Caryl Churchill’s play, Top Girls, outlines the life of women from different social statuses in England in the 1980s. Marlene represents a successful businesswoman, who has rejected the idea of motherhood, considering it as weak and a burden to success. Whereas her sister, Joyce, represents a woman from the working class, who has taken the responsibility of caring for Marlene’s biological daughter, Angie. Churchill’s use of language represents Angie and Joyce’s bizarre relationship as well as Angie’s desperate admiration she has towards Marlene. Since learning about Angie’s biological mother, as revealed in Act Three, she struggles to understand the reasoning behind Marlene’s choice to give her up while idolizing her at the same time.
Churchill introduces Angie at the beginning of Act Two, consisting of Angie talking with her younger playmate, Kit. The audience is quickly able to understand the general profile of Angie’s background through her claim that “I’ve no money”, which is repeated twice as if it is something she understands and has repeated many times before. This clipped short statement gives the impression that Angie has accepted its truth and does not need any more pity, much like the working class at the time. While talking to Kit, Angie states that “she don’t like you”, Churchill uses improper English to show Angie’s social status. It is later revealed that Angie had dropped out of school, along with Joyce’s desire for Angie to get married. Act two is filled with foreshadowing, as the revelation of Angie’s biological mother is only revealed in Act Three, which had taken place a year prior, meaning Act Two was when Angie was aware of the fact that Marlene was her true mother. She reveals to Kit that “I think I’m my aunt’s child. I think my mother’s really my aunt.”. When Kit asks “Why?”, Angie replies with the hostile answer of “because she goes to America, now shut up.”. Churchill shows how Angie is struggling to understand her identity, through the juxtaposition of these two lines. When opening up about her secret, Angie immediately follows with “now shut up”, as if she does not want to talk about it, because she is likely struggling to understand it herself.
Throughout Act Two, the audience is under the impression that Joyce is Angie’s mother. However, the language they use towards each other is extremely aggressive and lacks respect, atypical of a mother-daughter relationship. Joyce calls out to the backyard if Angie would like some chocolate biscuits. When Angie and Kit do not reply, Joyce threatens to “lock the back door” and that Angie can “stay there and die”. Throughout Act Two there are several references to death, Angie openly states multiple times that she has the desire to kill Joyce, or that she wants to die herself. While talking to Kit she states that “If I don’t get away from here I’m going to die”. This is likely because she feels as though she has been living someone’s else’s life. She was supposed to have Marlene as a mother, not Joyce. At the end of Act Two she states that “I put on this dress to kill my mother”, and when Kit questions the brick in her hand, Angie replies by saying that “you can kill people with a brick”. The dress Angie put on is a symbol of what her life could have been, with Marlene. She feels a tremendous amount of hatred towards Joyce for stripping her of that possibility, even though it could be argued that Marlene was the larger party at fault. The fact that Angie has put on her dress, with a brick in hand highlights the magnitude of desperation Angie is feeling. She wants to be wanted, and this could be why Churchill portrays her language as very aggressive, as Angie is trapped inside her own home.
Also in Act Two, Angie decides to leave her home and buy a one-way ticket to London to get closer to Marlene and build up the mother-daughter relationship she dreams of. However, when Angie enters Marlene’s workplace, she states that “It’s me, I’ve come” as if she wants Marlene to finally take her in because she knows the truth. Instead of the happy reunion Angie was hoping for, Marlene doesn’t recognise Angie at first and questions why the receptionist did not stop her. When Angie states that “I was looking for you”, Marlene simply replies, ‘Well, you found me”, as if Marlene is disappointed or annoyed that Angie had come. When Marlene asks, “Do you feel alright?”, Angie replies by saying “Yes thank you”, which is a drastic change to how Angie would reply to Joyce. Angie saying ‘thank you’ is the sign of respect she had towards Marlene, Angie wants Marlene to like her and possibly save her from the depression she feels while at home. Angie inquires if Marlene is “going to be in charge”, to which Marlene confirmed, and Angie replies that “I knew you’d be in charge of everything”. In Angie’s mind, Marlene is her mother, and she is proud that she is the product of Marlene instead of Joyce. While Joyce is in a broken marriage and struggling to get by, Marlene has recently been promoted and going to be in more power, this is something Angie takes as inspiration for what she wants to be when she is older. We see this illustrated when Angie is discussing her possible chance of working at the same company with Win. The audience is able to see Angie’s desperation highlighted once more when she asks Marlene “Don’t you want me?”, as Angie has a fear of being rejected, especially after she found out about her true mother.
After Angie’s discovery of her biological mother, she is struggling to grasp what she could have become, had she been raised by Marlene. Angie admires Marlene deeply, thinking that she is the epitome of success, wanting to be like her. However, at the same time, she wishes she could have been a part of Marlene’s life, instead of tossed to Joyce as a second thought. Angie’s language is often aggressive, clipped and short. Churchill has used her language to highlight the problems she has within herself, and how she is trying to overcome the overwhelming feeling of rejection. Angie was ultimately given to Joyce because Marlene had valued her success higher than Angie, and this news is what had broken her feeling of belonging.
