Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fefu and Her Friends, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Abstract Representation and Interpretation
Empowerment, Female Independence, and Feminism
Attraction, Romance, and Companionship
Friendship and Mutual Support
Suffering, Repression, and Violence
Summary
Analysis
The play opens in Fefu’s nicely furnished New England home, where Fefu suggests to her friends Cindy and Christina that her husband surely married her as a reminder of how “loathsome women are.” Cindy is scandalized by this statement, insisting that nobody would ever marry for such a reason, but Fefu says that her husband frequently tells her that this is what he did. Cindy thinks this is awful, but Fefu says that she just laughs off the comment whenever her husband brings it up—after all, she says, she he has a point: women are “loathsome.” Cindy is shocked. Fefu says that she takes back everything she has said, though she encourages her friend to think about the idea a little bit.
From the very beginning of the play, it’s clear that Fefu likes to rankle her friends by making provocative statements. She wants, it seems, to get a rise out of Cindy and Christina when she says that her husband married her to remind himself how “loathsome women are.” At the same time, though, it’s worth noting that this idea—regardless of whether or not it’s intentionally provocative—highlights the fraught gender dynamics at play in Fefu’s life. Even if it’s not true that her husband married her as a reminder of how “loathsome women are,” there must be some kind of animosity and sexism in their relationship, otherwise it's unlikely that she would think to say such a startling thing about her marriage.
Themes
Cindy asks Christina what she thinks of what Fefu has just said. Christina agrees with Cindy—she can’t believe what she’s hearing. But Fefu tells Christina not to be offended. She also insists that Cindy isn’t truly offended, even if she’s pretending to be. Cindy knows what she means, Fefu explains. As for Fefu herself, she appreciates “exciting ideas,” which give her “energy.” And the idea that women are “loathsome” is exciting because it’s repulsive. She likes that such an idea gives her “something to grapple with.”
Fefu now confirms that she likes to say challenging things. However, it becomes clear that she doesn’t do this solely out of a desire to shock her friends—rather, she wants to challenge herself, as evidenced by her assertion that she likes ideas that give her “something to grapple with.” She is, then, somebody who doesn’t shy away from difficult ideas or conversations, which is perhaps why she’s willing to think so cynically about the gender dynamics at play in her marriage.
Themes
Christina and Cindy tell Fefu that they generally try to avoid things that they find “revolting.” But Fefu asks if they’ve ever picked up a rock, turned it over, and stared at the worms and fungus teeming along its underside. They say that they have. Fefu asks if they found the experience “revolting”—they did. But they also admit—at Fefu’s urging—that they were also “fascinated” by the disgusting rock. Fefu goes on to say that this is a good representation of life: people might seem clean on the outside (like the top of a rock), but there’s also an unsightly griminess hidden beneath their presentable exterior.
Although Fefu has already established that she likes to “grapple” with challenging or provocative ideas, what she says here seems like more than a mere thought experiment—her comments about the ugliness hiding in most people suggests that she has a cynical, almost fearful view of humanity and life in general. Once again, then, it seems as if there’s something troublesome going on in Fefu’s life, though it’s unclear what, exactly, has driven her to speak so pessimistically.
Themes
Fefu breaks off her conversation with Christina and Cindy, announcing that it’s time for lunch. But then she sees through the open French doors that her husband, Phillip, is approaching the house with some other men. Fefu asks Christina if she has ever met Phillip. Christina says she hasn’t and asks which one he is. Picking up a shotgun that has been leaning by the French doors, Fefu shoots it at Phillip and says, “That one!” Christina and Cindy are astounded, but Fefu casually tells them not to worry, pointing out that Phillip—who fell over when she fired the shot—is already getting up. She explains that this is a game they play: whenever he approaches the house, she shoots a blank at him and he pretends to have been shot.
Christina and Cindy are understandably taken aback when Fefu shoots a gun at her husband. Even though she eventually explains that the gun is loaded with blanks, the gesture in and of itself is still shockingly violent, effectively imbuing Fefu and Phillip’s relationship with a sense of hostility and violence. Given that Fefu has already suggested—albeit offhandedly—that there’s a feeling of sexist resentment at the core of their marriage, the fact that she pretends to shoot Phillip seems incredibly fraught with animosity, as if this is the only way they’re able to express the turmoil that clearly plagues their bond.
Themes
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Fefu heads upstairs, leaving Cindy and Christina alone in the living room. They both feel like they need a drink, so Cindy prepares one for Christina, giving her an ice cube with just a few drops of bourbon on it (as per Christina’s strange request). They the talk about Fefu. This is the first time Christina has met Fefu, and she’s not so sure about her. Cindy tries to tell her that she’s “lovely,” even if she’s a bit odd. She explains that Fefu and Phillip have a very strange marriage, as they both make each other crazy. Christina wants to know why they don’t just leave each other, but Cindy says it’s because they’re in love. She also explains that Fefu’s gun is loaded with a blank.
Cindy is familiar with Fefu’s strange relationship with Phillip, but that doesn’t mean she understands it. Nonetheless, by pointing out that they don’t leave each other because they’re in love, she offers a very simple but genuine explanation for why Fefu and Phillip stay together—sometimes, the play suggests in this moment, love mysteriously survives despite toxic surrounding circumstances. Even so, though, the play doesn’t necessarily imply that this is always a good thing.
Themes
Fefu appears at the top of the stairs and announces that she has just fixed the toilet in Cindy’s room. Christina is surprised to hear that Fefu does her own plumbing, but Fefu doesn’t think much of it, instead going on to talk about how Phillip scared her by falling down so realistically when she shot him. Cindy and Christina are a little perturbed—doesn’t Fefu only shoot blanks at him? “I’m never sure,” Fefu says. She then explains that Phillip once said that he might secretly put real bullets in the gun, but she thinks he only said this to make her nervous. When Christina says that Fefu frightens her, Fefu says that she frightens herself, too. But she also says that the game she plays with Phillip is good for their relationship—if she didn’t pretend to shoot him, she might do it for real.
When Fefu says that this twisted game she and Phillip play is actually good for their relationship, she confirms the idea that a certain violent animosity lurks at the core of their bond. The only way to neutralize this animosity, it seems, is to pretend to indulge it. By play-acting this violent aggression, she and Phillip are able to keep their fraught dynamic at bay. And yet, the mere fact that Fefu doesn’t know whether or not the gun is really loaded with blanks suggests that their play-acting isn’t as safe as it seems. And this, in turn, implies that the resentment at the center of their relationship is unavoidably toxic and dangerous.
Themes
Christina wants another drink. When Fefu learns that she likes an ice cube with just a drop of bourbon on it, she decides to make little ice-cube popsicles by putting little sticks in the cubes for later. Christina thinks this is weird, but Fefu doesn’t mind being strange, saying that everyone who loves her loves her for exactly who she is. Christina, however, finds Fefu frustrating, and she insists that Fefu surely infuriates everyone around her.
The more time Christina spends with Fefu, the less she seems to like her. In this way, she serves as a foil for Fefu, ultimately highlighting just how abrasive and challenging someone like Fefu can be—after all, Fefu did say that she likes challenging ideas, indicating that she’s the type of person who might push others out of their comfort zones. As a character, then, Christina plays off of Fefu’s abrasiveness, creating a contrast that helps the audience grasp that Fefu is a somewhat divisive person.
Themes
Fefu delivers a monologue about how she likes men better than women and even feels jealous of men. She enjoys thinking and acting like a man, especially because she thinks men get along better with each other than women do. She likes that men have “natural strength” and resents the fact that women have to “find their strength,” since she thinks this means that whatever power they end up cultivating is full of “bitterness.” And this, she thinks, makes women uncomfortable and “restless” with each other. To her surprise, Christina actually agrees—she has also envied men for these reasons, particularly because the world puts so much trust in men, which ultimately makes it easier for them to have faith in the world itself.
At first glance, Fefu’s point seems—to contemporary audiences, at least—somewhat regressive, since she voices an affinity for men over women. However, what she expresses isn’t necessarily an anti-feminist statement; rather, she seems to take issue with how hard society has made it for women to “find their strength.” Christina helps refine Fefu’s point by saying that the world gives men the benefit of the doubt by assuming that they have “natural strength.” This, in turn, allows men to move through the world as if it’s made for them, without questioning anything about their independence, authority, or competence. But society doesn’t automatically assume that women are independent and strong, which means that women are forced to establish this strength on their own—and doing this, of course, is quite difficult and taxing.
Themes
Fefu goes upstairs to check on the plumbing again. Christina is emotionally fatigued from their conversation, but she turns her attention to the fact that one of their other friends, Julia, has just arrived. Julia is in a wheelchair, and both Christina and Cindy pay close attention to how she’s doing—but she seems perfectly chipper. When she goes to get set up in her room, though, Cindy and Christina talk about how Julia isn’t “better” yet. Cindy explains that she was with her when the accident happened: they were out hunting, and a hunter aimed at and shot a deer, but Julia fell down at the same exact time as the deer. She was having convulsions, seizing just like the deer was. But then the deer died, and Julia did not.
The story of Julia’s injury is highly abstract and open to interpretation. In other words, there’s a sense of mystery surrounding what, exactly, injured her. Although she didn’t actually get shot, she reacted as if she did. Something about the mere suggestion of violence, then, seems to have impacted her in a terrible way, though this is strange because she was on a hunting trip, suggesting that she previously had no problem with the idea of shooting and killing living beings. Nonetheless, the play doesn’t necessarily intend for audience members to fully grasp the meaning behind Julia’s injury—the implications are left intentionally vague, encouraging the audience to reach for interpretation in the same way that Fefu likes to “grapple” with difficult ideas.
Themes
Cindy explains that Julia’s forehead was bleeding, but the hunter quickly pointed out that this was because she hit her head when she fell down—not because he shot her. While he went for help, Julia started speaking in a strange, disturbed way. Cindy says that Julia sustained some sort of “spinal nerve injury,” explaining that she has a “scar in the brain” from hitting her head after passing out, and she sometimes has absence seizures in which she suddenly spaces out.
Absence seizures (also known as petit mal seizures) cause a passing lapse in attention. From Cindy’s description, Julia seems to have sustained brain damage when she fell, suggesting that her injury (and subsequent brain condition) was the result not of getting shot, but of falling down. Still, though, her fall is inexplicably connected to the hunter’s gunfire—he didn’t shoot her, but he might as well have. And although it’s never explicitly stated, this link between Julia’s lasting, life-altering injury and the gun shot hints at a kind of violent suffering that continues to plague Julia.
Themes
When Julia was “delirious,” she talked about how she is being “persecuted” and “tortured.” She said that judges condemned her to death—via the bullet from the hunter’s gun—but allowed her to live as long as she never talked about it. If she did talk about it, she would be tortured and murdered. Cindy explains all of this to Christina, adding that she has never repeated these things to anyone before. She’s afraid for Julia.
What Julia says about antagonistic judges threatening to torture and murder her is difficult to fully comprehend—the play doesn’t give the audience concrete details about Julia’s experiences. What is clear, though, is that Julia is suffering and, moreover, that this suffering is somehow tied to strange authoritative figures, which is perhaps an abstract representation of the kind of all-encompassing, sexist hostility and subjugation that Julia and her female friends face in society at large.
Themes
Fefu overhears everything Cindy has just said about Julia. She comes in and asks who, exactly, hurt Julia, but Cindy says she doesn’t know. Fefu then tells Christina—who has only met Julia once before—to remember Julia as she used to be, saying that Julia was once very knowledgeable and confident. She knew everything and was afraid of nothing.
Even Julia’s friends are confused about what happened to her. It’s noteworthy that Fefu wants to know who hurt Julia, and that Cindy says she doesn’t know, since this line of questioning implies that the incident was more than just a freak accident—although it’s unclear what happened, the women seem to agree that there’s some antagonistic force working against Julia. Even if none of them understand Julia’s dissociative rants about mysterious judges who torture her, then, they at least appear willing to believe that someone (or something) is persecuting her.
Themes
More friends begin to arrive at Fefu’s house. Emma, Sue, and Paula all come inside and greet everyone else, and Paula tells Fefu how much she liked the lecture Fefu gave at “Flossie Crit,” prompting Julia to complain that Fefu didn’t tell her about it—she would have gone if she’d known. But Fefu downplays the event, insisting that it wasn’t very good. Then, before all of the women have lunch, Sue suggests that they should run through what everyone will be covering in the presentation they’re going to give later on, just so nobody ends up talking about the same thing.
At this point in the play, it’s still unclear why this group of women has gathered at Fefu’s house. The comments the women make in this moment, however, provide some insight into the context surrounding their meeting. First of all, “Flossie Crit” is slang for feminist studies (or, more accurately, feminist criticism), so it’s reasonable to conclude that Fefu (and her friends) are engaged in feminist thought. Moreover, the fact that Fefu gave a speech suggests that she is active in the field of feminist criticism. Lastly, when Sue says that they should all run over what they’re going to say in a presentation, it becomes clear that the women have assembled to organize some sort of public function—perhaps one that has to do with feminism or some other social cause.
Themes
Everyone goes upstairs except Julia, Cindy, and Christina. Julia sees the gun and picks it up. Cindy explains that it’s loaded with a blank, but Julia just stares at the gun and then unloads it, letting the blank drop to the floor. She then starts to space out, staring off as Cindy and Christina wonder what to do. “It’s a blank…,” she eventually says, before adding, “She’s hurting herself.” Still lost in her own mind, Julia lets out a pained whimper before coming to and announcing that she has to go lie down. As she leaves, Cecilia—the final houseguest—arrives at the front door.
It's unclear what, exactly, is going on in Julia’s mind. There is, though, a clear double-meaning at play when she says, “It’s a blank,” since she’s both referring to the blank loaded in the gun and, perhaps, to her own state of mind—after all, she has just “blank[ed]” out by going into an absence seizure. More broadly, though, her morbid fascination with and fear of the gun suggests that she has significant trauma surrounding her hunting accident. When she says, “She’s hurting herself,” it’s unclear what she means, but the mysterious statement hints at the idea of internal, private suffering and agony—even if the nature of this suffering remains obscure and difficult to grasp.
Themes
