dialogue reveals the sharp resentments and final break between the sisters based on the life choices that they made. The elder sister Joyce was the one who got married and stayed home to become the grown-up emotional anchor of dysfunctional parents and a philandering husband. She also took young Marlene's out-of-wedlock child, while Marlene herself escaped the household and, more important, the culture of that household. The choice each sister made cost her emotionally. Joyce is trapped in a life of resentment, not only of her sister's freedom but also of the fact that family responsibilities have fallen to her and that she has failed at making family life anything but drudgery. Her defiance comes in the form of a rejection of Marlene. Marlene, for her part, has discarded any fellow feeling since the time she discarded the trap of her roots. Indeed, she has embraced the values of Thatcherite England and looks forward to the excitement of the 1980s. She can bear the emotional and intellectual distance from her mother, whom she resents for ha
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