ENGLISH DRAMAChurchill’s Choice to Have Clive Return at The End of Play

Achmad Ghaniy Nuurrochman13020113140048

ENGLISH DEPARTMENTFACULTY OF HUMANITIEDIPONEGORO UNIVERSITY 2015

Caryl Churchill is one of English dramatist. Cloud Nine is one of play that she written in 1979. Cloud Nine is about relationship between women and men, men and men, women and women. It is about sex, work, mothers, Africa, power, grandmothers, children, politics, money, Queen Victoria and sex. The content of the play is not far from sex and sex disorder. There are many topics from the play that can be discussed. In this time, I would like to explain about why Churchill’s choice to have Clive Return at the end of play.

Churchill’s choice that returned Clive at the end of play is really confusing. We know that Clive has been shot by Joshua at the end of act 1. It’s difficult to understand. The possibility of Clive appears again at the end of act 2 is the shadow that created by Betty itself. Remembered that “I can’t feel the same about you as I did” (Churchill, 1979: 34 & 87), it’s the sentence that Clive said when he knew that Betty had kissed by Harry.  

Clive appears again at the end, because Betty feels that it’s the same moment in act 1, on the other hand Betty knew that she had disappointed of Clive’s love. So, Clive can’t love again of Betty as before. Clive wants to say in here because, he can’t love Betty anymore, because at the end of act 2 Betty invited an unknown people to come to her house. The sentence “You are not that sort of woman”, the sentence explain that Betty is one of women which can life alone, so she invites someone especially a man to comes to her house. So, Betty had disappointed Clive’s love by her habits, that is invited a man to come to her house.

At the end of act 2, Clive said “I used to be proud to be British” (Churchill, 1979: 87). This sentence explains to us that Clive is not proud of the own country because the increasing of lesbian and gay. However, the word “British” that he said at the end of play is a something that is really proud of the sense of sexualism he had. In other hand after all this time, Clive is not proud to be sexualist.

In conclusion, we know the reason why Churchill returned Clive at the end of play such as he know that Betty had kissed by Joshua, Betty had disappointed of Clive’s love by her habits and he is not proud of the own country because the increasing of lesbian and gay and now Clive is not proud to be sexualist.