It shows how much queer theory has been stuffed into my brain when I can’t even watch a musical without analyzing it. That being said, the Rosetown cast did a fantastic job, as always.
The first thing to do with any feminist critique is to measure female presence using the Bechdel test. “Fiddler,” despite having many important female characters, only barely passes. At the very end, during the exodus from Anatevka, the Matchmaker stops by Tevye’s house to tell Golde that she is moving to Jerusalem. Other than that, every single conversation is either with a man or about a man. Heck, there’s even a musical number about men.
Now let’s go through the daughters, because I’m not quite hard-core enough to go through the entire cast.
At first glance, the play seems pretty feminist-friendly. After all, the women are defying their father’s wishes in order to do what they want with their lives…regarding the man they marry. In other words, the women defy a male object by seeking another.
Tzeitel
Tzeitel’s act of defiance is to choose her own lover, the poor tailor, rather than marry the rich butcher her father picked out for her. How does she go about this? First she pressures Motel into telling her father. She can’t do it herself, obviously. Then, when her father announces her engagement to the butcher, she begs him not to force her, and he, being the benevolent patriarch, gives in. One has to wonder, though, what would have happened if he had not been so benevolent. Obviously, it is Tevye’s story of transformation, but if you change the perspective, it becomes a lot darker.
Tzeitel finally convinces her father to let her marry Motel, when Motel finally stands up to Tevye. His winning line is “Even a poor tailor deserves some happiness,” a line that was fed to him by Tzeitel. Does she get any credit for it? Of course not. A woman’s job is to stand behind her man, to support him in everything he does and do nothing for herself. But Motel’s so adorkable, we can forgive him.
Hodel
Hodel has a love at first fight kind of relationship with Perchik. She is certainly witty and clever enough to keep up with him. No one ever wonders if she could be a student, however. She can only marry one. She follows Perchik to Siberia to help him in his work with the Communist party, and this perhaps is a matter that is progressive for the times; she can only leave her hometown with/for a man, but she is leaving town, and of her own free will.
Perchik proposes in the most awkward manner possible, posing an abstract question about the economics of marriage, listing the benefits and bases thereof, to which Hodel keeps adding “And affection.” Because women are emotional and men are logical.
When it comes time to break the news to Tevye, who is initially against it, Hodel’s argument is “Papa, please!” Perchik’s argument is “We’re not asking for your permission. But we would like your blessing.” Hodel just goes with it. If her husband-to-be wants to ditch tradition completely, then so does she.
Chavaleh
Chavaleh commits the greatest transgression of all, running off with a gentile bookworm. I do like their courtship the best: “You like books. I like books. Here’s a book. You should read it, and then we can talk about it.” I feel like that’s going to be me someday. Anyway.
Chavaleh leaves behind her family, her culture, everything she has ever known, for a man. Granted, she’s supposed to be like, fifteen. So I’m sure it all makes perfect sense in her mind. Also, for having maybe five minutes of dialogue, Fyedka has more personality than Edward Cullen.
I should clarify that “compulsory heterosexuality” in Adrienne Rich’s sense is not just a lack of gay characters. Compulsory heterosexuality is the fairy tale ending, where the men and women are all paired off neatly and no one is supposed to want anything different. There are no widows, or spinsters, or lesbians. A woman’s primary relationship is with a man and not a woman - not her best girl friend or group of friends, not her sister or her mother or what have you.
In “Fiddler,” the one character who escapes compulsory heterosexuality is the matchmaker, ironically, whose function in society is to uphold compulsory heterosexuality. But I was going to focus on the daughters.
Tevye has five daughters (seven in Rosetown). Two have fates that are left unknown. All that we do know is that they move to America, and if Tevye thought he had a hard time holding onto tradition in Anatevka…
Now, following the logical progression of his daughters’ lives, I have predictions for the last two. One will remain single. She’ll go to college and become a lawyer or a business professional. Or she'll be a crazy artist hippie bum (or whatever the 1905 equivalent is); she’ll do something fulfilling with her life. And she might go on dates, or have sexual encounters with men, but she won’t settle down and marry one.
The other daughter is going to be a lesbian.
[I checked all the spellings of names on Wikipedia; if I got any wrong I apologize.]
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