Presentation of Friendship in Top Girls and Spies

Within both Caryl Curchill's dramatic piece 'Top Girls' and Michael Frayn's novel 'Spies' the presentation of friendship is a key element explored throughout. Despite the fact that each text contain friendships, the nature of these friendships vary enormously ranging from a basic necessity, to convenience, to a genuine mutual enjoyment of one another's company. Through the use of literary devices both writers are able to explore each friendship primarily through the characters themselves, and from this shape the reader's response.

A dominant theme explored by both writers would be roles of authority, positions of power, and the existence of social hierarchies within friendships. Comparisons can be drawn within sets of friendships such as that of Kit and Angie in 'Top Girls' and Keith and Stephen in 'Spies'. Both friendships contain elements of inequality, varying from positions within social class, intellectual capabilities, and familial relations, and both authors examine the importance of this balance of equality. At first glance it would appear that each pair consists of a leader and a follower; yet within both friendships the dominant figure changes as the power balance shifts. A structural technique employed within both texts would be that neither play nor novel is written in chronological order, and this allows us an interesting insight into the developing nature of the friendships.

During Act Two Scene Two the friendship of Kit and Angie is presented as a juvenile companionship between two immature and constantly bickering children and this sense of immaturity is expressed primarily through their use of dialogue: "you're a baby". Despite being the eldest Angie is presented as inferior to Kit in terms of both intellectual and educational achievements and social respectability. Angie uses rude language and excessive swearing as an attempt to impress Kit: "eat shit", "tough shit" and this childish behaviour displays her lack of awareness and eloquence, aiding Churchill's presentation of her as socially inept and uneducated. This is juxtaposed with Kit's behaviour to show the inequality within their friendship, as Kit is clever and aspires to be a "nuclear physicist". The language used by Angie shocks the reader as she appears eager to impress via her knowledge of insolent words. This therefore conveys her sense of insecurity of her own identity within their friendship, as she struggles to impress others. It is through the characters and friendship of Angie and Kit that Churchill explores the changing nature of society; arguably their desire to grow up and use adult language can be contrasted with Keith and Stephen who are presented as utterly content with childhood. Their enjoyment stems from playing games and making up stories. This could be attributed to the varying contextual settings of each text, as 'Spies' was set during World War 2 in an isolated and traditional village, where playing with toys was the expected norm. In comparison 'Top Girls' has a much more contemporary setting, in a society that can be arguably be defined as for more modern and liberal. The two texts can thus be contrasted in terms of the nature of friendships in relation to their context within history.

Churchill then presents us with another incident in which Angie struggles with her sense of insecurity, as she attempts to impress once again through the tasting of Kit's menstrual blood, illustrated by the stage directions: "There, see, I got my own blood, so." "ANGIE takes KIT's hand and licks her finger". The menstrual cycle is associated with puberty, fertility and the development from childhood to womanhood. Repetition of personal pronoun "I...my own" emphasises the struggle for social dominance as within the friendship as they both seek the attention to be focused upon themselves. It appears here that despite the slightly strange and almost comical situation, the girls share a genuine and real friendship without inhibitions or judgement. It has been acknowledged by others that Churchill uses humour within her play to explore serious issues such as friendships, as stated by Bryan Robertson from 'The Spectator': "her play is brilliantly conceived with considerable wit to illuminate the underlying deep human seriousness of her theme". As a play, this scene arguably has great actor potential as it would be interesting to see how the stage directions and dialogue of the controversial character of Angie and her friendship with Kit are interpreted.

This sense of honesty within their relationship can be contrasted starkly with that of Keith and Stephen. 'Spies' features significantly less dialogue exchanged between the characters, displaying a lack of interest in what the other has to say, and as the reader we are presented with a far more artificial friendship. Frayn, similarly to Churchill also explores the power struggle for dominance and the balance of inequality, yet in contrast the sense of inequality is much greater in 'Spies'. Within the social hierarchy of their friendship Keith surpasses Stephen: "I was acutely