Women's Dilemma Under the Patriarchal Dream: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Top Girls
Abstract
explores the living conditions and personal sacrifices of women in a patriarchal society through the growth and dilemmas of the protagonist
Marlene. The banquet in the first act of the play is highly surreal, resembling a dream, which provides a unique entry point for psychoanalytic
interpretation. This paper employs Freudian psychoanalytic theory to interpret the surreal banquet in the first act of Caryl Churchill's play Top
Girls, analyzing the core images in the banquet scene: "wine", "children", and "sisters" so as to construct a collective "paternal long dream"
shared by women. This analysis reveals the common predicament of women in the patriarchal society.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.70711/rcha.v4i4.9552
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