A rereading of Caryl Churchill's Owners: Patriarchy and misogyny

Abstract

Caryl Churchill's first professional play, Owners, is about ownership as its title implies. One of the highlighted themes in the play is misogyny which has been overlooked by scholars and critics who have commented on Owners. Thus, my aim in this study is to consider and disclose the reasons for misogyny, demonstrated by Churchill as a socio-political critique, through a feminist reading. As the play is generally examined within the context of themes of power, politics or possession, this article may contribute to correct this omission in the academic domain. In her dark comedy, Churchill emphasises how gender roles are culturally learned and transferred to succeeding generations. In Owners, the married couple Marion and Clegg are both misogynists, but endowed with opposing world views. Churchill, like a sociologist, has made this family the main subject of her play and used it as a point of reference when explaining the reasons for misogyny in a comic and exaggerated style. In this family, while Marion is equipped with bourgeois feminist and anti-patriarchal ideas, Clegg is a man supporting patriarchal principles. Churchill reveals in her play that Marion and Clegg hate women who do not fit into their ideal world views.