Heidi Chronicles

Discuss The Heidi Chronicles
- from whichever angle you please.
You may consider the art/gender issue we have discussed
which Heidi is concerned with, e.g. in connection
with the above two artworks. Briefly put: does gender determine art?
Any notes on the WSU performance?

When I was reading the Heidi Chronicles, I thought that it progressively got more and more depressing as her life unfolded. My impression was that the last scene was not positive, but negative. However, I really liked the positive atmosphere that the WSU cast produced in the last scene. It fit really well and didn’t make me feel depressed leaving the play. The reason I thought that it was a negative ending is because Heidi basically felt that she made the wrong decisions in her life. The whole feminist movement is liberating for women since it frees them from their typical gender role and gives them a choice to pick a different life. Obviously, this freedom is necessary for the equality between genders, however, this freedom of choice also has a risk. Now that a woman can choose, she can make the wrong choice. Generally, in the nuclear family, the woman stays home and raises the children. The female role is standard across all families. With the freedom of choice, the mother can decide to pursue her career or a hobby and sacrifice her responsibilities as a mother. In Heidi’s situation, I thought that she wasn’t happy because she didn’t turn out the way she wanted to be. So in the last scene, my first impression was that she would be very sad and depressed. The WSU production portrayed Heidi as possibly finding peace or satisfaction and ultimately, finding happiness.

I feel that gender does not influence the quality of art since both genders are equally capable. Gender does influence how art is portrayed. In the Judith Beheading Holofernes painting, the woman is portrayed as a robust figure with a man-like dominance. This sort of visual variation between men and women paintings is sometimes distinguishable, but it is more difficult in other forms of art, such as composition of music. Regardless of who is performing the music, it is almost impossible to determine if a man or woman composed the piece. This is actually important since it validates women as artists after they were deprived of this role for so many years. If one cannot distinguish the gender, this proves that men and women are equally gifted in producing equally qualified works.