Essay Database

In Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 she has many central themes and issues but two of the biggest ones are gender distinction in the Victorian time period and colonial rule by the British. <Tab/>From the beginning Churchill shows her audience an immense division between males and females. Churchill breaks the standard gender and sex roles, by having the characters experiment with homosexuality, bisexuality, and sexual relationships between children and adults. For instance, …

…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.