Female Friends by Fay Weldon

First published: 1974

Type of work: Psychological realism

Time of work: From the beginning of World War II to the late 1960’s

Locale: London and rural England

Principal Characters:

• Chloe Evans Rudore, the protagonist, a middle-aged mother and wife
• Oliver Rudore, her husband, a writer
• Marjorie, Chloe’s friend
• Grace Songford, a friend of Chloe and Marjorie, to whose country village they were evacuated during World War II
• Patrick Bates, a painter and womanizer, who is highly successful in both enterprises

The Novel

The friends who give this novel its title are very different in background. Indeed, as Fay Weldon shows in one of her flashbacks, it was only chance that brought them together during the evacuation of London during World War II. Edwin and Esther Songford, the parents of Grace Songford, have taken their only child to the Ulden station so that they can choose a London refugee to live with them. Much to the relief of the residents of Ulden, a rural village, the train which stops, by mistake, is loaded with children from the West End, rather than the appalling East End slum children whom they had expected. Perhaps from compassion, perhaps from a desire to spite her parents, Grace picks the unappealing Marjorie to take home with them. The third member of the trio, Chloe Evans Rudore, arrives in Ulden with her widowed mother, Gwyneth Evans, who then settles in as a maid-of-all-work at the Rose and Crown, while Chloe spends as much time as possible with Marjorie and Grace. Thus, the lifelong friendship is forged, linking Chloe, the humble, downtrodden servant’s daughter; Grace, the child of an arrogant, cashiered officer and a browbeaten, motherly woman; and Marjorie, whose parents are a Jewish intellectual and a selfish socialite, the first at war, the second too busy adventuring to concern herself about her child.

The novel follows a psychological rather than chronological order. Beginning with a typical scene between Chloe and her husband, Oliver Rudore, in which he exerts his authority over his wife-even to the extent of justifying his regular nights with the French maid-Weldon then follows Chloe to London meetings with her friends, to recollections of their past experiences and past conversations, and back to her present home with Oliver and various children. Sometimes, the omniscient author reports a scene, often in dialogue, and occasionally she penetrates the consciousness of Marjorie or Grace; since the friends impart their feelings so fully to one another, however, it is sometimes difficult to tell whether the thoughts which Weldon details represent only an internal reflection or an observation by one friend remembered by others. In any case, past events and past causes of present behavior are gradually revealed to the reader, so that at the end of the novel, no motivation is unclear; the three female friends are fully realized.

The lives of the friends have differed as greatly as their backgrounds. Chloe, like her mother, is docile and obedient. The man she has chosen to marry and to obey, Oliver, is a mediocre writer, who vents his frustrations on Chloe. Maternal by nature, Chloe has a household of five children, her own eighteen-year-old son by Oliver, her eight-year-old daughter, Grace’s illegitimate son, and two children of the painter Patrick Bates and his deceased wife, Midge Bates. Since Chloe’s daughter and Grace’s son were both fathered by Patrick Bates, he is actually responsible for the existence of most of the household, although he believes that fathering the children, not supporting them, was his role in life. Perhaps because he so admires Patrick’s genius, Oliver is willing to support the household, although Chloe’s daughter, while delightful, is a constant reminder of her own infidelity, as well as an excuse for tormenting Chloe.

While Chloe has been functioning as a wife and mother, Grace has found it impossible to devote herself to husband or to children. After abandoning her orphaned baby brother in order to lead her own life, Grace married the bachelor of the season, her ideal husband. Unfortunately, he proved to be unscrupulous and irresponsible. When she criticized him for negligence in the collapse of one of his buildings, he could not forgive her. She lost his love and her two children. Later, she could only pursue him and his wives with hatred. After his death, for which she blamed herself, she has abandoned herself to making the most of men, without permitting herself to care for them. She guards her heart, as well, against feeling for her son, whom Chloe rescues and rears.

Marjorie, too, has denied her feelings in order to survive. As her life is reconstructed through flashbacks and dialogue, it becomes clear that for many years the motivating force was her desire to win the love of her selfish mother, who not only spurned her but also neglected to pass along news of her father, who was in combat and eventually a prisoner. Bereft of parents, Marjorie tried to please the Songfords, who were fond of her but who were, after all, not her own parents. When her mother claimed Marjorie, her intent was to use her as caretaker of the neglected family home, at which her father suddenly appeared, only to die within the week. Still hopeful, Marjorie moved in with a young student, who died in a freak accident; the shock caused Marjorie to lose the baby she was carrying. It is not surprising that even the accommodating Patrick Bates refuses to sleep with her, saying that she is tainted with death. The aggressive woman whom Chloe meets in London is understandable, once her past has been pieced together during the course of the novel.

Some critics have believed that the end of the novel is too easy. After Marjorie has once more tried to gain the love of her mother, now dying of cancer, there is a lapse in time. In the final chapter, Chloe reports that each of the friends has moved forward into a more satisfying life-Grace into a loving relationship and motherhood, Marjorie to life in Israel, with her father’s people, and, perhaps most surprising, Chloe to a break with the insufferable Oliver and the establishment of her own household.

The Characters

There are two types of characterization in Female Friends. Because the novel is in a sense three rather randomly organized case studies, Chloe, Grace, and Marjorie are almost fully revealed to the reader. Only the fact that they, rather than an omniscient author, report and interpret their own lives makes the accounts less than completely reliable. Even then, the friends correct one another’s stories. For example, Marjorie doubts Grace’s tale of being raped by her father; Grace likes to dramatize herself, Marjorie tells Chloe, proceeding to suggest what probably did happen. The other characters in the novel, however, are presented through the vantage point of Chloe, Grace, and Marjorie. Therefore, their motivations are what these women assume them to be or what they themselves state. Certainly, Edwin Songford, Oliver Rudore, and Patrick Bates represent the worst traits which women note in men: They are insensitive, irresponsible, and dishonest; they dominate their women like colossi because they cannot subdue the world and the female seems a ready substitute for it. Unlike the female friends, however, they are one-dimensional.

If Weldon’s men are less fully realized than her women characters, they are at least not all evil. Marjorie’s parents reverse the usual feminist pattern: Her mother, Helen, is self-centered and heartless, while her father, Dick, is as badly treated by his wife as Chloe is by Oliver or Esther Songford by Edwin. There is no implication that Marjorie’s husband, Ben, was inconsiderate, and although Grace’s first husband was a ruthless empire-builder, at the end of the book, she seems to have linked herself to a better person. Because she admits that not all men are evil and that not all women are good, and because she suggests that the victims of both sexes can learn to refuse their roles, the author has created a novel which is both more realistic and more hopeful than it might otherwise have been.

Critical Context

Fay Weldon’s third novel, Female Friends, is highly regarded because in it she presents a realistic view of the injustice of women’s lot without descending from art to vituperation. One evidence of her skill is the complexity of her characters, particularly her women, who are themselves imperfect, some acquiescing in their fate, others denying life in order to escape the ills of womanhood, but all working together, as friends, in an attempt to be honest. Rejecting simplistic solutions, Weldon makes it clear that a complex combination of feminine biology, masculine prejudice, social assumptions, and women’s own passivity is responsible for the status quo.

Weldon’s artistry is also evident in her handling of tone. Unrelieved anger or self-pity would have been tiresome, but because her characters are themselves often comic, and because Marjorie, Grace, and Chloe can see themselves and one another as comic, the novel makes its point without sacrificing the sparkling lines and hilarious scenes which delight the reader.

Bibliography

Blackburn, Sara. Review in The New York Times Book Review. November 10, 1974, p. 18.

Cooper, Arthur. Review in Newsweek. LXXXIV (November 11, 1974), p. 101.

Gray, Paul. Review in Time. CIV (October 28, 1974), p. 101.

Sissman, L. E. Review in The New Yorker. LI (March 10, 1975), pp. 96-97.