Charlotte Perkins Gilman died in 1935 having enjoyed her fame for her journalistic an political writings as she notoriously featured in the limelight for her unconventional political life. During her days, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was popular as an intellectual feminist and a crusading journalist. Her primary focus in her writings was the inequality and social justice in general. Her major focus, however, was the unequal treatment of the women in her society within the institution of marriage: she refused to accept the assertion that all a woman was capable of doing in her life is her allotted role as a mother, a domestic servant, and a sexual object for her husband. She wrote several woks including Concerning Children (1900), The Home (1904), and Human Work (1904), where she argued that the confinement of women to the domestic sphere denied them the opportunity to express their full powers of creativity and intelligence. This also robbed the society of women whose abilities suited them for public and professional life.
However, in Herland (1915), Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents three adventurous friends; Jeff Margrave, Terry Nicholson, and Vandyck Jennings, who join a scientific expedition to one of the few remaining unexplored areas of the world. As these three friends travel, they hear the rumors of a strange land populated only by women. In this lost women society, the women are intelligent, strong, creative, self-governing, and industrious. They find out that these women have an advanced, isolated culture in the mountains, separated from the rest of the world. Driven by the love of adventure, the desire for knowledge, and by the fantasies stoked by the tales they heard of the land full of women without men, these three friends seek out to explore the all-women land.
When they arrive in the land and eventually meet the women, they meet women that they have not met their type before: strong, self-confident, clearly intelligent, and obviously unafraid of men. Even though the women indicate that they would want the men to follow them, the men are afraid of being taken into custody. When they are eventually captured, the women treat them well, but put them in custody and anticipate their escape, thereby planning for this escape. Celis, Alima, and Ellador are some of the women who teach the three friends their language. Upon inquiry, the men are informed that following a series of natural disasters, a sequence of wars, and internal strife combined to leave a small population alone, they are told that Herland has been without men for 2,000 years.
Therefore, the women were forced to fend for themselves under devastating circumstances. They realized that they needed cooperation to survive and organized their society along the most rational lines possible. In this women only society, the societal problems such as competition, crime, and antisocial behavior are not present. The women in Herland developed a peaceful, orderly, highly efficient society. Additionally, there is a loose system of authority based on experience and wisdom, and the wellbeing and education of children are the highest priorities.
In their conclusion after learning the culture of the women only society and comparing it to the modern civilized world of Europe, the men believe that the latter would need to adjust to match the standards of Herland. They provide an embarrassing contrast of the way things are done in both worlds. The policies of Herland inevitably appear to be more rational and effective compared to the civilized modern world. They even make comparisons of domestication of animals in both worlds: Herland’s cats are model citizens, intelligent, healthy, and beautiful. When Somel and Zava are informed about the diseases associated with domestic animals such as dogs, they are scared and do not believe it. The author is keen to compare both societies at all stages based on reason, equality, and cooperation.
It is evident that the purpose of wring this novel is to indicate that women have equal potential as men do. The women can govern their society to levels that are seamlessly possible in the man governed society. At Herland, the women mange to make sure that the members of the society conducts themselves in the best interest of every member of the society. The fact that crime, diseases and other vices are absent in Herland indicate that women should be given the chance to correct the wrongs that have been assumed to be introduced by man in the civilized world. In the novel, the women appear to be more organized and ready to work with each other. They equally value motherhood and the upbringing of their children. The author uses this to indicate to the men that women can perform the upbringing task as well as engage in other issues in the society. Even further, she intends to indicate that the civilized society has been deprived of the inputs that women could offer if they were allowed to exploit their full potential.
Work Cited:
Charlotte, Gilman “Herland (Mobi Classics).” London: MobileReference, 2010, print.
