A Comparative Analysis of Intersectional Feminist Identities in Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom and Cloud Nine

Abstract

The portrayal of women in patriarchal communities and their resistance against the tyranny of males are one of the most evident themes of literary texts. Feminist writers and scholars object to the conventional premise that women are inferior, silenced, or marginalized figures, and they aim to alter the mindsets of traditionalists’ by implementing and analyzing the sense of the rebellious spirit of female characters through their works. The advocates of intersectional feminist theory hold a notion that the oppression, from which women suffer, is the result of intersected social factors combined with the gender identity of women. In other words, gender cannot be the sole reason for tyranny but women’s social status, race, poverty, sexuality, ability, or disability are some of the crucial issues that accompany and reinforce the oppression they experience. In this regard, the purpose of this article is to scrutinize Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom and Cloud Nine by analyzing the female characters’ miserable conditions and their struggles to find their real identities since the female characters suffer from patriarchal dogmas and norms in each play.