Breaking Out of the Shackles of Oppression-Cloud 9

In societies of the past, and many of modern times, father figures hold a great deal of power with their families. They even have enough power to force their ideals on the members of their household. This is true of the father, Clive, in Cloud 9, written by feminist playwright, Caryl Churchill. Throughout Cloud 9, the major thread that links the characters of Joshua and Betty, is the fact that they are both oppressed by the patriarchal figure of the play, Clive.

Clive, a colonial administrator, imposes his ideals on the people living in his house. All of the characters, in one way or another, define themselves by their relationship with Clive. This is why a white man plays Clive’s black servant, Joshua. Clive has brainwashed Joshua so that he too, a black man, feels that white people are the superior race. Joshua’s first line in the play may illustrate this best. “My skin is black but my soul is white. I hate my tribe. My master is my light. I only live for him. As you can see, what white men want is what I want to be” (Churchill 826). The purpose of Joshua being played a white man is to visually show the way that Clive oppresses him. Joshua is no longer free to live

BETTY: I want more than that. Is that wicked of me?

as a man of his race. “By ‘alienating’ actors from the characters they play, Churchill clearly intends to raise the questions of gender, sexual orientation, and race as ideological issues, for in each of these cases the difference between the performer and the role marks what Clive wants to see as real” (Worthen 822). The colonial and racist traditions of Clive diminish Joshua’s African identity so greatly that he lives out white, European attitudes.

Before Betty calls the children to greet their father's return she mentions to Clive that Joshua doesn't like her. She asked him to fetch her book, which she had left inside on the piano:

HARRY: Not wicked Betty, silly. (816)

BETTY: He said Fetch it yourself. You've got legs under that dress. (827)

Some topics in this essay:
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