Charlotte Perkins Gilman Herland Essay

Herland, a story of a feminine utopia, exists as a staple in feminist literature to be comprehended in many ways. Author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman challenges presumptive societal standards of women and class through Herland. The story tells the tale of a mysterious and forbidden land of females who reproduce through parthenogenesis. Amid an abrupt arrival of three, conquest seeking males, the Herlanders try to understand and civilize them. All the while, through trial and error, the men come to understand Herland in different ways based on their background of class. The dichotomy of capitalism and socialism in the same culture brews acceptance, denouncement, and independence.
In Marxist literary theory, more than the text itself is contextualized into a composition; instead, considerations of class. There is certainly something to be understood about the distinctions between Vandyck, Jeff, and Terry’s socioeconomic backgrounds. It is made known early in Herland that Terry resides from a wealthy upbringing: “Terry was rich enough to do as he pleased” (Gilman 1). As for Vandyck

and Jeff, it can be assumed that they are not as wealthy as their friend based on Vandyck’s descriptions with no insinuations of financial status equivalency. These descriptions are meant to serve a purpose in the plot.
Reading Herland through a critical Marxist lens, these distinctions begin to be understood. In Marxist literary theory, according to American literary critic, M. H. Abrams, “the fictional world of such writers accords with the Marxist conception of the real world as constituted by class conflict, economic and social ‘contradictions,’ and the alienation of the individual under capitalism” (Abrams 149). In Herland, class struggle and materialism play a substantial role in the interactions that the characters have with one another; namely, the interactions between Vandyck, Jeff, and Terry with their Herlandian wives.
After much time in Herland, the men are allowed more freedom within their utopian bounds. So much so that they are able to marry freely. As the text asserts in the exposition, Terry is confident believing that “pretty women were just so much game and homely ones not worth considering” (Gilman 10), Jeff, a man who idealized women in a Southern style, was “full of chivalry and sentiment, and all that” (Gilman 10), while Vandyck seemed to be a man in the middle ground. The outcome of their marriages correlates with their separate ideals.
Terry is seen to have the most trouble when it came to conforming to Herlandian ideals. Such can be due to his materialist nature. He quickly becomes aggravated with his wife, Alima’s socialist morality. This is where the men’s perceptions of love pose friction with those of the Herlander’s. The breaking point for Terry was that Alima continued to work while he and the men had nothing to do - a reverse in gender norms from their prior society. Trying to salvage a sense of normalcy in his marriage, Terry seeks physical pleasure from Alima with no intentions of parenthood in mind. This leads to a physical struggle in which Terry is detained and put on trial.
While Vandyck and Jeff experience similar complications in their marriages, they compromise. Jeff idolizes his wife, Celis, while Vandyck tries to understand love with Ellador, his wife. The men’s marriages all differ from each other’s based on the men’s ideas of women and relations from their class position in their past capitalistic society.
Although, their background is not the only defining influence in Herland. In “Literary Theory: The Basics,” author Hans Bertens, in an expansive description of Marxist literary theory, says that, “Writers can never completely escape ideology and their social background so that the social reality of the writer will always be part of the text” (Bertens 90). This is increasingly apparent in Herland. Looking into Gilman’s life I found an increasing amount of similarities between her own life struggles with the circumstances posed in the book.
Gilman, a prominent American feminist, sociologist, and novelist, had a rough life. In a declining marriage, Gilman found herself sinking into a deep depression. She later made the decision to divorce her husband, Charles Walter Stetson. She also made the widely criticized decision to put her daughter into her father’s custody. Coming out of her depressed state, Gilman had custody of her daughter once again where she then became inspired to write more.
It is not unlike Gilman to have her life influence her text; “The Yellow Wallpaper” has been said to have been influenced by her declining marriage and depression by Vice-Provost at Brock University, Anna Lathrop.

Thus these struggles in Gilman’s life can be directly implemented in influencing Herland. Gilman giving her daughter up to her ex-husband seems to be the most influential to me. It makes sense that Gilman would give up her daughter to a more stable household modeled by her father and step-mother instead of her own lonely, depressing civil being. It can be hypothesized that Gilman felt as though she was unfit to aid substantially in her child’s development at such a point in her life, similar to the unfitting mothers in Herland. In chapter seven of Herland, the reader gets a glimpse of the most important ideal to the Herlanders and just how significant it is to the societal

beliefs.
In an exchange between Vandyck and Somel, they continue their ongoing explanations of their contrastive cultures. In this particular one, Somel explains that "If the girl showing the bad qualities had still the power to appreciate social duty, we appealed to her, by that, to renounce
Motherhood.” (Gilman 85). Appalled by this, Vandyck questions their actions and his misconceptions that motherhood was for all of them. Somel replies, "Motherhood--yes, that is, maternity, to bear a child. But education is our highest art, only allowed to our highest artists" (Gilman 85). Here we find that in Gilman’s utopian land, education is the single most important value that the Herlanders possess where motherhood is sacrificed for proper development of a child. This reflects Gilman’s action to sacrifice her own maternal duties for her daughter to develop in a more stable and healthy environment.
Regardless of any critical angle taken upon Herland, it’s impossible to not mention some Feminist notions. The colony of Herland drips with empowerment for women. Not only does it ooze liberation from prior social imprisonment for women but it also acts as a symbol for the female body. Kathleen Lant emphasizes this in her feminist critique, The Rape of the Text: Charlotte Gilman’s Violation of Herland.
Lant reminds the reader - quoting Susan Gubar in She in Herland: Feminism as Fantasy - of the masculine versus feminine power struggle with the three men citing that, “‘Part of what they must discover is that there is no central, secret interior place to penetrate, for there are no mines or caves in Herland.’” Here, the key word “penetrate” accentuates the symbolization of mines and caves being the feminine orifice for reproduction. This further stresses the brutal misogyny of objectification, viewing women as something to be conquered and colonized for the sake of pleasure.
Lant helps the reader to see that Gilman’s purpose for Herland was to ultimately reshape our consciousness, specifically towards the treatment of women. Gilman does this by reshaping the consciousness of Vandyck who arrived in Herland in the name colonialism. Dinesh D’Souza explains the idea of colonialism in Two Cheers for Colonialism, where he recites the harmful effects of colonialism in its beginnings but, more importantly, its life-changing effects on later generations in his own experience. What colonization gave his society was knowledge and resources that led to their independence. This is important in Herland.
As previously discussed, Vandyck’s relationship with his wife was built on understanding (the difference in cultural and idealistic backgrounds). Of the three men, Vandyck seemed to be the only one who truly had a change of heart after his journey in Herland. With his eventual understanding of Herlandian ideals, he gained the knowledge and resources to challenge his own beliefs that were rooted in his own society’s values. This led to his revelation of independent thought, similar to D’Souza’s story. In the end, the Herlanders were never truly colonized, only reinforced in their societal process while Vandyck, who sought colonization, was colonized himself.
Analyzing Gilman’s Herland, the text explorers deeper understandings of class and culture. Traces of colonialism texturize the institutionalizations that become questioned by feminist and marxist ideals. Closing Herland after finishing the final page, it seems that we, the reader, exist as Vandyck; conflicted by unconscious truth that channels reason and independence in our own conscious thoughts.