The MotHerland

A Critical Essay on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland

By: Daniel F. McNulty

            Herland is a novel that helps, in its own way, to promote equality between the sexes. It shows that women in power or with power (as with Gilman, the dictator of her own worlds of literature) may behave in just as power driven and egoistic sort of way as men, and be as ignorant of their own evil as the men they may criticize (as Gilman does). Charlotte Perkins Gilman conceives of a socially progressive Utopian world that is constructed through genocide, racism, nationalism, isolationism, and negative eugenics in order to build “up a great race through their children” (Gilman, Herland 96).

            It is interesting to see a female Utopia so chocked full of violence and oppression, and to have it embraced as groundbreaking; to have the racism, ethnocentrism, and elitist policies ignored by so many of its critics. The Violence is explained away (poorly) by Gilman and justified, or is conveniently taken care of by Mother Nature. Of course the women in Herland identify strongly with Mother Nature and she just seems to be an extension of the female character that provides the final solution for all those who stand in Gilman’s way, without the need for any flaws or guilt being placed upon her idealized characters.

            Herland is told through the eyes of a young, male sociologist named Vandyck Jennings. He is accompanied on this voyage into the uncharted northern reaches of North America (presumably, although it does not say, all signs point here) by two other males, Terry O. Nicholson and Jeff Margrave. Terry represents the extreme domineering male stereotype and Jeff represents the extreme female worshipping male stereotype. Terry’s thoughts and actions are motivated by sex and power, while Jeff’s are more sentimentalized and poetic. Vandyck (Van) is more scientifically minded and is identified by the residents of Herland as being more like them in thought of the three males.

            Van is a racist who feels superior to the “savages” of North America. We see the word “savage” tossed about by Gilman without hesitation or remorse. Van speaks of the savages as if they are inferior “I told the boys about these stories, and they laughed at them. Naturally I did myself. I knew the stuff that savage dreams are made of. (Gilman, Herland 5)” Being that he is most like minded with the residents of Herland, “‘We like you the best’ Somel told [Jeff] ‘because you are most like us.’(Gilman, Herland 90)”, we can infer their belief of the inferiority of the savages as well. In the sequel to Herland, With Her in Ourland, we see the faces of racism, ethnocentrism, and elitism raise their heads again when Ellador (a former resident of Herland) says “Why, Van, it is the poor and oppressed who make monarchy and despotism – don’t you see that? (Gilman, With Her in Ourland 118)” She goes on to say, “About the first awful mistake [America] made was in loading yourself up with these reluctant Africans. (Gilman, With Her in Ourland 119)” The racism by the citizens of Herland is apparent and at times is portrayed in such a way as to justify it, but this is done poorly. If someone would argue that this racism was unintentional I would have to argue that if those descended of “Aryan stock (Gilman, Herland 55)” intended not to be racist, they would be superior at it, so this racism must be intentional.

            A perfect Utopian society like Herland rests on several tenets. The first tenet of creating a perfect society, as seen in Herland, rests upon having a racially pure “Aryan” stock to begin with. The next tenet is to remove all the weak and degenerate members of society. Finally you need isolationism and a strong sense of Nationalism

            Initially, the men of Herland, some 2,000 years prior to the time of the tale, defended Herland against the savages whose country they had invaded. This invasion is seen as so inherently right that it is not even deemed necessary to justify it. All of these men, however, were eventually killed by Mother Nature in the form of a giant lava flow.  By this, most of the weak sex of men (from whom all entrenched evils of society flow is the implication) are killed and conveniently removed from society. By this method of annihilation, it removes the female characters from any sense of guilt but still allows for the mass murder of almost all of the males by the female character of Mother Nature. (Gilman, Herland 56)

            Then, after most of the males have been killed, the slaves rise up against the remaining males (presumably the very old and very young, being that they were not warriors) and females. Slaves were held against their will by the Aryan ancestors of Herland and forced to work for the Herlanders. This slavery is not addressed as being wrong in any way in Herland (Although in With Her in Ourland does attempt to address the issue). The slaves rose up and killed “the remaining masters even to the youngest boy (Gilman, Herland 56).” By this, the remaining males were killed in such a way as to abdicate guilt from the female residents of Herland. So, when the slaves rose up and tried to exert their will upon the society that has enslaved them, the residents of Herland (female) slaughtered them to the last male. Some female slaves are left but their only place in the society and use was that they “rendered invaluable service, teaching such trades as they knew.” Two male children were born after this great series of tragic events but Mother Nature kills them as well. This was a convenient way of ridding the population of the remaining impure genes and because the slaves “rose in revolt”, this justifies their mass slaughter by the residents of Herland. (Gilman, Herland 56 – 57)

            We then are faced with the ideas of selective breeding and Eugenics. The weaker and inferior residents of Herland, those showing atavistic traits, are forcibly denied the right to breed. Is this force a physical force? No it is not. It is the force of governmental decree and of peer pressure. They are advised not to reproduce because they are not worthy and their offspring will be inherently flawed. Almost all of these women bowed down to the will of the group but this still echoes strongly to policies of eugenics, and negative eugenics by forced sterilization of those deemed inferior that was popular and common during the time of Gilman’s life. In 1903 a zoologist named Charles Davenport, “a man who would dominate America’s human breeding program for decades (Black 32)” and a member of the American Breeders Association, made a report to the Eugenics Committee of the ABA that cited the need to “ ‘dry up the springs that feed the torrent of defective and degenerate protoplasm’. ” In his report that “circulated to the entire ABA membership and the federal government”, he proposed doing this “‘By segregation during the reproductive period or even by sterilization.’ (Black 39)” Eugenics, negative eugenics, and forced sterilization were acceptable ideas and practices at the time of Gilman’s life and she reflected these beliefs in her writing. “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, Herland 83) If the inferiors did reproduce, their children were taken away, so as not to let their curse be doubled by being both born inferior and raised by an inferior. Luckily though, many of the inferior Herlanders, thanks again to Mother Nature, were not even able to reproduce and pass on their defective genes. (Gilman, Herland 83 – 84)

            The final leg that a Utopia like Herland rests upon is isolationism and nationalism. The lava flow that slaughtered almost all of the males in Herland, also block off the valley that proved to be the Herlanders only access to humanity. “Instead of a passage, a new ridge, sheer and high, stood between them and the sea; they were walled in, and beneath that wall lay their whole little army. (Gilman, Herland 56)” The Aryan stock of Herland was able to progress as it naturally would, being unaffected by outside and alien influences. By being restricted by geography, a sense of intense nationalistic pride is cultivated in the Herlanders who care deeply and naturally for their motherland and for the other residents of the motherland. Although nationalism is not directly referenced and perhaps even denied to a degree, the multiple references to “our country” by the residents of Herland implies a sense of ownership and nationalistic pride.

 Their sense of nationalism is based on geography but even more so on race and community. “The children in this country are the one center and focus of all our thoughts. Every step of our advance is always considered in its effect on the- on the race. (Gilman, Herland 67)” This is not to condemn Gilman. “These emphases were not original to Gilman. As a matter of fact, many progressive thinkers were renouncing individualism as a perverse doctrine that was seriously obstructing social evolution. In their view it was time for ‘individual rights’ as an ethical prism to give way to the motif of ‘social cohesion.’ (Allen 125)”

            So, we are left with Aryans, living in the Mother Land, concerned very much with National Socialism, eliminating the “weak” members of society, attempting a Final Solution, with the goal of leading each successive generation to a bright new age. Now…that reminds me of something.

            Something that may be of more interest than the contribution Charlotte Perkins Gilman has made to literature and to feminism is the criticism of her work over time. There seems to be an evolution in feminist criticism of Gilman apparent over the course herstory, from simplistic heroine worship, where nothing bad is acknowledged as being capable of existing, to a progressively more diverse array of criticism that acknowledges the flaws as well as the positives. Mary Jo Deegan notes, “Gilman was bigoted and ethnocentric at times, but she was also frequently insightful, timely, courageous, and a brilliant sociologist. (Gilman, With Her in Ourland 46)” The dangers of heroine worship are apparent in some of the earlier and more simplistic criticism, where no wrong is acknowledged as capable of being done by the in-group, the gender, the party. The rise and evolution of confident thinkers over time, as a new school of thought becomes more mainstream, is perhaps the fruit of this solidification of the in-group but regardless of the means by which it was achieved, is admirable.

Works Cited

Allen, Polly Wynn. Building Domestic Liberty: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Architectural

Feminism. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988

Black, Edwin. War Against The Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a

Master Race. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2004

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. With Her in Ourland: Sequel to Herland. Eds.Deegan, Mary

Jo and Hill, Michael R. Westport. Connecticut / London: Greenwood Press, 1997

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland and Selected Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Ed. Solomon, Barbara H. New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 1992

As an afterthought, I would like to add that I very much enjoyed reading Herland. I think that Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a skilled and inventive writer and thinker. I much prefer an over the top individual to a coward. To quote William Blake, from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (I imply nothing here!) “You never know what enough is unless you know what is more than enough.”