Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews March 31, 2023 March 24, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Churchill first demonstrates a sort of gender mismatch with her casting specifications. In Act I, the gender confusion is literal: men play women, and vice versa. This theme is closely tied to the comedy of the play. One cannot help but laugh at the male Betty's subservience to Clive. Churchill complicates the gender confusion with a sexual confusion. Even those characters not played by opposite-sex actors have nontraditional sexual orientations. Harry, for instance, has a sexual relationship with a little boy.
This theme extends into Act II, with Edward insisting that he would rather be a woman. Churchill argues that the placing of personalities and different sexual orientations in physical bodies is almost random. The great challenge of life is learning to reconcile one's upbringing and one's physical identity with one's true sexuality.
In Act I, for the characters to act on their true feelings, they must do so in secret, at one point during a game of hide and seek. Clive's value system calls for a covering of identity if that identity disrespects England. Clive believes that nontraditional sexual identities are sicknesses that might be cured. Churchill seems to suggest otherwise, that while gender can be rearranged, sexual identity cannot be. In the second act, Betty, Edward, and Victoria, now distanced from Clive, continue the difficult search for identity. Although they are now free of Clive's direct influence, they face the new challenges of establishing an identity in a world far different from Victorian era Africa.
Though Clive is not present in Act II, his value system still has effects on the characters. Betty is still afraid of life without him, and Victoria is hesitant to leave a traditional marriage that is falling apart. Churchill makes the influence of the past more tangible by bringing characters from Act I back into the story of Act II. These characters reappear briefly, highlighting the differences between past and present, but demonstrating that the characters still remember their past and must come to terms with its influence.
To exert control over the natives, Clive must employ a variety of violent measures. He has Joshua flog some of the tribesmen and his troops burn native villages. In his own home, Clive has also created an atmosphere of violence. Betty punishes Edward by slapping him, and Clive allows Betty to attack Mrs. Saunders when he and Mrs. Saunders kiss. Clive himself is not actively violent, perhaps suggesting the hypocrisy of his oppression. He keeps his hands clean by allowing others to actually carry out his wishes with violence. The violence of Act I reappears in the assault on Cathy by the Dead Hand Gang. The "dead hand" of Clive's world strikes once more to keep Cathy from playing with the boys.
Please wait while we process your payment