick leave and he had to pay his own fare back home if he were dismissed or out of service.These bad working conditions prevented SMs from performing their duties satisfactorily and many were easily bribed by planters. They were also overburdened by work because they were so few in numbers. Those who tried to do their duties were sometimes persecuted. They were abused physically, verbally and in the press and they were often obstructed in the performance of their duties as planters sometimes refused to allow them on the estates. Success of stipendiary magistrates a) They listened to complaints from both sides and acted as a buffer between masters and apprentices. ) They informed apprentices of their rights; they did not have to listen to gossip or obtain information from newspapers. c) They helped apprentices to organise their l ives better by giving advice. However, they had very little to formulate schemes to improve the social conditions of the apprentices. They were unable to prevent apprentices from being punished harshly. Punishments Apprentices were usually sent to the workhouse. However, SMs had no control over what happened there. The most common form of punishment in the workhouse was the treadmill.There was also the whipping post and apprentices could be put in penal gangs. Females often had their heads shaved. Time lost in the workhouse had to be repaid by the apprentice by working for his master during his free time. Methods to control apprentices on the estates †¢ It was illegal for apprentices to leave the estate without written permission. †¢ Valuations on able-bodied slaves were often inflated. †¢ High fees were charged for the use of the markets and for licences to work off the estates as carpenters, blacksmiths and so on. These licences and tickets to sell in the markets co uld be withdrawn. Refusal of planters to give customary allowances. †¢ Finding fault with apprentices', work which had to be done over in the apprentices' free time. †¢ Locking up apprentices on false charges and dropping the charges before the arrival of the SM. †¢ Cutting down apprentices' fruit trees and forbidding them to own livestock. †¢ Spreading the 40 1/2 hours per week over five days instead of four. †¢ Paying low wages, making unfair deductions from wages, paying wages late. The End of Apprenticeship Apprenticeship ended for ALL apprentices in 1838 because: a) The system was not achieving its aims. ) The anti-slavery society exposed the abuses in the system and began to campaign for full freedom. c) The planters feared violence if domestic apprentices were freed before field apprentices. d) Some planters felt that it was cheaper not to have to provide for apprentices and only to employ the number of labourers they needed. Note: Antigua granted ful l freedom to their slaves. The planters decided against apprenticeship. The apprenticeship system came to an end in 1838 when the colonial governments in each colony voted against its continuation. Nineteenth century immigration (Part 1)Reason for immigration 1. A decrease in the labour force. With the end of the apprenticeship system in 1838, the planters no longer had a labour force they could easily control. Apprentices had now gained their freedom and many were reluctant to work any at all on the plantation. In the smaller territories, where the ability to access land was limited and alternative occupations were limited, ex-slaves had no choice but to continue plantation work. For example, planters in Barbados and St Kitts had very little difficulty in accessing labour in the post-Emancipation period.It was in the large territories, such as Jamaica, British Guiana and Trinidad, that planters faced such difficulty and had to turn to immigration schemes as an alternative labour so urce. The hope was that immigration would provide a permanent source of labour for the plantations. 2. An attempt to suppress wages. There was the hope that immigration would generate competition for the ex-slaves and so help to keep wages down. Ex-slaves demanded adequate remuneration, but the planters found that they could suppress wages if they could introduce cheap foreign labour.This, in essence, would reduce the demand power of the ex-slaves because if they refused what was being offered, an immigrant was quite able to fill the position. Besides, if sugar production was to continue, a cheap, efficient and reliable source of labour had to be found. Immigration schemes THE EUROPEANS Due to a decline in the white population, planters sought European immigrants to increase the size of the white population. It was hoped that Europeans would set an example of industry to ex-slaves and as well eventually develop into a middle class.They would settle on available land in the interior, thus forcing ex-slaves off the land and back to the plantations. Jamaica imported the largest number. Europeans also went to Trinidad, British Guiana and St Kitts. These immigrants were mainly Scots, Irish, French and Germans. They were recruited under a bounty system. Problems with European Immigration Europeans were unsatisfactory as most died shortly after they arrived. They died from tropical diseases, heat stroke and many drank themselves to death. They also refused to work on the plantations with blacks.Many asked to be sent home or migrated to the United States. Planters also failed to supply proper food, shelter and medical facilities. THE PORTUGUESE In Madeira, workers were paid only one third of what they could earn in the islands per day, so they were attracted by the higher wages being offered in the Caribbean, especially British Guiana. Many went to Trinidad and a few to the Windward Islands. They were brought in by government bounty. Most came during periods of famine in Madeira (1846-1847). Their numbers decreased after 1847 until the scheme ended in 1882.Problems with Madeiran immigration The Madeirans died in large numbers. They suffered severely from yellow fever, malaria, overwork and inadequate food. The scheme was very irregular and most of them went into trading as soon as their contracts ended. In addition, the Madeiran Government objected to the scheme, since so many of its citizens were leaving, and implemented measures making it difficult for their recruitment. THE AFRICANS There were two distinct groups of Africans that were used as labourers in the post-emancipation period. These were the free Africans and the liberated Africans.The free Africans were persons who willingly opted to come and work on the plantations in the Caribbean. The liberated Africans were persons freed by British naval personnel from vessels illegally transporting them to the Caribbean as slaves. Free Africans Attempts were made to obtain Africans from the Kru Coast and Sierra Leone. The British Government was reluctant to grant approval of this scheme as it seemed to be a revival of the slave trade. However, in 1840, approval was granted. At first, they were recruited privately, but the British government assumed direct control two years later.Problems 1. Very few Africans were willing to come to the Caribbean. There were no catastrophes in Africa, which would make them leave. 2. Many who came to the Caribbean did not remain on the plantation; rather they followed the ex-slaves and settled on lands and became peasant farmers. Liberated Africans The largest number of Africans who came to the British Caribbean were ‘rescued' by the British Navy from slave ships bound for Cuba and Brazil. These Africans were forcibly indentured for up to five years in the Caribbean primarily in British Guiana, Trinidad and Jamaica. Problems 1.The number of liberated Africans was too small to make a difference to the labour situation. This scheme ended when Cuba and Brazil abolished slavery in 1866 and 1888, respectively. Like the ex-slaves, they abandoned the estates and settled on land. THE CHINESE The first Chinese immigrants arrived in Trinidad in 1806 from Malaya. They were to be indentured for five years, with a promise of small plots of land afterwards. They were extremely unsuitable for estate labourer and most were shipped back. Most Chinese immigrants came during the period 1859-1886 and went to British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad.They came mostly from the Portuguese colony of Macao and from Canton. Others came as well because of the Teiping Rebellion (1851-1864). Problems with Chinese Immigration Planters complained that the Chinese did not make good estate workers and few re-indentured themselves. They preferred to return to China or open retail shops. In addition, they were more expensive than the Indians. The Chinese Government also insisted that a full return passage be granted after a five-year indenture contract . The planters were willing to pay this only after two five-year contract.The Chinese Government also opposed immigration because they were ill-treated in Cuba. Most Chinese avoided the West Indies preferring to go to the United States or to find work nearer home in Java or the Philippines. Lastly, race relations between blacks and Chinese were quite poor. THE INDIANS The first Indians arrived in 1838 on Gladstone's Estate in British Guiana. However, the British Government stopped the scheme because of evidence of ill-treatment and the high death rate among the immigrant in Mauritius. However, due to pressure from the planters the British re-opened Indians immigration scheme in 1844.It was not difficult to find willing immigrants. Many craftsmen had lost their jobs due to competition from mechanised factories and mills of England. India was becoming overpopulated and there was not enough land to divide among the younger generation. Wages in India had fallen to 1/2d per day and there was a series of famine during the period 1857-1877 that led to an increase in food prices. Those escaping the police and the caste system were also willing to migrate. The Caribbean seemed attractive with high wages, shelter, medical care and a chance to find new occupations beside agriculture.Indians were easily recruited as India was a British colony. British ships and trading costs were already there and the British Government could easily provide British officials to supervise the scheme. Planters were satisfied with the Indians because they were hardworking, accustomed to tropical agriculture and re-indentured themselves. Economic effect on the sugar industry British West Indian planters had turned to immigration as a means of reviving the sugar industry. The hope was that with the steady supply of labour, planters could focus on increasing their output.Immigration, however, did not have its desired impact, especially in a colony like Jamaica. In territories such as Trinidad a nd British Guiana, we cannot assume that it was immigration that saved their sugar industry. For instance, they introduced mechanisation and placed more lands under sugar cane cultivation. These could be seen as measures that helped to save their sugar industries. Barbados could be used as another example. Up to 1848, there had seen an increase in their output by 250 per cent. However, by the end of the 19th century this had declined.We cannot assume that this was because Barbados was not using immigrant labour that its output declined. During the period, the territory was plagued by problems, including soil exhaustion and inadequate mechanisation. The overall conclusion must be that immigration did not cause increased sugar production in the British West Indies, as many other factors could have been responsible. Other economic effects 1. As a result of Indian immigration, the rice industry was developed in British Guiana and the cocoa industry in Trinidad. 2.They also helped to mak e central factories profitable by cultivating cane on small farms then selling it to the central factory. Social effects 1. Indians were considered inferior and they could only acquire poorly paid jobs. They could not settle in the towns, but had to live in the countryside where they formed an active peasant class. The employment of Indians mainly as field workers led to the employment of blacks in better jobs, for example, the police force. 2. The ex-slaves despised the Indians and refused to work alongside them in the fields. They were described as ‘heathens' because of their speech and clothing.Indians also despised the blacks because of their alleged low moral standards. 3. Immigration led to the expansion of social services, for example, medical facilities and a large police force. Cultural effects 1. Family – Indians brought their firm family structure, in which all relations supported each other. The idea of extended family, which included several generations, wa s very strong. All males over age 16 were members of the family council and made all decisions of the family, for example, marriage, religious ceremonies and expenditure. 2. Religion – Hinduism –Hindus worshipped several gods, of which Brahma was the most important. He was the supreme god or creator. They believed that when people die, their souls are reborn in a new body. The Hindus had very strict divisions in the society; this was known as the caste system. Each person belonged to a special group or caste. The Brahmins or the religious leaders were at the top of the society and the Hindus in the Caribbean continued to follow them as their leaders. Islam – A number of Indians who came were also Muslims. They believed in one God, Allah. They followed the teachings of the Quran. . Festivals – Divali or festival of lights was celebrated by the Hindus. They told stories, shared gifts, decorated their windows and doors with lights and candles. Hosein  œ A Muslim festival for small temples made from paper and bamboo were decorated and carried in a procession through the streets, accompanied by dancing to the beats of drums. 4. Food – roti, rice, curry 5. Dress – turban sari 6. Buildings – Hindu temples Muslim mosques houses built in Indian styles Other cultural effects The Indians normally segregated themselves deliberately in the educational institution.Oftentimes, they were unwilling to send their children to school since they feared they could be converted to Christianity. It was not until the late 1870s when separate schools for Indian children were established, mainly by the Canadian Presbyterian Mission to the Indians, that Indian children went to school and language barriers began to crumble. Indian integration in the Caribbean was not very easy since many of them spoke the Hindi language which served as a language barrier. | |

Deviant Behavior

A cross-cultural perspective on deviant behavior would show that there are certain actions which are deemed acceptable in one society but is considered as a deviant behavior in others. For example, in societies where the primary religion is Hindu, they prohibit people to kill or slaughter the cows, or more specifically the zebu (Schaefer, 2008). The cows are even allowed to feed on fruits in the market while other people have to feed on the small quantity of food left (Schaefer, 2008).Religious factors serve as the primary reason why the cows are treated in such a manner. From a functionalist perspective, the worship of cows is considered as an important part of the Hindu society and the purpose it serves the people when it comes to producing milk and agricultural purposes is very important to them (Schaefer, 2008). Other religions in other parts of the world do not have as high regard for the cows as the Hindus do that leads to a difference in the treatment of cows for the other soc ieties.Likewise, the value of cows as food for the other countries plays a vital role on whether it is to be eaten or not. The perception of people with regard to the severity of the crime committed would have to depend on the reputation of the person and the nature of the crime done. There are certain stereotypes that every society holds vis-a-vis the role that the offender holds in a particular community. For example, a highly-respected person is suspected for the killing of a common person in the community.This would either create disbelief or condemnation of the person where people may either defend the person in belief that he/she could not do it or would express their utter disgrace for what he has done. On the other hand, on the other hand, if the killers were of less influence in the society, this would not be given particular attention especially by the media. However, as what happened in the novel â€Å"In cold blood† by Truman Capote, the status of those who were k illed also affect the perception of people of the crime. References Schaefer, R. (2008). Sociology. (7th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Dealing With Rejection From Your Top College Choice

Soon, high school seniors all around the country will be awaiting the arrival of college admissions decisions. While the method has changed from a paper envelope arriving in the mail to electronic delivery straight to your mobile device, one thing that hasn’t changed is the emotion of that moment. For some lucky students, an acceptance results in a wave of euphoria and sheer joy. For those less lucky, a rejection can trigger feelings of sorrow, grief, and even depression. If you have your heart set on a singular dream school that you don’t ultimately get into, these feelings can be even more intense. You might feel overwhelmed. You might be tempted to crawl into bed and stay there. You may even worry that you’ll never achieve your other dreams either. Rest assured, though, that getting rejected from your top choice isn’t the end of the world. In fact, the majority of students who apply to selective colleges don’t actually get in. In this post, we’ll discuss how you can deal with rejection from a top choice college and how to redirect your energy towards moving forward in a positive, productive way. To learn our top tips about coping with rejection from your top choice college, read on. For some students, college applications represent the culmination of many years of hard work. If you don’t get into your top school, you might feel like all of your hard work was for naught, and you may legitimately feel heartbroken. That’s okay; it’s a completely normal reaction to falling short of a goal you’ve work so hard towards. While it’s natural to feel sorrow and the need to grieve, you can’t spend the remainder of your senior year in your bed. It may be helpful to set a self-imposed time constraint on the active grieving process. Allow yourself a few days to really indulge in self-care. Watch some movies, take a hot shower, and get takeout from your favorite restaurant. When a few days has passed, though, you’ll need to resolve to move forward. You might still feel sad, but it’s time to start channeling those emotions into something productive. At the end of your self-care days, get back up and prepare to take on the world again. You might think that your college admissions decisions are a direct indicator of your worth as a person or as a student. It’s important to remember that this is definitely not the case. College admissions decisions are based on so many factors that you can’t control. If you did your best to control the ones you could, then you need to know that there were other factors at play. Maybe this was the year that the Division 1 Football team lost four starting players and one of those replacements edged you out of a seat. Perhaps 30 students from your town decided to apply to the same school and only one could be accepted. Maybe you were up against a fourth-generation legacy whose parents, grandparents, and great aunt all donate heavily each year. You never know what other factors are at play in college admissions, so taking a rejection personally is never a good idea. Estimating your chance of getting into a college is not easy in today’s competitive environment. Thankfully, with our state-of-the-art software and data, we can analyze your academic and extracurricular profile and estimate your chances. Our profile analysis tool can also help you identify the improvement you need to make to enter your dream school. While it might seem like the most perfect college you could imagine, no college that doesn’t recognize what an amazing candidate you are is going to be the best fit for you. There are hundreds of amazing colleges out there, and odds are high that you will be able to succeed elsewhere if you set yourself to attending one that’s the best fit for you personally. Start by identifying what it was about your dream school that made it so alluring. Was it the geographic locale, a specific academic program, or another aspect altogether? If you can pinpoint a few of the most desirable qualities, you can bet you’ll be able to find those same qualities at other schools that would be happy to have you as a student. Redirect your focus to the schools that you did get in to. Join social media groups for accepted students. Reach out to current students or recent graduates. Network to learn more about each school and get a better feel for it. Visit campus again if you have a chance. The more you know about it, the better prepared you’ll be to make an informed decision about where you do go. Instead of thinking of this as a door closing, think of it as one that has opened. You have an opportunity in front of you to start fresh. What are you going to do with this opportunity? Shift your thinking to view this as an amazing chance to attend a college where you’re truly valued. If a college doesn’t want you, you’re probably better off elsewhere anyway. Some day, your alma mater will not matter nearly as much as what you made of your college experience. Will you be a dedicated student and a committed member of the community or will you begrudgingly go through your years there wishing you were someplace else? Only you can make this decision. Â   Finally, remember that you aren’t required to attend any single school for four years. While you definitely shouldn’t go into a college with the attitude that you can just transfer if something doesn’t go your way, it is important to keep perspective that you aren’t stuck someplace if it ends up being a bad fit. The best you can do is give it your best shot and then, if it doesn’t work out, consider transferring someplace else that will. If you’ve been rejected from your top choice college, it’s only natural to feel a wide array of emotions that may range from grief to anger to self-doubt. There is no right way to feel when you get the news that you’ve been rejected, but there is a right way to recover. Reframing your thinking to recognize the opportunity before you and to capitalize on the chances that you do have will help you to land gracefully. To learn more about setting yourself up for success on your college applications and how to make a college list that best suits you and your goals, consider enlisting the help of ’s Applications Guidance service. Here, you’ll be paired with a personal admissions specialist who can provide step-by-step guidance through the entire application process, even if you’re on a tight timeframe.

Customer Service Techniques Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Customer Service Techniques - Essay Example Cancellations are also common whenever Mother Nature decides to strike. If you were not aware the airline has a strict policy that prohibits its employees from giving a customer a refund for any event or lodging expenses that the customers incurs in even if a delay or cancellation of flight occurs due to whether conditions. This policy was created to protect the company from claims such as yours which are out of the control of the organization. The mission of the company is to satisfy our customers in every possible way. Our denial of your claim does not mean we do not value your business as a customer. The damage you incurred in has nothing to do with the activities of the airline. We are very strict in our policy because the only responsibility of the airline is activity associated with the flight of its airplanes. The resources of our airline are used in an efficient manner to provide the best customer service in the industry. Since the company was not able to provide you with the flight services you needed we most certainly will provide you with either a refund of your money spend on the flight or give you a credit to be spend on a different flight for the future. The firm’s policy on refunds is more flexible than some our competition due to the fact we provide customers with cash refunds, while other companies only provide a flight credit. We hope that this resolution meets your expectation. It is unfortunate that you miss your event. Our company is truly sorry about the inconvenience you incurred in due to the cancellation of flight associated with the weather. Your secondary claim that the mechanical misfit made the cancellation of weather occurrence obsolete is not valid. The mechanical problem did cause a delay, but the cancellation occurred due to weather conditions. The flight had a one hour delay due to a mechanical problem. Airplanes are machines that sometimes break down mechanically just like automobiles due. The safety of the customers is the number one priority of the airline. The airline under no circumstance was going to endanger the lives of customers by putting an airplane in the air that had any type of mechanical failure. We are truly sorry that you had to wait while our mechanics fixed the plane. Having a flight on time is not as important to the firm as ensuring an airplane is free of mechanical errors whenever a problem occurs. The safety record of our company is flawless. We understand that waiting for a mechanical error to be fixed is a hassle for the customer, but sometimes it occurs and we must deal with the problem accordingly. The mechanical error was not the reason that the flight was cancelled. The flight was cancelled after the one hour delay due to bad weather. There is no association between the mechanical error and the bad weather. The worries and concerns of the firm’s customers are a top priority for the airline. In the future we hope we can provide you with superb services if you deci de to choose our company as your preferred airline. The mission of this airline is to ensure our customers have a great flight and reach their destination on time. Most of the time our flights leave on time and our customers get to their destination at the precise time their flight ticket specifies, but sometimes whenever the weather prohibits it flights are delayed and cancelled. The airline industry is highly regulated by the government. The Federal government has strict rules regarding flight leaving

Fraud, Murder and Bribery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Fraud, Murder and Bribery - Essay Example The other fundamental questions have been should American firms engage in these practices while in business abroad? This is because firms’ ability to effectively compete in the global economy has been affected mainly by these unethical practices. It is not proper to engage in unethical business practices even if a firm is in countries where their practices are tolerated. Ethical decision-making is important to the success of any Company. Some business decisions are easy and obvious to make; others are not. When a firm is faced with a tough situation, asking various operational questions can help them make the correct ethical decisions. Likewise, it is essential for firms to obey the spirit and letter of the laws within and out of the country at all times. Furthermore, wherever they live or work, they should respect the values that are ethical to protect their reputation both at home and abroad. Every country where they operate or do business has their own laws, regulations, and culture. Many times there are significant deviations from one place to another or between regions. However, no matter where a firm works, they sho, and be all responsible for respecting all applicable laws and do business in the most ethical manner. However, firms in America are not allowed by law to engage in these unethical practices. Despite the desire of a particular firm to engage in such practices, they are prohibited by the law. It is in public domain that the United States firms, unlike in many other countries around the world, has to contend with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 that tries to address the issue of unethical business practices such as bribery for U.S. companies (Loughman & Sibery,2012).  

Managing Challenging Behaviour in Mental Heath Essay

Managing Challenging Behaviour in Mental Heath - Essay Example The primary information from this program would be supported by previous works by various scholars borrowed from books on mental health nursing and journals on mental health, mental health nursing and intellectual disability. Rationale There are various behaviours that people consider as challenging. Examples among those with learning disabilities include self injury, violence, ambivalence, sexual disinhibition, non-compliance and substance abuse (Callaghan & Waldock 2012). Considering adults with learning disability, Neno, Aveyard and Heath identified repetitive actions, screaming, shouting, running away and resisting care as some common challenging behaviour (2007). According to NHS (2012), challenging behaviour would be mostly observed among people who have conditions affecting the brain and communication like dementia and learning disability. Since communication defines human interaction with one another, its breakdown becomes a problem, leading to frustration which yields challe nging behaviour. If it leads to an outcome desired by the victim, then it could be repeated over and over again. The challenges experienced with these behaviours could be as a result of the support given or denied and problems resulting from inability to understand the things happening in the environment and how to communicate what such persons want. Having seen people with challenging behaviours in almost all the areas I have been working from as nursing student, I feel that learning how to manage such behaviours would be of paramount importance in my future profession as a mental health nurse. 1. Undertake and critically evaluate your transition activity Among the key areas of challenging behaviours that I undertook to train on included an evaluation of some of the common challenging behaviours, risk assessment, risk reduction and incidence prevention and treatment for those exhibiting such behaviours including forceful restraint. In as much as there was some focus on the role of the community, much emphasis was laid on my role as a mental health nurse in managing such situations. Understanding these facts from my perspective as a mental health nurse would be critical in my future role when handling people with learning disabilities. As noted by Emerson and Hatton (2008), these are the people who are likely to exhibit such behaviours. Much of the observed phenomena were from my experience having interacted with people with challenging behaviour in most of my undertakings. However, in this transition program, the observed phenomena were qualified with credible citation of supportive theories and findings from various scholars. I adopted the proposition by Ritter and Lampkin (2012) who categorised the triggers of challenging behaviours into primary, secondary and consequent. According to these scholars, primary causes are a result of the service user’s mental illness such as aggression when such a person hears voices. Secondary triggers result from symp toms of an illness which results in the service user responding negatively against other persons. Finally, consequential triggers would be caused by mental illness which leads to seeking for attention. However, it has always been difficult for me to identify a single cause of challenging behaviours in a person. Perhaps, the argument by the Xeniditis, Russel and Murphy (2012) that there would not be a unitary common cause associated with these behaviours. Having understood the causes of these behaviours, the transition program

Leadership in management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Leadership in management - Essay Example Opposed to this trait theory of leadership, evolved a system of understanding called the behavioural theories of leadership. Behavioural theories of leadership are based upon the idea that great leaders are made, not born. Rooted in behaviourism, this leadership theory focuses on the actions of leaders, not on mental qualities or internal states. According to this theory, people can learn to become leaders through teaching and observation. Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. According to behaviourism, behaviour can be studied in a systematic and observable manner with no consideration of internal mental states. Behavioral theories of leadership do not seek inborn traits or capabilities. Rather, they look at what leaders actually do. If success can be defined in terms of describable actions, then it should be relatively easy for other people to act in the same way. This is easier to teach and learn then to adopt the more ephemeral traits or capabilities. Thus , Behavioral leadership is a big leap from Trait Theory, in that it assumes that leadership capability can be learned, rather than being inherent. This opens the floodgates to leadership development, as opposed to simple psychometric assessment that sorts those with leadership potential from those who will never have the chance. A behavioral theory is relatively easy to develop, as you simply assess both leadership success and the actions of leaders. With a large enough study, you can then correlate statistically significant behaviors with success.

Discuss how The Heart of Darkness reflects the paradoxes of Essay

Discuss how The Heart of Darkness reflects the paradoxes of imperialism in the late 19th century - Essay Example The first paradox of Heart of Darkness refers to how the civilising mission of imperialism resulted to the dehumanisation of the colonisers. When waging imperialism, Europeans asserted their moral, social, and intellectual ascendancy, as they aimed to civilise all that is brute and different from their culture. Conrad shows, however, that the Western imperialist man has lost his heart to the darkness of imperialism. Maritime Hennard Dutcheil De La Rochere argues that Conrad uses the body of Africa as a trope for the ironic effects of European civilisation on colonised countries. De La Rochere asserts: â€Å"†¦[the] central idea†¦ the civilising mission [is] a spiritual and moral cure, is radically undermined through an ironic literalisation of the trope†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (186). Imperialism sees itself as a cure, which must be directly applied to the heart of Africa to cure it of its backwardness. The paradox is that the cure harmed the â€Å"doctors† too. In the case of Kurtz, he became consumed of his desire for wealth, so that he would be worthy of his Intended. Imperialism, nevertheless, does not cure the uncivilised, but destroys the civilised and their notion of morality. Kurtz engages in immoral acts of waging wars with other tribes to acquire their ivories. Ivories are expensive; they are the symbols of wealth and power. The concept of a new life whets Marlow’s appetite for adventure and fortune too. Despite the skirmish with the natives, he desires to see Kurtz to find out the truth. When he learns the truth, he regrets it. Imperialism stains people’s very core, their very soul. William Atkinson argues the horror of imperialism (374) that Conrad criticises. Wealth and power consumes Kurtz’s humanity. He is sick, not only because of living in a strange land, but more so because of the sickness of being an imperialist tool for human exploitation. The horror that captivates his last moments on earth is his horror and the horror of every European who sets foot on foreign lands to abuse the natives and their resources. The second paradox is that imperialism do not truly civilise the natives, but produces the counter-effect of large-scale dehumanisation that mars both native and Western civilisations. Dehumanisation occurs because of racial prejudice. Hunt Hawkins believes that Conrad criticises imperialism’s goals and means. When Marlow gets the first glimpse of the company's chief accountant’s clean appearance, he appreciates it as a â€Å"miracle† (Conrad 15). The miracle is an unsound image because miracles are holy. Later, as the accountant makes â€Å"correct entries of perfectly correct transactions† (Conrad 16), with the sick agent on his bed and a few feet away, Africans suffer in â€Å"grove of death† (Conrad 16), Conrad is disgusted. A clean outer experience does not have meaning when inside it is a cold soul. Another form of dehumanisation can be seen in t he effects of imperialism. Instead of curing people, Europeans impregnated them with capitalist ideas that destroyed their collectivist way of life. De La Rochere underscores that the â€Å"†¦embodiment of the jungle emphasises the human suffering this ‘civilising mission’ inflicts† (186). Instead of developing the minds and virtues of the natives, the whites only corrupted them with their materialistic and individualistic concerns

Globalization Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Globalization - Research Paper Example The new globalized economy has become dependently structured on modern and digitized culture (Passaris, 2006). This paper will assess the benefits and detriments of information technology in significant areas of industrial structure, workforce, financial markets, healthcare, education, journalism and media. Moreover, the Digital Divide caused by IT access inequalities will be explained. Globalization: Its Benefits and Demerits Globalization is the process of producing a net of linkages through a stream of information, technology, populace, and goods and services. In economics, globalization creates worldwide free market and capital flows, employs international transactions, encourages foreign direct investments, and aids in fast and extensive dispersal of technology (Smith & Doyle, 2002). Pro-globalists affirm that globalization speeds up economic development, thus providing worldwide quality-living; promotes higher profits and presents larger options for low-cost goods and services; raises employment and salaries and assists in the upgrading of working status and defends workers’ rights; and aids in environmental protection and conservation through national funding of ecological development. Moreover, globalization gives assistance and support to second and third world nations through increased economic expansion; alleviates poverty and hunger in the developing nations; safeguards civil rights; and promotes democratic governance. A century ago, today’s experience of modern quality life brought about by the global digitized economy was beyond imagination. The new globalized world created improved health, longer life span, computer literacy, comfort, and higher living standards (Batterson & Weidenbaum, 2001). From an anti-globalist’s standpoint, globalization brings financial disasters and poverty for the sake of greed and power; amplifies global income gap between the rich and poor nations; affects the cross-border displacement of US jobs t o below minimum salary factories unprotected by workers’ rights; and abuses ecology and environment for financial greed, thus worsening environmental conditions. Additionally, a globalized economy subjects developing nations to unjust trade and extra financial burdens; sustains world commerce in mass oppression and slavery; pressures the independence of nations by weakening their national policies on world trade; and risks the health, economy, and social status of the developing nations (Batterson & Weidenbaum, 2001). The Globalization of Information Technology Information Technology (IT) is a motivating channel in global integration through efficient information flow and distribution. The early expansions in computer and telecommunications technology in the nineties have caused extensive upgrading in information access and economic prospects that improved competence in every economic zone. IT system of communication assists the development of manufactured goods, designs, and reserves among nations and their population despite distance (Information Technology and Globalization, 2006). Today, IT products are common and used in virtually all transactions of business and interactions of mankind. The fast development of IT and its applications have redefined global experience. Three decades ago, prior to the introduction of personal desktop computers, people used the typewriter which allow simple paper documentations devoid of text manipulation and storage. Two decades ago, there was

Digital Economy - Literature Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Digital Economy - Literature Review - Essay Example games under the names; The Firm Ville, City Ville, Firm Ville 2, Chef Ville, castle Ville, Zynga Poker, Words With Friends, Scramble With Friends, draw Something, Bubble Safari, Mafia Wars, Ayakashi, Horn, and Respawnables. All these games are provided on Facebook, mobile platforms and other social networking sites. The games are also present on Zynga.Com, Google+, Tencent, Apple iOS and Google Android (Raice, 2012). The company has registered great success in the recent past with a total customer base of about 83, million monthly active users from all over the earth in the year 2010. Her collaboration with the most popular social networking sites and effective exploitation of the available internet resources in the world today has been the main reason behind the success of in her business. Zynga remains top among the most proffered internet games providers for many users from all over the world. The company is as well among the leading employers in the world in general. As per February 25th report on the companys employee database, the company was employing a total of 3,058 persons from across the world. Zynga has put down measures to boost her network and consequently her income earnings across the world following the tremendous drop registered in her performance in the year 2012. The business world, today, is swiftly changing focus to adopt the digital technologies in attracting and reaching as many customers from all over the world as possible. The developments in technology and the expansions in internet services across the globe are the fueling agent to the rapid spread in online applications for international business transactions. The availability of online social networking sites such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter among others have facilitated the development and expansion of online business leading to the rising trends in the expansion of several business enterprises across the globe. The greatest need for Zynga is to reach as many customers

The Right Marketing Communication Mix That Can Help L’oreal Essay Example for Free

The Right Marketing Communication Mix That Can Help L’oreal Essay Title of Project: The right Marketing Communication Mix that can help L’Oreal increase its Shampoo Market Share in the rural market. Abstract of the Study (500 words): This paper aims at devising the right kind of Marketing Communication Mix for L’Oreal, that can help it to increase its market share in the rural market, both effectively and efficiently. L’Oreal Group is the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty Company. Its headquarters are located Paris suburb of Clichy, France. It entered India in 1997, at a time when there was no proper hair care facility there. They have their salons located in the top 100 cities of India, of which 20% contribute to 40% of their total revenue. Their policy is to provide the best quality and experience to the customer, without reducing price ever. But with the saturation of urban market, the emergence of the rural market and increasing cut-throat competition from other cosmetics and beauty giants, L’Oreal will have to take a step into the rural market, in order to increase its market share in India as a whole. Its market share, reported as of now, is 41.5 per cent share of the market in India for hair conditioner, around 20 per cent for hair coloring products, and 6.5 per cent and 4.6 per cent for the skincare and shampoo markets respectively. It is also the leading player in the salon products sector. The rural market is gaining importance day by day. Over 70% India’s one billion plus population lives in around 627,000 villages in rural areas and its growth rate is still high. With a simultaneous increase in the purchasing power of the rural people, as a result of increased income, there has been an increase in demand of cosmetics and other beauty products. It has been termed as the â€Å"woken-up sleeping giant† by many MNCs and they would do well than to ignore it completely, lest they get overwhelmed by competition. In such cases, L’Oreal has no choice, but to establish itself in the Indian rural market as well. As of now HUL holds the largest market share in shampoo in India at 43 percent or Rs 1720 crore, while L’Oreal stands in the 5th position at 4 percent market share or Rs 160 crore in shampoo in India; the total shampoo market share in India being Rs 4000 crore. Thus, this paper aims at laying down the customer preference, awareness and reasons for their choosing other shampoo brands over L’Oreal’s, and accordingly devising the right Marketing Communication Mix to help it increase its market share in the Indian Shampoo Market. Research Questions: Which is the marketing communication that best affects the consumer buying behavior? (Perishable goods) Why some companies fail and some company’s success in rural market arena? Research Methodology: Primary method of data collection will be undertaken like Survey Research Design, as a well as some secondary method of data collection too. Issues Faced Till Now: Whether or not to follow the Experimental Research Design supplementing the survey to be undertaken. Date of Submission final project: 11th November (tentative)

Arthur Conan Doyle Essay Example for Free

Arthur Conan Doyle Essay A critical account of The Speckled Band and The Engineers Thumb by Arthur Conan Doyle  In the story of The Speckled Band a woman called Helen Stoner arrives at Holmes rooms in a state of terror. She is the stepdaughter of Dr Grimesby Roylott, a violent man who spent five years in India and associates only with gipsies, and has such exotic pets as a baboon and a cheetah. Helens mother is now dead, and two years previously her sister died in mysterious circumstances: a strange whistling disturbed her in her sleep for some nights, and on the night of her death she appeared transfixed, able only to shriek, the speckled band! she had been about to marry and now Helen is planning to do the same; her stepfather has moved her to her sisters bedroom next to his and the whistling has recurred. Despite a warning from the maniacal Dr Roylott, Holmes and Watson head for Stoke Moran, examine the house and wait the night in Helens bedroom. Holmes deduction proves correct: Dr Roylott sends a swamp adder (the speckled band) through a ventilator to kill Helen, Holmes cane drives it back and the murderer is poisoned. The main characters in the story consist of: Helen stoner who is the main client. She arrives at Sherlock Holmes rooms in Baker Street to ask him for help. The character of Helen Stoner sets the tone of the story: shivering with fear, her face all drawn and grey, with restless frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. She is obviously a sensible and levelheaded woman: therefore there must be a reason for her terror. The character of Sherlock Holmes in the story appears to be that of an appealing eccentric. In this story he uses his powers of deduction to identify minute details with which to solve the final mystery, for instance he knew you must have started early, and yet you had a good drive in a dog cart, along heavy roads before you reached the station. Through the story he displays elements of humour, after doctor Roylott threatened with a poker he replies, he seems a very amiable person. Subtly alluring to his own physical power by, he picked up the steel poker and with a sudden effort straightened it out again. Whilst examining the premises of Stoke Moran, he threw himself down upon his face with his lens in his hand, and crawled swiftly backwards and forwards, examining minutely the crack between the boards. This illustrates Holmes minute attention to detail. Dr Watson is the ideal narrator of this story. His ability to perceive and describe details is as important as his inability to deduce from them what Holmes can. He says, Holmes, I seem to see dimly what you are hitting at, after Holmes had described the position of the ventilator and the rope. The relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson is one of an intimate friend and associate. In contrast to Holmes, Dr Watson makes the sensible deductions and assumption of the of the ordinary intelligent man. He is portrayed as an amiable man as well as the devoted recorder of Holmes achievements. A vivid description is built up of Dr Roylott by the description of Helen stoner. We know that he came from an aristocratic background. However successive heirs had squandered the money. After taking a medical degree he went to India, where he spent some time in prison from murdering a native servant. She describes his violence of temper approaching to mania.  We are also told that he likes to associate with gypsies and also keeps exotic animals, for example, a cheetah and a baboon. In another passage Dr Roylott enters Holmes room and is described as a huge man with a face marked with every evil passion. He is said to resemble a fierce old bird of pray. We are led also to believe that Dr Roylott is violent towards his Stepdaughter when Homes sees burses on her wrists. The story is set during the Victorian era with the backdrop of the decaying grandeur of Stoke Moran this help this links closely to the character of Dr Roylott as a fallen aristocrat and also helps to create a mysterious atmosphere. The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone with a high central portion, and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were broken, and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly caved in, a picture of ruin.

Elements Of Struggle Between Passion And Reason

Elements Of Struggle Between Passion And Reason In nineteenth century literature a lot of importance was given to passion and emotional appeal in preference to reason and logic. Creative writing and fiction were usually charged with passion and struck a chord with the readers. For any work of fiction or non-fiction the main content needs to have a reasonable plot, theme, structure and organization for it to be of sustained popularity and wide readership. The books included in this study, Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley have elements of both passion and reason even though a clash between these two elements is evident in both stories. Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much (Paton 101). In the above lines from the story, the writer brings about the struggle between the feelings of ownership and belonging of the protagonist, Stephen Kumalo, and the fear of his beloved country falling apart because of racial discrimination and racial hostilities between the whites and the blacks in South Africa. The other theme of clash is between the route to progress and development for the blacks in urban centers like Johannesburg at the cost of the breaking up of families and tribes in rural South Africa. The dichotomy is between progress and urbanization on the one hand and preserving traditions and strengthening relationships on the other. The main themes are of the clash between the privileged and the colonized, the haves and the have-nots. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley has drawn the readers attention towards the clash between science and the occult. Victor Frankenstein who creates the monster represents reason and the monster represents passion. Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow (Shelley 50). In the above lines, the author has tried to elaborate on the pitfalls that the mere quest for knowledge devoid of responsibility and control can have on mortal lives. So the struggle in this story is between reason in the form of science and scientific invention against the passion of the monster which is a creation of the scientist. Frankenstein is a story of an irresponsible scientist who in the pursuit of knowledge creates a monster that nobody is able to control and the monster continues to perpetrate atrocities and chaos. It is a lesson for the reader to bear in mind that curiosity and the mission to gain knowledge is good but the seeker of knowledge must also be capable of taking responsibility and have courage to bear negative consequences in case a need arises. There are a couple of common themes in both these novels. The colonizing of black people in South Africa and disbanding families and tribes in order to profit from cheap labor created the monster of racial hooliganism and lawlessness in Johannesburg. The whites created the black labor force but did nothing to ensure that they remain happy and rooted. The abject poverty and dire living conditions of the black workers created the rift between the rich mine and factory owners and the displaced black laborers. Similarly in Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein created the monster but did nothing to provide a sense of belonging and ownership which encouraged the monster to feel disowned and become wild. The themes of colonialism and imperialism are present in both novels. It is the struggle between the white and black, the rich and poor, the rulers and the ruled in Alan Patons story while the theme of the creator and the created permeates Mary Shelleys novel. Isolation and the sense of lack of belonging have created both the monster and Absalom. The monster seeks the love and acknowledgment of his creator while Absalom leaves his village, Ndotsheni, to seek knowledge and employment. So both the monster and Absalom feel isolated from their people and take to ways that harms others more than they can control. Stephen Kumalo is the pastor of a small village in South Africa and lives in his own world, quite disconnected with the times and happenings in urbanized centers like Johannesburg. When he comes to Johannesburg to help rehabilitate his sister, Gertrude, he is brought face to face with the realities of life in South Africa. He realizes that his world was collapsing and that the main tragedy of his people was that things like relationships and innocence were breaking down and no one was doing anything to mend them. He says, It suited the white man to break the tribe, but it has not suited him to build something in its place (Paton 46). Stephen Kumalo is a man obsessed with a singular quest to seek his son and rebuild the community. Similarly, Victor Frankenstein is obsessed with seeking knowledge and acquiring power. He wanted to play God and test his ability to give life to an animal (Shelley 51). The conclusion of both the stories engenders calm and relative hope. In the end Absalom realizes his mistake and is reconciled to his fate and Stephen Kumalo is able to bring his sister and Absaloms pregnant wife back to the village to try and rebuild his tribe with the help of James Jarvis. The monster in Frankenstein grieves over the death of his creator and is reconciled to his self-imposed exile in the North Pole and subsequent death. He realizes that his atrocities in order to seek revenge did not yield the desired results and he continued to be abandoned and isolated. In both stories, there is a sense of catharsis with Absalom writing home to his parents and the monster grieving over his master. Even though both ends are tragic there is a faint ray of hope in both novels.

Big Game Hunting Should be Allowed :: Benefits of Hunting

When a Minnesota dentist killed a prized African lion named "Cecil" he received an onslaught of criticism and reignited the debate concerning big game hunting.  Is big game hunting wrong? Should big game hunting continue? Big game hunting has been a very controversial topic for some time and these types of questions are being asked daily. There are a lot of people for it and a lot of people against it. This issue causes a lot of extreme behaviors and ideas by both sides. Those who oppose it believe it to be morally wrong, unfair to the animals and damaging to the environment. Those individuals for it believe that it is the citizens' rights and a way to be involved in the environment. Hunting is the law and shall not be infringed upon. In defense of the hunters' I believe that there are five main issues of concern. The first big issue concerning big game hunting is that it is considered to be the citizens' rights. Anti-hunters would believe that there is no right for anyone to take the life of another living creature. It would be morally wrong. The thought of going out and killing an animal for fun is just appalling to these individuals. Maybe they believe hunters will rear a generation of killers. They would argue that there are many other things in this world that could bring that sort of excitement to a person. The right to hunt is the law. The twenty-ninth Article states, "...securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others..." If this is the law then it can not be infringed. With this there really is no question of big game hunting. These rights are personal rights of the citizens of the United States. Parents can choose what they want for there own children and let them do what they desire, and if that desire is hunting then let it be. When other people who oppose hunting try and stop this freedom then they are the ones at fault and are doing wrong by infringing on the rights of others. These actions are illegal and should be taken care of. In C M Dixon's article, "The Banning of Hunting is an Affront to Freedom," he stated that, "He has never heard of hunters violating the just requirements of public order or general welfare" (2). From the hunting experiences that I have had I agree with this statement one hundred percent.

Shakespeares Othello Essay - Honest Iago :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Othello

Othello - Honest Iago The most interesting and round character in the tragic play Othello, by William Shakespeare, is "honest" Iago. Through carefully though-out words and actions, Iago manipulates others to do things in which he benefits. Iago is the main driving force in "Othello," pushing several characters towards their tragic end. Iago is not a traditional villain for he plays a unique and complex role. Unlike most villains in tragic plays, evidence of Iago's deception is not clearly visible. Iago is smart and an excellent judge of people and their characters. He uses this keen sense of knowledge to his advantage. For example, Iago knows that Roderigo has feelings for Desdemona and assumes he would do anything to have her as his own. Iago attempts to manipulate Roderigo by saying: It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor- put money in thy purse- nor he his to her: It is a violent commencement, and thou shalt see and answerable sequestration; put but money in thy purse. [Act I, Scene III]. By playing on Roderigo's hopes, Iago swindles money and jewels from Roderigo, making himself a substantial profit. Iago also says, "Thus do I ever make my fool my purse" [Act I, Scene III] once Roderigo has left. "Honest" Iago cleverly disguises his own goals as Roderigo blindly follows him. Iago continually operates with alterier motives in "Othello." Iago takes advantage of his friendships with Cassio as well as Roderigo. Cassio blindly follows Iago, thinking the entire time that Iago is trying to help him. During this whole time, Iago plans the demise of Cassio, his supposed friend. In order to obtain Cassio's position as lieutenant, Iago convinces Cassio to take another drink, knowing very well that it will make him drunk and disgrace him. Iago obviously tries to tarnish Cassio's   character when he says, "What, man! 'Tis a night of revels: the gallants desire it" [Act II, Scene III]. Iago is able to make Cassio defy his own reasoning and reluctantly take another drink. As a result of his devious scheming, Iago's achieves his goal and Othello terminates Cassio as his lieutenant. Iago successfully manipulates the people around him by building a trust, a trust in which all of Iago's victims believe to be an honest trust. The friendship and honesty Iago falsely imposes upon Othello makes it easy for Othello to never imagine the possibility that Iago has evil motives. Othello holds Iago as his close friend and advisor. He believes Iago to be a person, "of exceeding honesty, [who] knows all qualities,

Bontsha And Gimpel :: essays research papers

Faith is believed to be one of the most important elements attached to the life of a human being. Faith brings meaning to life. It is the essence that ties a person to life no matter the struggle encountered. Whenever some one looses faith in the people of their society, all he has felt is a religious believe which can be translated into “faith in God(s)';. In the stories “Bontsha the Silent'; and “Gimpel the Fool'; by Isaac Loeb Peretz and Isaac Bashevis Singer respectively, the protagonists are victims of tremendous sufferings, where faith is the only way out. However, the faith focused by both authors differ somewhat. Peretz prioritizes faith in the divine, while Singer elaborates faith in man around their protagonists. First, in his tale “Bontsha the Silent';, Peretz seems to suggest that a person who has lost faith in man ought to have, at least, faith God. One must not go without faith just because he had run into some sort of difficulty or been victim of injustice during his life. Peretz expresses his believe through the main character, Bontsha. He describes Bontsha as the most unfortunate imaginable human being on earth and yet never complaining about his adversity. Ever since the first day Bontsha was born, no one has cared of him. He was born with silence and passed away with silence. During his lifetime, he had to haul heavy loads stumbling at each step and begged for the pennies that were rightfully his, and even then, sometimes he did not get paid. Further, he knew he had been taken advantage of, and still, he remained silent. Once he had run into luck by saving a man’s life who then made him a coachman and married him off. But his luck did not last for long, as his great benef actor and philanthropist went into bankruptcy and never got what he had earned. Peretz develops his character in such way implying that perhaps Bontsha had so much faith in God that he did not care any of his sufferings; he lost hope with mankind. When all faith for man is lost, one should at least believe in God for he might be rewarded in “the other world';. Indeed, when Bontsha dies, he rewarded for having maintained his faith in God and never complained to him. Second, in “Gimpel the Fool';, Singer demonstrates the importance of faith in man one must have.

Notes for Top Girls

Top Girls by Caryl Churchill Copyright Notice  ©1998-2002;  ©2002 by Gale Cengage. Gale is a division of Cengage Learning. Gale and Gale Cengage are trademarks used herein under license. For complete copyright information on these eNotes please visit: http://www. enotes. com/top-girls/copyright eNotes: Table of Contents 1. Top Girls: Introduction 2. Summary  ¦ Act 1 Summary  ¦ Act 2 Summary 3. Caryl Churchill Biography 4. Characters 5. Themes 6. Style 7. Historical Context 8. Critical Overview 9.Essays and Criticism  ¦ The Importance of Angie in Top Girls  ¦ Feminist Drama: The Politics of the Self: Churchill and Keatley  ¦ De-realised Women: Performance and Identity in Top Girls 10. Compare and Contrast 11. Topics for Further Study 12. What Do I Read Next? 13. Bibliography and Further Reading Introduction Since its earliest productions, Caryl Churchill's Top Girls was regarded as a unique, if difficult, play about the challenges working women face in the contemporary b usiness world and society at large.Premiering on August 28, 1982, in the Royal Court Theatre in London before making its New York debut on December 28, 1982, in the Public Theatre, Top Girls won an Obie Award in 1983 and was the runner-up for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. The play is regularly performed around the world and has quickly become part of the canon of women's theater. Top Girls helped solidify Churchill's reputation as an important playwright. Critics praise Top Girls for a number of reasons.Churchill explores the price of success paid for by the central character, Marlene, while using unusual techniques including a nonlinear construction, an overlapping dialogue, and a mix of fantasy and reality. The last occurs at a dinner party celebrating Marlene's promotion, which is attended by five women from different times in history, literature, and art. The dinner party is the Top Girls 1 first scene of the play and, to many critics, the highlight of Top Girls. Churchill br ings up many tough questions over the course of the play, including what success is and if women's progress in the workplace has been a good or bad thing.While many critics compliment the play on its handling of such big ideas in such a singular fashion, some thought Top Girls was disjointed and its message muddled. As John Russell Taylor of Plays & Players wrote, â€Å"Like most of Churchill's work, it is about nothing simple and easily capsulated. † Summary Act 1 Summary Act 1, Scene 1 Top Girls opens in a restaurant where Marlene is hosting a dinner party for five friends. She has recently been promoted at work. The five guests are all women that are either long-dead or are fictional characters from literature or paintings.The first to come are Isabella Bird and Lady Nijo. Nijo and Isabella discuss their lives, including their families. Dull Gret and Pope Joan, who was elected to the papacy in the ninth century, appear. The conversation wanders between subjects, including religion and the love lives of Nijo and Isabella. Isabella goes on about her travel experiences. Joan talks about dressing and living as a male from the age of twelve so that she could further her education. Marlene proposes a toast to her guests. They, in turn, insist on toasting Marlene and her success. Joan relates her disturbing story.While she enjoyed being the pope, she also had a discreet affair with a chamberlain and became pregnant. In denial about her state, she gave birth to her child during a papal procession. Joan was stoned to death, and her child, she believes, was also killed. While Joan relates her story, Nijo talks about her four children being born, and only being able to see one of them after having given birth. Isabella talks about how she never had children. Marlene wonders why they are all so miserable. The final guest arrives. She is Patient Griselda, a character in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.Griselda tells her story. Though she was a peasant gir l, she was asked to be the wife of a local prince, but only if she obeyed him without question. Griselda agreed, though it later meant losing the two children she bore him—they were taken from her as infants. Then Griselda was sent back to her father with nothing but a slip to wear. Her husband called her back to help him prepare for his next wedding to a girl from France. The girl was her daughter—all this was a test of her loyalty. He took Griselda back, and the family was reunited. Marlene is upset by Griselda's tale.Nijo is also perturbed because her children were never returned to her. Gret finally speaks up about her journey through hell, and how she beat the devils. The scene ends with Isabella talking about the last trip she took. Act 1, Scene 2 The scene opens in the Top Girls employment agency in London. Marlene is interviewing Jeanine for possible placement. Marlene tells Jeanine that if she is to be sent on a job with prospects, she must not tell them that she is getting married or might have children. Marlene evaluates Jeanine and suggests jobs based on her perception of Jeanine's future.Act 1, Scene 3 This scene takes place at night in Joyce's backyard in Suffolk. Joyce is Marlene's elder sister. Joyce's sixteen-year-old daughter Angie and her twelve-year-old friend Kit are playing in a shelter they built in the backyard. Joyce calls for Angie, but Angie and Kit ignore her until she goes back into the house. Angie says she wants to kill her mother. Introduction 2 Angie and Kit discuss going to the movies. Kit gets mad at Angie when she talks about dumb stuff. Angie desperately wants to leave home. Kit believes they should move to New Zealand in case of a war.Angie is indifferent because she has a big secret. She tells Kit she is going to London to see her aunt. Angie believes that Marlene is really her mother. Joyce sneaks up on them. Joyce will not let them go to the movies until Angie cleans her room. Angie leaves, and Kit informs Joyce that she wants to be a nuclear physicist. When Angie returns, she is wearing a nice dress that is a little too small for her. Joyce becomes angry because Angie has not cleaned her room. It starts to rain. Joyce and Kit go inside. Angie stays outside. When Kit returns to get her, Angie threatens to kill her mother again. Act 2 SummaryAct 2, Scene 1 It is Monday morning at Top Girls. Win and Nell, who work at the agency, are talking. Win tells Nell about her weekend that she spent at her married boyfriend's house while his wife was out of town. The conversation turns to office gossip. They consider changing jobs as Marlene has been promoted over them, limiting their prospects. Still, Nell and Win are glad Marlene got the job over another coworker, Howard. Marlene enters late. Win and Nell tell her that they are glad she got the promotion rather than Howard. Win interviews Louise, a forty-six-year-old woman who has been in the same job for twenty-one years.Louise has done everyt hing for her company, but has spent twenty years in middle management with no opportunities to go higher. Win believes there will be only limited openings for her. In the main office, Angie walks up to Marlene. Marlene does not recognize her at first. Angie has come to London on her own to see her aunt, and she intends to stay for a while. It is not clear if Joyce knows where Angie is. Angie becomes upset when Marlene does not seem like she wants her to stay. Their conversation is interrupted by the appearance of Mrs. Kidd, Howard's wife. Mrs.Kidd is upset because Howard cannot accept that Marlene got the promotion to managing director over him. In part, he is disturbed because she is a woman. Mrs. Kidd wants Marlene to turn down the promotion so that he can have it. Mrs. Kidd leaves in a huff when Marlene is rude to her. Angie is proud of her aunt's saucy attitude. In another interview, Nell talks to Shona, who claims to be twenty-nine and to have worked in sales on the road. As th e interview progresses, it becomes clear that Shona has been lying. She is only twenty-one and has no real work experience.In the main office, Win sits down and talks to Angie, who was left there by Marlene while she is working. Angie tells Win that she wants to work at Top Girls. Win begins to tell Angie her life story, but Angie falls asleep. Nell comes in and informs her that Howard has had a heart attack. When Marlene returns, Win tells her about Angie wanting to work at Top Girls. Marlene does not think Angie has much of a future there. Act 2, Scene 2 This scene takes place a year earlier in Joyce's kitchen. Marlene is passing out presents for Joyce and Angie. One of the gifts is the nice dress that Angie wore in act 1, scene 2.While Angie goes to her room to try it on, Joyce and Marlene are talking. Joyce had no idea that Marlene was coming. Marlene believed Joyce had invited her there. Angie made the arrangements, lying to both of them. Angie returns to show off the dress. Th ey chide her for her deception. Angie reminds her that the last time she visited was for her ninth birthday. Marlene learns that Joyce's husband left her three years ago. It is getting Act 1 Summary 3 late, and Angie is sent to bed. Marlene will sleep on the couch. After Angie leaves to get ready for bed, Joyce and Marlene continue their discussion about their lives.The sisters' conversation turns into an argument. Marlene believes that Joyce is jealous of her success. Joyce criticizes the decisions Marlene has made, including leaving her home and giving up her child, Angie. Marlene offers to send her money, but Joyce refuses. Marlene is excited about a future under the new prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, while Joyce cannot stand the prime minister. They talk about the horrid life their mother led with their alcoholic father. It becomes clear the sisters have very different views of the world. As Marlene nears sleep on the couch, Angie walks in, having had a bad dream. Frightenin g,† is all she says. Biography Churchill was born on September 3, 1938, in London, England, the daughter and only child of Robert Churchill and his wife. Churchill's father was a political cartoonist; her mother worked as a model, secretary, and actress. Churchill began writing stories and doing shows for her parents as a child. After spending her early childhood in London, the family moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in about 1949, where Churchill spent most of her formative years. Caryl Churchill In 1956, Churchill returned to England to enter Oxford University.While studying literature at Lady Margaret Hall, she began writing plays for student productions. Her first play was written as a favor for a friend. One of Churchill's student plays, Downstairs, won first prize at the National Student Drama Festival. Churchill graduated with her B. A. in 1960, intending to become a serious writer. Act 2 Summary 4 Family matters stymied her plans. In 1961, Churchill married David Har ter, a lawyer, and had three sons over the next decade. Still, she managed to write about thirty radio dramas, usually one act, throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, as well as some television plays in the early 1970s.Many of these early plays were related to her life experiences and were somewhat depressing, but they did garner Churchill some notice for her writing abilities. In the early 1970s, Churchill turned to theater, initially writing for fringe theater groups. Owners, a tragic farce, was her first major play, produced by a fringe group in London in 1972. This production led to her position as a resident playwright at the Royal Court Theatre from 1974 to 1975. Churchill began exploring feminist ideas with her first play for the Royal Court, Objections to Sex and Violence (1974).Churchill continued to explore feminism with Vinegar Tom (1976). She wrote the play both with the help of and for Monstrous Regiment, a feminist touring-theater company. Vinegar Tom and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976) use historical settings to discuss repression. These plays garnered Churchill more attention and critical praise. In 1979, Churchill's Cloud Nine had its first production. This was her first big hit, and had a long run on both sides of the Atlantic. The Obie Award-winning play was set in the Victorian era, with the roles played by their physical opposites. For example, a man played an unhappy and unfulfilled wife.Critics enthusiastically praised Churchill's originality. Churchill followed this success with Top Girls (1982), a play about feminism and the price of success for women. Though some did not regard it as highly as Cloud Nine, the play cemented her reputation and won her another Obie. Churchill wrote plays on a variety of topics throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Fen (1983), which focused on female tenant farmers, won her the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. In 1986, she wrote Serious Money about the London stock exchange. Churchill used music and dialogue that rhymed in the play, which also won the Blackburn Prize and many other awards.She continued to experiment with technique in Mad Forest (1990) and The Skriker (1994), which incorporated music and dance. Though Churchill's output decreased in the late 1990s, she continues to push the limits of traditional dramatic forms using dance and music, and other unexpected constructions. Characters Angie Angie is the sixteen-year-old adopted daughter of Joyce. Angie is the biological daughter of Marlene, but was given up by her birth mother, who was only seventeen at the time and had career ambitions. In act 1 of Top Girls, Angie realizes that Marlene is her mother, though she has not been told directly.Both Marlene and Joyce do not think highly of Angie and believe her future is limited. She has already left high school with no qualifications. She was in remedial classes, and her best friend is Kit, who is four years younger. Angie is frustrated and wants to murder her mother. Instead, sh e runs away to visit her aunt in London and hopes to live with her. Previously, Angie tricked Marlene into visiting her and Joyce. Angie is Marlene's embarrassment, but she is also one of the things that links her to the women at the dinner party. Isabella Bird Isabella is one of Marlene's dinner party guests in act 1, scene 1.She is a Scottish woman who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and who traveled extensively later in life. In Top Girls, Isabella is the first to arrive at the party and dominates the conversation in a self-absorbed manner. She talks on and on about her travels; her complex relationship with her sister, Hennie; her clergyman father, and husband; her illnesses; religion; and her lack of children. While Isabella does listen and respond to the others, she mostly tries to figure out her own life and what it meant. She could never be as good as her sister, but her adventures made Biography 5 er happy. Isabella is one of the characters who he lps Marlene define herself. Dull Gret Dull Gret is one of Marlene' s dinner guests in act 1, scene 1, and the third to arrive. Gret is the subject of a painting by Brueghel entitled â€Å"Dulle Griet. † In the painting, she wears an apron and armor and leads a group of women into hell to fight with devils. Gret is generally quiet through most of the dinner, answering questions only when directly asked and making a few comments on the side. Near the end of the scene, Gret makes a speech about her trip to hell and the fight with the devils.Like all the dinner guests, Gret's story reflects something about Marlene's life. Jeanine Marlene interviews Jeanine for placement by Top Girls in act 1. She is engaged and is saving money to get married. Marlene is not supportive of Jeanine's ambitions to work in advertising or in a job that might have some travel, but she categorizes her according to what Marlene believes she will be able to accomplish. Pope Joan Pope Joan is one of Marlene 's dinner party guests in act 1, scene 1, and the fourth to arrive. She is a woman from the ninth century who allegedly served as the pope from 854 to 856.Pope Joan is somewhat aloof, making relevant, intelligent declarations throughout the conversation. When the topic turns to religion, she cannot help but point out heresies—herself included—though she does not attempt to convert the others to her religion. Joan reveals some of her life. She began dressing as a boy at age twelve so she could continue to study; she lived the rest of her life as a man, though she had male lovers. Joan was eventually elected pope. She became pregnant by her chamberlain lover and delivered her baby during a papal procession. For this, Joan was stoned to death.At the end of the scene, Joan recites a passage in Latin. Like all the dinner guests, Joan's life and attitude reflects something about Marlene. Joyce Joyce is Marlene's elder sister and mother to Angie. Unlike her younger sister, Jo yce stayed in the same area and social class she grew up in. Joyce is unambitious and unhappy. She was married to Frank, but she told him to leave three years previously because he was having affairs with other women. She supports herself and Angie by cleaning houses. Because Joyce seemed to be unable to have children, she adopted Angie as an infant when Marlene decided to give her up.But Joyce soon got pregnant and miscarried the child because of the demands of raising Angie. Joyce resents both Angie and Marlene, in part because of her miscarriage. She calls Angie a lump and useless. Marlene is too ambitious and clever for Joyce. Yet Joyce has pride. She will not take Marlene's money, and she does not cater to her crying. Joyce maintains her working class loyalty and stands her ground when Marlene starts to sing the praises of Margaret Thatcher. Despite such differences, Marlene and Joyce are very much alike.They both believe they are right and do what they must to survive in their different worlds. Mrs. Kidd Mrs. Kidd is the wife of Howard, the man who got passed over in favor of Marlene for the managing director position at Top Girls. In act 2, Mrs. Kidd comes to the office and tries to get Marlene to turn down the position. Mrs. Kidd hopes Marlene will understand how much it would hurt Howard's pride and livelihood. Marlene is not impressed by her pleas, and Mrs. Kidd leaves after insulting Marlene for being a hard, working woman. Kit Kit is the twelve-year-old best friend of Angie.Unlike Angie, Kit is clever and plans on being a nuclear Characters 6 physicist. The girls have been friends for years, though Kit gets annoyed by Angie's limitations. In some ways, Kit is a younger version of Marlene. Louise Louise is interviewed by Win for placement by Top Girls in act 2. Louise is a forty-six-year-old woman stuck in middle management who believes she has been overlooked for promotion and underappreciated by her present firm. Win is not particularly supportive of Louise's desires to use her experience elsewhere and does not offer much hope for a better position.Like Marlene, Win categorizes Louise according to what she believes Louise will be able to accomplish. Marlene Marlene is the central character in Top Girls. She is a successful businesswoman who has recently been promoted to managing director of Top Girls, an employment agency. To celebrate, she has a dinner party at a restaurant with five guests, all of whom are women who are either dead or fictional characters from literature and paintings. Marlene's own life shares some parallels with these women. Marlene's adult life has been focused on her career, to the exclusion of nearly everything else.She previously worked in the United States and has done well for herself. Marlene has little to no contact with her family. Her alcoholic father is dead, and her long-suffering mother is in some sort of home. Marlene does not get along with her sister Joyce, who has remained part of the wo rking class and lives in the same neighborhood where they grew up. Marlene let Joyce raise her daughter, Angie. Marlene became pregnant at age seventeen, and because the then-married Joyce did not have a child, she allowed her to adopt the baby. Marlene has as little respect and interest in Angie as Joyce does.Like the women she interviews at Top Girls, Marlene believes Angie's future is limited. Yet Marlene's own life is just as circumscribed, but in different ways. Her success has come at a high price, costing her both her empathy and her relationships. Nell Nell is one of the employees at the Top Girls employment agency. She is happy that Marlene got the promotion over Howard, but she has her own career ambitions and might want to find a job with better prospects. In the meantime, her boyfriend, Derek, has asked her to marry him, but she does not know if she will accept.Her career seems more important to her than the marriage. During the play, Nell conducts an interview with Shon a, whom Nell believes might be good for Top Girls. Nell is disappointed to learn that Shona has lied about everything on her application. Lady Nijo Lady Nijo is one of Marlene's dinner party guests in act 1, scene 1, and the second to arrive. She is a thirteenth-century Japanese courtesan to the Emperor of Japan. She later became a Buddhist monk. Like Isabella, Nijo is somewhat self-absorbed, though not to the same degree.Nijo tells the others about her life, including information about her father, her lovers, her four children (only one of whom she ever saw), symbolic clothing, and her time as a traveling monk. But she also listens respectfully to the stories of others and acknowledges her limitations. Nijo liked her silk clothing and easy life with the Emperor. By the end of the scene, Nijo is in tears. Like all the dinner guests, Nijo's life reflects something about Marlene's. Patient Griselda Patient Griselda is one of Marlene's dinner guests in act 1, scene 1, and the last to a rrive.She is a fictional character, appearing in ‘‘The Clerk's Tale’’ in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, among other stories. As soon as she arrives, Marlene has Griselda tell her story. Griselda was a peasant girl who was asked to marry a local prince, but only if she would obey him without question. She agreed and bore him two children who were taken away from her while they were still infants. She did not question the decision. Her Characters 7 husband sent Griselda back home with nothing more than a slip to wear. She went without question.He sent for her to help him plan his second marriage to a young French girl. Griselda came back. At a pre-wedding feast, he revealed that the girl and her page/brother were their children and all these incidents were tests of her loyalty. Like all the dinner guests, Griselda's story reflects an aspect of Marlene's life. Shona Shona is interviewed by Nell for placement by the Top Girls agency in the second act. Shona tries to pass herself off as a twenty-nine-year-old woman with sales experience, which Nell believes at first.As the interview progresses, it becomes clear that Shona has been making up a story. She is really twenty-one and has no job experience. Shona is certain that she could handle high-profile jobs, but Nell does not believe her. Win Win is one of the employees at the Top Girls employment agency. Like Nell, she is glad that Marlene got the promotion over Howard, but she has her own career ambitions and might move on. She is relatively well educated and has previously lived in several different countries. Win spent the previous weekend with her married boyfriend at his house, while his wife was out of town.During the course of the play, Win interviews Louise for a job; she shares Marlene's callous attitude toward Louise. Themes Choices and Consequences Nearly every character in Top Girls has made or is in the process of making life-changing decisions with important consequ ences. The dinner party in act 1, scene 1 exemplifies this. Each of the historical figures has made a hard choice. For example, Pope Joan chose to live like a boy, and then a man, in public. When she became pregnant by her secret lover, the stoning death of her and her baby were consequences of her chosen life.Joyce chose to adopt Angie, which led to a certain life path. Joyce believes that she miscarried her own child because of the demands of raising Angie. Marlene also made several hard choices. She became a career woman who spent some time working in the States. Marlene is estranged from her family, including her biological daughter, Angie, and does not seem to have many close friends, female or male. Her dinner party in celebration of her promotion consists of women who are dead or do not really exist, not with friends or family. She has no love relationship.Marlene is very much alone because of her life choices. While her daughter Angie has already made two life choices dropping out of school at the age of sixteen with no qualifications, and running away to London to live with her aunt/mother—the consequences of these actions in her life are unclear. Success and Failure Success is an important part of Marlene's life in Top Girls, defining who she is and whose company she enjoys. The dinner party is meant to celebrate her promotion to managing director as well as the successes of her guests. Joan became the pope. Isabella traveled the world.Gret fought the devils in hell. Griselda survived her husband's extraordinary tests of loyalty. Marlene sees these women as successful, though they are not in her real, everyday life. Marlene's personal life is a failure because of her success in business. She has no real friends in the play, and she has not seen her sister or biological daughter in seven years. At the dinner party, she moans at one point, ‘‘Oh God, why are we all so miserable? † Yet, Marlene believes that Joyce is mostl y a failure because she did not grow beyond her neighborhood; instead, she got married and raised a child.Joyce cleans houses for a living, and she is not impressed by Marlene's life. Joyce does not really see her world in the same terms of success or failure. She does what is necessary to survive and to rear Angie. However, both sisters agree that Angie has no chance of being a success in life. Angie has no education, no ambition, and is regarded as dumb. The best she might do is Themes 8 menial work and marry. While this describes Joyce's life, both Joyce and Marlene perceive that Angie might not be able to take care of herself. This would be the ultimate failure in their eyes. They agree that one should support oneself.Class Conflict Marlene and Joyce's differing definitions of success stem in part from a class conflict. Marlene has moved beyond her working-class roots to a middle-class life by education and persistence. She holds a management position in a demanding field, an em ployment agency. She even lived and worked in the United States for several years. Marlene supports the political agenda of Great Britain's female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, even though she is perceived as anti-working class. Joyce remains firmly working class, leading a life only slightly better than her parents.She works as a cleaning lady to support Angie. Unlike Joyce and Marlene's mother, who stayed with her alcoholic husband and had nothing, Joyce told her husband to leave when she could no longer take his controlling nature and numerous affairs. Joyce regards Thatcher as evil, comparing her to Adolf Hitler for her attitudes towards working-class people. Joyce believes that Marlene thinks she is too good for her. Marlene says she does not like working-class people, but she does not really include her sister as one of them. The pair never come to an understanding on class.Sex Roles and Sexism Throughout the text of Top Girls is an implicit discussion of what society exp ects women to be. Each of the guests at the dinner party defines womanhood in a particular era, either by what they are or by what they are not. Isabella, for example, could not live up to the standards of femininity defined by her sister, Hennie. Yet Isabella was a traveler who saw more of the world than most men. Marlene also breaks out of the traditional roles for women, by virtue of her career. While Marlene has benefited economically from her career, her disregard for sex roles has its problems.She is not married, and it does not seem like she is in a long-term relationship. Joyce does not really like her. Mrs. Kidd, the wife of the man who was passed over for the promotion that Marlene got, begs her to not take it. Mrs. Kidd believes that the upset Howard should not have to work for a woman. Further, Mrs. Kidd hopes that Marlene will give up the promotion because Howard has to support his family. Mrs. Kidd calls Marlene â€Å"unnatural† for her uncompromising stand on t he promotion and her attachment to her job. Marlene does not give in, but such sexism does not make her life and choices any easier.Style Setting Top Girls is a feminist drama/fantasy set in contemporary times. The action is confined to two places in England, London and Suffolk. The realistic action takes place in two settings. One is the Top Girls employment agency, where Marlene works. There, potential clients are interviewed, and Angie shows up, hoping to stay with Marlene. The other is Joyce's home and backyard, where Marlene visits and Angie and Kit scheme. The fantasy dinner party that opens Top Girls also takes place in London. (In many productions, the restaurant is called La Prima Donna. Though the dinner is clearly a fantasy because all the guests are dead or fictional, the setting is very real. Fantasy versus Reality In act 1, scene 1, Marlene hosts a dinner party with guests both long dead (Pope Joan, Lady Nijo, and Isabella Bird) and fictional (Dull Gret and Patient Gri selda). While Marlene listens to and guides the conversation—injecting only bits about herself—these five women share their stories. The party is ostensibly to celebrate Marlene's promotion at work, but she intends it to be a celebration of all their successes. Though Style 9 hese women have each achieved something they are proud of, success has come at a large price in their lives. The dinner party itself shows the tensions between fantasy and reality because the guests are not â€Å"real† to the rest of the characters in Top Girls, only to Marlene. Yet the ideas and problems brought up by the fantasy women are very real. These issues echo in the plot and dialogue of the rest of the text, adding another dimension to the tension between fantasy and reality. Time Top Girls is not a linear play, but one in which time is used in an unusual fashion. The last scene of the lay, act 2, scene 2, is the only part that takes place at a specific time in the story, about a year earlier than the other events. This flashback ties up some of the loose ends created by the story. The rest of the scenes, even the action within act 2, scene 1, do not have to take place in the order presented, though all are set in the present. The events are linked thematically, but not by a specific sequence of time. In addition, the idea of time is toyed with at the dinner party in act 1, scene 1. None of the guests can really exist at the same time, yet they share many of the same concerns.Multiple Casting Often when Top Girls is performed—including its premieres in England and the United States— several parts are played by the same actresses. Only the actress who plays Marlene, the central character in the play, has only one role. Thus guests at the dinner party are played by actresses who also play contemporary characters. Such casting decisions create visual links between seemingly disparate women. In the original production, for example, the same actress played Dull Gret and Angie, implying that these characters might have something in common.Similarly, another actress took on the roles of Pope Joan and Louise, drawing another parallel. This casting technique further emphasizes how alike the concerns of the historical characters and contemporary characters really are. Historical Context In the early 1980s, Great Britain was ruled by women. Though Queen Elizabeth II was only a royal figurehead, real political power was held by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. A member of the Conservative Party, Thatcher had been elected on May 3, 1979, and proceeded to put her own stamp on British life over the next decade or so.She was reelected in 1983 and 1987, and held office until late 1990, when she received a vote of no confidence and was replaced by fellow Conservative John Major. Thatcher had been the longest-serving prime minister in Great Britain since the nineteenth century. To improve the British economy, Thatcher dismantled the social ist practices that were put in place in the post-World War II era. She privatized major industries, like coal mining and telecommunications, which had been run by the British government, and she cut down on the power of trade unions.Because Thatcher's revolution benefited the middle- and upper-classes and seemed to hurt the working- and lower-classes, she was very unpopular among the latter groups. Unemployment continued to rise, and by 1982, over three and a quarter million people were unemployed. With cuts in both welfare and other social programs, such people's lives were becoming much harder. Though the economy was strong and interest rates and inflation were down, real living standards had been falling slightly for several years; international trade was also down. In 1982, Thatcher and the Conservative party had some popularity problems among the general population.National morale was not particularly high until the Falklands War broke out. The Falkland Islands were a British p ossession in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Argentina. The group of islands are small and only about 1,800 people were living there. The territory was at the center of a dispute between Argentina and Great Britain for a number of years, and the two countries were in negotiations over them. In the spring of 1982, Argentina became impatient and invaded the Falklands. Great Britain responded and reclaimed the islands before Argentina quickly surrendered.Though there were approximately 243 British casualties, the victory Historical Context 10 improved national morale and the repute of Thatcher and the Conservatives. The popularity of the Labour party went down. Thatcher was but one symbol in the 1980s of powerful women. There was a concrete change in the position of working women. In Great Britain in the early 1980s, women made up forty percent of the labor force, and over sixty percent of women aged twenty to sixty-four were working. Marriage rates fell in the 1980s, after having remained stable for many years.Before that decade nearly every adult woman was married at some point. Those that did marry gave up working after having a child, although sometimes they went back to work after their children went to school or reached adulthood. Most women who worked were employed in poorly paid white-collar, service, and industrial occupations. Approximately seventy-five percent of women did personal services work, clerical work, retail work, or health, education, or welfare work. The number of professional women was still small, but more women were becoming lawyers than ever before.These professional women often had equal pay for equal work, but working-class women did not. Despite the success of Thatcher, many British women were anti-Conservative, though they did not necessarily support Labour either. To these women, Thatcher may have shared their gender, but her political prominence did not necessarily make her their heroine. Critical Overview Most critics agree t hat Top Girls is an intricate play; generally, they find much to praise in its themes, attitudes, and text. The play's depiction of women and feminism is particularly interesting to critics.Writing about the original London production, Bryan Robertson of The Spectator argued, â€Å"her play is brilliantly conceived with considerable wit to illuminate the underlying deep human seriousness of her theme. The play is feminist, all right, but it is an entertaining, sometimes painful and often funny play and not a mere tract. † Expanding on this idea, Benedict Nightingale of the New Statesman wrote, â€Å"What use is female emancipation, Churchill asks, if it transforms the clever women into predators and does nothing for the stupid, weak and helpless?Does freedom, and feminism, consist of aggressively adopting the very values that have for centuries oppressed your sex? † A scene from the 1991 production of Top Girls at London's Royal Court Theatre Writing about the same pro duction, John Russell Taylor of Plays & Players is one of several critics over the years who believed that the rest of Top Girls did not live up to the promise of the dinner party scene. He found the play disjointed, arguing that â€Å"the pieces in the puzzle remain determinedly separate, never quite adding up to more than, well, so many fascinating pieces in a fascinating puzzle. Critical Overview 11 When Top Girls opened in the United States a short time later, a few critics were dismissive of the play and Churchill's potential appeal to American audiences. Calling the play â€Å"confused,† Douglas Watt of the Daily News proclaimed, â€Å"Churchill can write touchingly and with a good ear for everyday speech about middle-class Londoners today. But while concern for ugly ducklings may be universal †¦ Top Girls is a genre piece likely to arouse even less interest here than Alan Ayckbourn's equally tricky, but infinitely more amusing, works about the English middle cla ss. Edith Oliver of the New Yorker was perplexed by certain aspects of the play. She wrote â€Å"Top Girls †¦ is witty and original, with considerable dramatized feeling, yet somehow never got to me, and I was never certain whether she was making one point with the whole play or a lot of points in its separate segments. † Later in her review, Oliver emphasized that â€Å"[d]espite my admiration of Miss Churchill's ingenuity, I was disappointed and at times puzzled—never quite certain, for example, whether the historical characters of the first scene were meant to be the prototypes of modern characters. † A majority of American critics commented on the uniqueness of certain aspects of Top Girls, but they were most concerned with its feminist theme and social meanings. For example, John Beaufort of the Christian Science Monitor called Top Girls â€Å"a theatrical oddity in which the long view of what has been happening to womankind's ‘top girls' combin es with a sharp look at contemporary women achievers and a compassionate glance at the plight of an underclass underachiever who will never know the meaning of room at the top. Apart from one cheap shock effect, Miss Churchill has written a thoughtful and imaginative theater piece. Along similar lines, T. E. Kalem of Time asks in his review, â€Å"Is the future to be divided between a smart, scrambling upper class of no-holds-barred individualists and a permanent underclass of poor souls who are unfit for the survival of the fittest? † An unnamed reviewer in Variety added, â€Å"If it's about male manipulation, Top Girls also pointedly involves the conditioned mentality of the sisterhood itself, with its inherited sense of role in a masculine or at least male-dominated world. The play seems to be saying that women historically have had themselves as well as sexist pigs for enemies. John Simon of New York believes the ideas in Top Girls have universal applicability. â€Å"Th is is not easy theater, but funny, fiercely serious, and greatly worth thinking about. Its aporias [insoluble contradictions] are not only pertinent to women, they also concern the entire, always incomplete, human condition. † Top Girls has continued to be performed regularly over the years. Most critics believe the play has withstood the test of time, despite specific references to British prime minster Margaret Thatcher and attitudes specific to the early 1980s.Of a 1991 revival in London, Paul Taylor in The Independent argued, â€Å"What continues to distinguish Top Girls is its cool, objective manner. The scenes in the job agency are almost too cleverly efficient in the way they expose the heartlessness the women have had to assume along with their crisp power-outfits. Churchill permits you to identify with the tricky plight of these characters but she does not ask you to like them. † Similarly, Alastair Macaulay of the Financial Times believes, â€Å"Both as theat re and as politics, Top Girls is exciting and irritating.The dialectic of its final scene, between the Thatcherite Marlene and her socialist sister Joyce rings true as you listen. The terms in which the sisters argue about Thatcherite politics have not dated. † Essays and Criticism The Importance of Angie in Top Girls Many critics who have commented on Caryl Churchill's Top Girls have focused their praise on the interesting characters and complexities of the scene that opens the play, act 1, scene 1's dinner party. The party is hosted by Top Girls' central character, Marlene, and is attended by five guests, all obscure figures from history, literature, and art.Ostensibly, the party is to celebrate the success of Marlene, who has recently been Essays and Criticism 12 promoted to managing director of Top Girls employment agency. The scene also defines many of the play's themes and dramatic tensions. There are a number of critics who share the opinion of Lianne Stevens of the Los Angeles Times. Reviewing a 1986 production of Top Girls in San Diego, California, Stevens writes, ‘‘outstanding performances †¦ cannot rectify the main defect in Churchill's play: Nothing that comes after is as interesting as having dinner with Pope Joan, Dull Gret, Lady Nijo, Patient Griselda and Isabella Bird. ’ There are, in fact, several aspects of the rest of Top Girls that are as interesting, mostly because of what has been laid out in the dinner party scene. One is the character of Angie, Marlene's sixteen-year-old daughter, whom she allowed her sister Joyce to adopt at birth. Angie plays as pivotal a role in the play as any of the dinner party guests. While there is no doubt that Marlene is at the center of Top Girls, and that her character presents hard and conflicted ideas about women, success, power, and employment in the early 1980s, Angie and the dinner guests help to define Marlene as much as Marlene's own actions and comments do.However, the d inner guests were chosen by Marlene, while Angie was an accident Marlene has chosen to have very little contact with and is dismissive of. Each of the dinner guests is an adult woman, though they are fantastic characters who do not really exist in the modern world inhabited by Marlene and the rest of the characters in the play. Marlene turns to them, not to any of the ‘‘real† people depicted in the play, when she wants to celebrate her promotion. While the guests are successful in their own, though not always obvious, ways, their success has come at a price.Lady Nijo suffered many degradations including not being allowed to raise her own children. Marlene is deeply troubled by the story of Patient Griselda, who was humiliated by her husband as a test of her loyalty to him, mostly because she was of a lower class. To get an education, Pope Joan led a life of deception as a male. Though she later became pope, it was her womanhood—her ability to get pregnant an d give birth to a child at an inopportune moment—that led to the murder which ended her life. Marlene's choice of guests reveals much about her.First, she does not have anyone in her real life to share her promotion with, suggesting an alienation from real women. Second, the loss of her child still weighs on her, either in her conscious, subconscious, or both. Lady Nijo, Pope Joan, and Patient Griselda all suffer the loss of children. Only Joan is rather indifferent to the death of her infant. Marlene inquires about Dull Gret' s children, clearly expressing her interest in the subject. Marlene's question after the one to Gret is rhetorical: â€Å"Oh God, why are we all so miserable? ’ There is a link between unhappiness and the idea of children and loss. Third, Marlene has no real interest in her own daughter, Angie, though they have more in common than Marlene does with her chosen guests. To understand the importance of Angie, Marlene's character must be better under stood. Marlene grew up in an unstable home. Her father worked in the fields, and had a problem with alcohol. Her mother suffered at the hands of her husband, often going hungry and being beaten. Her sister Joyce was older, and did not share either Marlene's need to escape or her intelligence.Despite her background, Marlene managed to create a good life for herself by working hard and apparently acquiring a decent education. She even lived in the United States for several years. The only flaw, the only thing that could have held her back, was when Marlene got pregnant at the age of seventeen. The situation was stressful, and Marlene was in denial for part of the pregnancy. Rather than allow Marlene to give the baby up to strangers, Joyce insisted on adopting Angie, in part because she had no children of her own.This is a long-standing point of contention between the sisters, though Joyce makes it clear that she would not have approved of any choice Marlene made in the situation excep t to have had an abortion early on or raise the child herself and not have tried to have a better life. Angie and related petty jealousies are at the heart of their conflict and thus at the center of Top Girls. Yet, Angie is a reviled character. Everyone around Angie dismisses her and believes she has no future. Joyce, her adopted mother, calls her ‘‘a big lump. ’ She believes Angie will have a hard time getting a job and her best bet in life is to get married, though she cannot imagine who would marry her. Joyce does admit at one point, ‘‘She's clever in her own way. ’’ Labeling her ‘‘thick,’’ Marlene, Angie's birth mother, tells one of The Importance of Angie in Top Girls 13 her coworkers, ‘‘She's not going to make it. ’’ She believes Angie's future career will be as a ‘‘Packer in Tesco,’’ nothing as accomplished as working at the employment agency run by Marl ene. Kit, her only friend and a twelve-year-old, says to Angie at one point, â€Å"Stupid f—ing cow, I hate you. She later tells Angie that she is not sure she even likes her. Kit amends that attitude by telling Joyce â€Å"I love Angie. † The way those around Angie talk about her, it seems like she is useless and incompetent. Joyce especially seems to hammer this idea home directly to Angie. Angie is definitely immature. She talks about being able to move objects with her thoughts, hearing a long-dead kitten in the backyard, and has only one friend, Kit, who is four years younger than her. She has ended her education in remedial classes at the age of sixteen.Yet Angie accomplishes much over the course of Top Girls, more than expected considering how she is talked about. Angie has her own equivalent of the dinner party in act 1, scene 3. She and Kit hide in a shelter that they probably made in Joyce's backyard. Kit, however, is a real person, unlike the unreal guests at Marlene's. Angie and Kit have a real, if tense, friendship. They make tentative plans to go to the movies. Angie expresses her frustrations to Kit, saying she wants to kill her mother. She tells Kit about her secret, that she believes Marlene is her mother.Angie also says that she will go to London to see her aunt. Kit does not really believe her, though, underscoring that Angie is constantly underestimated by those around her. Another success of Angie’s is going to London from Suffolk on the bus, and finding her way to Marlene’s work place in act 2, scene 1. Joyce and Kit do not think Angie could do such a thing on her own. But Angie wants to escape her life with Joyce and become a success. To that end, she goes to her aunt/mother and hopes to stay with her. Angie has the gumption to ask her aunt for help.She will even sleep on the floor of Marlene’s home to have this different, better life, like her aunt/mother. It also creates a situation where Marlene get s her child back, a key point brought up in the dinner party. Angie wants to be with Marlene, to be Marlene, and does what she can to make that happen. Angie wants to be a top girl. Angie’s first success, though the last in the play since it takes place in act 2, scene 2, is getting Marlene to visit her in the first place. The last scene takes place a year before the rest of the Top Girls.Angie lied to Marlene to get her to visit her and Joyce in Suffolk. She has not seen her aunt/mother since her ninth birthday party. Angie knows that Marlene has had good jobs and has lived in America, and she admires her tremendously. Angie appreciates that Marlene has escaped their neighborhood and become successful, just as Marlene admired that about her fantasy dinner guests. Angie may not have the education or the intelligence that Marlene has, but she wants to do something like what Marlene has done. In this scene, Marlene reveals the key to her success. She proclaims, ‘‘Ià ¢â‚¬â„¢m not clever, just pushy. ’ Angie has shown that she can be pushy as well over the course of the play, implying that she might have a better future than anyone imagined. In writing about a 1998 production of Top Girls in Los Angeles, California, Don Shirley of the Los Angeles Times argues, ‘‘Churchill painted a stark picture of Margaret Thatcher's Britain as a place where women could end up in either a cushy but heartless career or a dreary life in domestic servitude. This may sound broadly feminist, but the play finally emerges as a more specific attack on Thatcherite insensitivities towards the girls who ren't on ‘top. ’† Shirley includes Angie as one who is not on top, but does not see that she could be. Angie is a younger—perhaps dumber but no less ambitious—Marlene. Source: Annette Petrusso, in an essay for Drama for Students, Gale Group, 2001. Feminist Drama: The Politics of the Self: Churchill and Keatley Caryl Church ill's Top Girls (1983) and Charlotte Keatley's My Mother Said I Never Should (1987) are plays with an all women cast. Men, though present in the stories, are absent from the stage. They occupy emotional space but not physical space.At the very outset there is a defining of space, a creation of a feminist world. Feminist Drama: The Politics of the Self: Churchill and Keatley 14 Keatley deliberately kept the men offstage to provide a space for the women to interact among themselves, ‘‘to show the way women use language, silence and subtext when alone together’’; Churchill apparently does it for the purposes of sharing, for as Adrienne Rich has pointed out that unless women are prepared to share their ‘‘private and sometimes painful personal experience’’ it may not be possible to create a ‘‘collective description’’ of what is truly a woman's world.In both plays women from different generations and backgrounds meet together to share and to interact but with two major differences. Keatley's characters in the child-scenes are child characters and represent the same lineage whereas Churchill's characters represent several centuries, from the ninth to the present and have altogether different backgrounds.The moment women are placed centre-stage they begin to interact and introspect, to analyze and to criticize; they cease to look at themselves through the male gaze, instead they begin to problematize their conflicts and the involuntary processes of their bodies. By defining space in female terms, women are transformed from objects into subjects and their passive acceptance of gendered roles is turned into an analysis of socially imposed codes of behaviour. Plays by women need not be feminist, just as plays about women are not always so.But plays which concern themselves with women as subjects and explore their emotional realities acquire a feminist perspective. The sixties and the seventies witnessed the rise of women's theatre groups and collectives and a consciousness about women's roles. This was the beginning of a feminist theatre with, as already stated, overtly political aims. Women through exploring and talking about their experiences opened out their role confines, created female traditions and entered areas hitherto forbidden to them.Several all-women plays were also written. Megan Terry's Calm Down, Mother (1965) was a transformation exercise for women and hailed by Helene Keyssar as the first real feminist play, while her later Babes in the Bighouse (1974) was about women prisoners and closed spaces where violence became a natural inhabitant. Eve Merriam' s Out of Our Fathers' House (1975) was a projection of the struggles of exceptional women, while Wendy Wasserstein's Uncommon Women and Others (1977) examined the role conflicts in a lighter vein.Maria Irene Fornes's Fefu and Her Friends (1977) is located in the thirties and is a powerful statement about th e violence implicit in heterosexual relationships; it is as Schuler has pointed out ‘‘impossible to ignore that explicit critique of patriarchy’’ (226) present in the play. Marsha Norman's ‘night, Mother, coming out the same year as Top Girls (1983), is a tense kitchen drama about a mother and a daughter with the daughter at the end committing suicide behind a locked door. Plays with an all-women cast make a specific statement even before they put this female space to different and individual use.They discard supportive roles for women and provide them with the freedom to relate directly to each other rather than through sons and husbands, ‘‘Language, space and the body are loci for the woman playwright to dramatically challenge the images of women determined in dominant discourse’’ (Hart), Memory, history, the past are evoked for different reasons. Time too becomes an important factor, often being projected non-chronological ly. Both Top Girls and My Mother create hypothetical situations which are historically not possible but are rendered so spatially and proceed to become emotional questionings.Both are 3-act plays but while Churchill after an initial juxtaposition of the past and the present moves on, Keatley keeps on coming back to the childhood scene which is a conjunction of 1905, 1941, 1961 and 1979. Top Girls in the first act evokes the past, somewhat like Eve Merriam's Out of Our Fathers' House where six women are presented together in a ‘‘hypothetical conversation. † They act out both for themselves and each other the stories of their lives. It is a journey into selfhood, and at each step they need reassurance from their own elves. They belong to the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, Caryl Churchill, however, builds on a wider canvas and the dramatic purpose of the bringing together of six women from different backgrounds and periods is very different. The first act of Top Girls is in the nature of a prologue where Marlene, a top executive in an employment agency is hosting a dinner for five other women, three of whom are from the Feminist Drama: The Politics of the Self: Churchill and Keatley 15 pages of history, and two from the world of male imagination.Pope Joan, a ninth century Pope who achieved this through cross-gendering, Lady Nijo an emperor's concubine and later a Buddhist nun, and Isabella Bird, a nineteenth century explorer are the three â€Å"real† women. Dull Gret, a woman from Breughel's 16th century painting and Patient Griselda from the pages of Petrarch, Boccaccio and Chaucer are the two others (Note the words ‘‘dull† and ‘‘patient’’). Each one of them—except Griselda—has in some way violated the social code as imposed upon them. Joan learnt Latin, ran away from home disguised as a boy and later became a pope.But yielding to passion, she conceives and is detected during chil dbirth. Male priests have fathered children, but she has never learnt to understand or live with her body, thus alienated from this most fundamental space she might own, she pays for it with death. Lady Nijo on the other hand accepts the code but renders it hollow by creating space for herself. Handed over to the Emperor as his concubine, she takes lovers to fulfill her emotional needs. Out of favour with the Emperor she takes holy orders as directed by her father, but instead of being confined in a convent, she walks the breadth and length of Japan.But she does this at the price of motherhood. Isabella Bird also has to sacrifice marriage and family life in search of adventure. Because she is a woman, she finds it difficult to accept the idea of living for herself alone and therefore occupies herself with good causes. As contrasted with these women from real life, who have individually made space for themselves, questioned patriarchal structures like religion, ownership, love and mo therhood, the two women from the world of imagination are limited in their projections.Griselda's life reads like a fairytale—a peasant woman married into the aristocracy, and children whom she had given up for dead restored to her later. The price of her marriage is unquestioning obedience to her husband's command which is first the taking away of her son and her daughter and later being turned out of her house. Griselda does not question her husband's right over her, nor does she resist his orders. Her case, like Nijo's, is one where motherhood has been reduced to an â€Å"institution’’ under male control (Rich). Dull Gret is also single minded like Griselda. If for Griselda it is surrender, for Gret it is anger.These five women have got together to celebrate Marlene's success and as they share experiences they question patriarchal structures either directly like Joan and Isabelle, or obliquely like Nijo, or silently through victimization like Griselda. Trave l is a major theme for Joan, Nijo and Isabella. They travel in their different dresses, Joan in her papal robes, Nijo in her silkgowns and later her nun's habit, and Isabella in her full blue trousers and great brass spurs. (Dress also specifies space. Masculine dress does not constrain the women's private space, though, in the long run, there is no social recognition of that space. Travel opens out new worlds and spaces. Their coming together in the first act provides â€Å"a dramatic genealogy of Marlene's historical community’’ (Keyssar). The second act is the in-between act with 3 scenes. The first and the third are located in Marlene's office, the second in Joyce, her sister's, backyard. The office scenes have two interviews inbuilt into them, one with Jeanine and the other with Louise, Marlene's two clients; a competitive scene between Nell and Win and Marlene's interactions with Angie and with Mrs. Kidd.The themes of these two scenes are a replay of the themes introduced in Act One—Jeanine who is torn between marriage and a career, Louise who at the end of twenty years finds herself sidetracked by younger men, Nell and Win who wish to go places both literally and figuratively but Marlene has occupied the place at the top and Mrs. Kidd who has come to plead for her husband who has been superseded by Marlene. Mrs. Kidd tells Marlene: â€Å"What's it going to do to him working for a woman? I think if it was a man he'd get over it as something normal. It's me that bears the brunt. †¦ I put him first every inch of the way. †¦ It had crossed my mind if you were unavailable after all for some reason, he would be the natural second choice I think, don't you? ’’ (58-59) In her view Marlene is abnormal in her determination to be at the top and she'll end up lonely and miserable. Feminist Drama: The Politics of the Self: Churchill and Keatley 16 The backdrop of the office room is confined and provides limited space wh ere competition and aggression and violation of territorial rights go hand in hand.The middle scene sandwiched between these two office scenes is in a backyard in a â€Å"shelter made of junk’’ by children. It is a hiding place, away from the taboos and restrictions of the adult world. Kit and Angie talk about running away from home, they talk about travel, about the reality of their menstrual blood which flows from hidden spaces and their love-hate relationship to the adult world. Later Kit seeks shelter from rain within the precincts of her friend's house while Angie herself is left outside with a feeling of rejection. The third act moves backwards in time. It takes place a year earlier than the second act.It is a confrontation scene between Marlene and her sister Joyce. They open out their past, the suppressed, sibling rivalry, Marlene's need to escape from her background, Joyce's support, the birth of Marlene's daughter Angie, and her adoption by Joyce, Joyce's mi scarriage, and her separation from her husband Frank. Women sacrifice their motherhood for a career; but at times they also have to sacrifice their marriage for their motherhood. Joyce is denied space within her marriage while Marlene is aware that men want her to turn into ‘‘the little woman’’ which she is not prepared to do.In all this it is Angie who feels confused and dispossessed. Keatley's play is also a three-act play with the first act having ten scenes and moving between 1905 and 1979. The second act is one uninterrupted scene located in 1982, and the third act is placed in 1987 diving back, towards the end, to 1923. There are five child-scenes spread over the play—Act I sc. 1, sc. 3 and sc. 8, and Act III sc. 3 and sc. 6 which act like a conjunction of events, like a voice from the past, like an abandonment of the chronological process. The movement of the play can be seen from the graph.The conjunction scene is shown as a circle with four different time streams flowing together. Covering four generations, it covers several