Women From Witch Hunting in the Seventeenth-Century to the Twentieth Century: A Socialist Feminist Criticism of Churchill S Vinegar Tom

Abstract

As a socialist feminist dramatist of the 20 th century, Caryl Churchill draws attention to women's oppression through Vinegar Tom in which she experiments Brechtian theatrical techniques. She shifts in time, from the past to the present, to illuminate the historical context of women's oppression. She combines successfully witch hunting of the seventeenth century because of which many women were executed and social economic conditions of women in the 1970s. The aim of the study is to provide a socialist feminist criticism of Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom. First of all, the study gives background information about how women were oppressed under the cover of witch hunting in Britain in the seventeenth century. Then, it focuses on their ongoing tough life conditions in the twentieth-century. It also presents socialist feminist views which sought to shed light upon the influence of capitalism in reinforcing the patriarchal oppression over women at those times. After that, the study examines Churchill's Vinegar Tom as an example of socialist feminist drama. It reveals that Churchill indicates the role of institutions, men and submissive women in legitimising and perpetuating the patriarchal oppression over women to maintain the social, economic and political status quo of Britain for centuries.