The Heidi Chronicles: A Feminist Analysis

During the 1960s, several socio-cultural and political events like students’ protest, anti-Vietnam war agitation, liberation for lesbians and gays andthe Women’s Movement shook the American literary scenario. The new generation of playwrights used drama as a potent medium in depicting the ongoing turbulence that prevailed in the society deftly. However, the Women’s Movement gathered women from allwalks of life, to come to the streets to record their protests and speak their voices. In spiteof the predominance of the “alpha male” playwrights like Sam Shepherd, David Mamet,etc (Kaufman 78), the feminist theatre had its genesis. Feminist theatre, an offshoot of the feminist movement, was “parented by the women movement and the ‘new theatre’, …show more content…
Through her plays, wit and humour, hope and despair, joy and anguish of her generation find a deft expression. The play taken for analysis is her Pulitzer Prize winning play The Heidi Chronicles (1989).Just like her other plays, Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles too revolves around the aspects of identity and autonomy, wherein Heidi undergo various feelings like anguish, confusion, and liberation through her indigenous actions. The play is regarded for its whimsical, comical and poignant depiction of the predicament of the titular character Heidi Holland, who presumes herself as the product of the Women’s Movement of the late 1960s. Though there is a veil of autobiographical aspects within the play, it brilliantly unfolds the story of the generation of women, who were redefining themselves …show more content…
Heidi Holland, from her high school days in Chicago, (1960s) to her status as a single mother living in the New York City (1988), whereinthe playwright brilliantly uses Heidi, in a retrospective, subtle, pseudo-autobiographical way, in order to narrate her protagonist’s life’s pivotal incidents, by revealing both the good and bad milestones in her life. Some of the issues that surface on the play are marginalization of women artists, sexism, questioning gender roles, romantic notions of marriage and the most prime being the lost idealism of the Second Wave Feminism. Although these issues were dealt candidly in the play, when enquired about the background for the genesis of the play, Wendy remarked that the play was an output of her strong feminist sentiments. She further observed: “I wrote this play because I had this image of a woman standing up at a women’s meeting saying, ‘I’ve never been so unhappy in my life …’” (qtd. in Balakin 82). In the Prologue for the Act I, Heidi clearly delineates the difference between a male and female sensibility through a painting depiction. This is further emphasized in the high school dance episode where Heidi and her friend Susan are attracted by their male counterparts. Even though Heidi is calm, Susan behaves just like any normal girl and tries to make her first impression the best impression to attract the boys at the dance. Susan’s following response,