harlotte Perkins Gilman’s book Herland

In 1960, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote the book Herland, which was later published in 1978. Feminism is one of the societal issues in the nation populated by women, and the novel aims to both pioneer and critique it. The author’s primary goal is to reform society for a better quality of social life. The Herland novel helps readers comprehend the effects of a culture that is preoccupied with the concept of masculinity. This kind of character is described as androcentric by Charlotte. The plot of the novel is focused on three characters who were male explorers who decided to look for the female society which was hidden in the inner tropical forest, not knowing that, finally they will be received as kings. The three explorers include Vandyck, Terry, and Jeff. The Utopian novel focuses on three major cultural issues. The issues addressed in the novel are child culture, motherhood, and domesticity.

Keywords: Androcentric, Motherhood, and Domesticity

In the Herland society, motherhood and childbirth were regarded as a special call. This is contrary to other societies where giving birth and caring for the children is a gender role for the women. However due to the modernization, some of the tasks such as babysitting as become universal. According to the Herland societal belief, it is women who carry the role of procreation. This has brought about a lot of contradiction with the author’s view on the idea of sexuality. This is evident in the novel when Terry objects the idea of motherhood in the absence of a father. According to Gilman procreation without heterosexual sex cannot exist. “Notably, the choice to bear and nurture children was not a mere instinct (Gilman, 1860, pg.22).” This gives a new configuration on matters of human relationships. In the Herland society, the sexual relationship between a woman and a man is entirely economic in nature, and thus, it has caused ”excessive sexual indulgence.” The author of the novel has therefore challenged the issue of women being prone to sexual activity (Gilman, 1860, pg.24)

The idea of motherhood led to a different philosophy of child care and education in Herland. In his work of exploration, Vandyck made a discovery concerning the two issues and said that ” You see, children were the –the raison d’etre in this country” pg 31 and all the members of the society shared the duties of child caring. As the children grew up, they were thought the fundamental values of life, such as patience, peace, beauty, order, safety and justice. Another observation that Jennings made is that”…was that whereas our children grow up in private homes and families, with every effort made to protect and seclude them from the dangerous world, here, they grew up, in a wide world and knew it for theirs, from the first (Gilman, 1860, pg.33).” This is evident in the society, since, Herland babies only stayed with their mothers up to the age of one year and after that, they were taken care of by the community.in the ideal society, a child is cared and protected by the parents up to the age of around sixteen or eighteen. A one-year-old child is supposed to stay with the parents and offered the parental love so as to avoid some psychological disorders.

Motherhood and domesticity were also one of the essential themes in Charlotte’s writing. This was in reflection of her life after marriage. In her work, Gilman critically describes marriage as one of the oppressive foundation among women. One of the reasons for her argument was that marriage impairs the physical and mental development of a woman. In her opinion, marriage is not natural, and thus women should not be forced to get married. In some societies, people think that marriage is compulsory, and that explains the reason why Gilman was discriminated against after divorcing with the husband. To address the criticism of the public, he wrote a short story with the title, ”The Unnatural Mother” (Gilman, 1860, pg.35) this idea also touched on the concept of the position of women in the society. According to Terry, women are supposed to remain and work within the private sphere. However, Gilman is against this idea. Instead, she believed on the issue of modernization, whereby the kitchen is modern with dining rooms and day care facilities (Gilman, 1860, pg.38). She also claimed that the domestic labor and house chores should be valued by being done on a business basis (Gilman, 1860, pg.39)

Conclusion

For many years, the Utopian novel has remained both relevant and radical. The Herland society is a clear reflection of the critical belief that, the home was the initial location of all kinds of inequality among women. The author imagined a family without the typical construction of a family; that is composed of a father mother and children. She, therefore, argued that the sexual relationship that existed in that society was basically for economic gain. He also looked into the issue of motherhood.one of the explorers rejects this idea, claiming that, motherhood is not valid without the presence of the father. He also challenged the role of child rearing. Finally, he was interested in the idea of motherhood and domestication

References

Gilman, C. P. (1860). Herland.