Fefu and Her Friends

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1990

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Guns and Hunting

At the beginning of the play, Fefu points a gun at her husband and shocks her friends by pulling the trigger. When he falls down, she reassures them that the gun is loaded with blanks and he isn’t actually injured. According to Fornés, this imagery was inspired by an old Mexican joke in which two men are at a bullfight. One man comments on an attractive woman. The other asks, “Which one?” and the first man points his gun, shoots, and says, “That one.” The twist on this joke in Fefu and her Friends comments on how within patriarchal power structures, a man can destroy a woman simply due to admiration, treating her as if she is disposable. Hunting is predatory, and this frames the dynamics in a heterosexual relationship as one between predator and prey.

The gun represents masculinity, which is why Fefu picks it up. She is determined to reject femininity and social gender roles and live more like a man. A gun signifies a power over life and death, but there is also a blurring of lines between power and the illusion of power. The hunter who was involved in Julia’s accident shot a deer. Although she was injured, the hunter immediately absolved himself of responsibility because he only directly shot the deer. This suggests that somehow Julia was collateral damage from the man’s actions which directly killed the deer. But at the end of the play, when Fefu mimics the hunter’s action and kills a rabbit, Julia is once again injured or perhaps killed.

Fefu regularly shoots at her husband, but the decision as to whether the gun is loaded with real bullets isn’t actually hers. Therefore, the power of the gunshot belongs to her husband. But the constant presence of the gun onstage is reminiscent of Anton Chekhov’s assertion that a gun that appears onstage in the first act must be fired by the last act. Although Fefu fires it in Part 1, she doesn’t fire it with any deadliness until Part 3. It’s notable that when Fefu fires it at the end of the play, she shoots a rabbit. This implies that her husband finally decided to load the gun with real bullets. But the person who ends up being harmed by this action is another woman instead of Fefu’s husband.

The Invisible Judges

Julia’s affliction causes hallucinations, and in Part 2, she hallucinates about a panel of invisible judges. Before Julia arrives at Fefu’s house, the other women remember her before the accident as intelligent and assertive. But after the accident, Julia became passive and unwilling to fight. When she hallucinates, she claims that the judges came to her during her hunting accident and made the decision to permit her to live if she would change her behavior. The judges seem to be giving her instructions as to how to function as a proper woman in a patriarchal society by submitting to gender roles. Julia’s madness arises from the fact that she complies while remaining fully aware that she is only complying under threat of death.

As Julia endures hallucinations of the judges in Part 2, they hit and abuse her, even when she says what they want her to say. This suggests that a woman cannot escape the punishment of patriarchal forces simply by obeying. She cannot escape the punishment at all, but the judges tell Julia that most women forget that the judges exist. Therefore, a woman who believes in the rights of patriarchal power can avoid feeling punished. Nevertheless, she will still be under the patriarchy’s control. Near the end of the play, Julia gets out of her wheelchair and walks when she believes that no one is watching, implying that her disability might be at least partially psychosomatic.

Of all the women, Julia is particularly concerned about Fefu meeting the same fate because Fefu has so openly rejected feminine gender roles. But Fefu is oblivious to Julia’s worries and instead tries to urge Julia to fight. At the end of the play, Fefu ends up potentially killing Julia by asserting masculinity. It isn’t clear why Julia seems to die from this incident whereas she survived the first hunting incident. Ostensibly, Julia failed to negotiate successfully with the judges and persuade them that she could live a non-feminist life. Or perhaps Julia decided this time that survival simply wasn’t worth the price.

Fefu’s Black Cat

In Part 2, Fefu has a conversation with Emma in which she describes a large, repulsive black cat that appeared in her kitchen. Fefu says that she fed him, feeling obligated, and then he befouled her kitchen. Despite the unpleasantness and filth, Fefu states that the cat still comes to her kitchen and she continues to feed him because she fears him. This is one of Fefu’s most vulnerable moments in the play. It’s contradictory to her general assertion that she chooses to be masculine and powerful. Although the cat is disgusting, Fefu lacks the agency to turn him away.

As a woman, Fefu is ultimately required to be subservient to her husband, even though he expresses his hatred toward her. She is required to feed and nurture, no matter what kind of mess a man leaves behind. In the end, her resistance to gendered oppression is futile because she can’t help loving her husband and wanting him to love her. Fefu points the gun at Phillip and pretends to be cavalier about his survival, but she isn’t the one with the agency to load it with real bullets. She remains obedient on some level because she is afraid.