Herland

Herland (1915) is the second installment of The Herland Trilogy by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, but it is typically read as a standalone novel. Gilman was an American humanist, feminist activist, and author of both fiction and nonfiction. Her most famous work is “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892), a short story that depicts the late 1800s “rest cure”: a popular treatment for women’s mental health that Gilman underwent herself. Herland follows three men—Van, Jeff, and Terry—who find an isolated utopian country populated entirely by women. The novel is a criticism of patriarchy, demonstrating that women are only limited in their achievements by the oppressive nature of patriarchy.

This guide uses the e-book version of Herland published by Wisehouse Classics in 2016.

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of sexual assault and uses outdated, offensive terms for Indigenous peoples.

Plot Summary

Vandyck Jennings, Jeff Margrave, and Terry O. Nicholson are on a mapping expedition when they hear from Indigenous tribes that there is a nearby country populated entirely by women. They are taken to a river that flows with bright colors next to a high cliff face, and they find a scrap of high-quality fabric. The three men plan to return the next day. Terry, who is wealthy, gathers the supplies—a boat that seals shut and a biplane so they can fly over the cliff. They conduct an initial flight to survey Herland; the next day, they fly lower and see women rushing out and looking up. They land the plane in a secluded area and find three women watching them. After following the women into the trees and learning their names—Ellador, Alima, and Celis—Terry tempts them with a necklace, which Alima snatches. Terry tries to grab her, but she is faster; the women drop from the tree, and the men chase them into a nearby town. In the town, they are met by a band of middle-aged women. The women encourage the men to follow them into a building, but the men refuse. Terry shoots his gun into the sky, and the women anesthetize the men.

The men wake up in a room with an attached bathroom. When they knock on the locked door leading out of the room, they are shown into a common room. The men are seated across from their new tutors—Somel, Zava, and Moadine; they each have five guards. The women are all middle-aged, and Terry refers to them as Colonels because of their stoic, authoritative demeanors. For months, the men study the Herlanders’ language and teach the women English, and they are allowed to roam the garden and exercise in a gym. Terry convinces Van and Jeff to escape with him. They use the fabric in their room to fashion a rope. Dropping down to the ground from a window, the men successfully flee. They spend their days in hiding, and their nights traveling toward their plane; however, when they arrive at the plane, they find it sewn into a bag. Ellador, Celis, and Alima are there, and they encourage the men to play a game. The restless men ask for knives, but the women refuse. Terry suggests taking the knives by force, and the women run away. After chasing them a short way, the men return to the plane, where a large group of Colonels waits for them.

The men submit and are driven back to the building. They stop for lunch and see only women. Back in their holding facility, the men resume their studies. Once the men and Herlanders are better able to communicate, they share more cultural information. The men describe cultural elements of the outside world, making the women uncomfortable. The men also learn the history and culture of Herland. The country was originally settled by Aryan enslavers; many of the men were killed in war, and a volcanic event secluded the land from the rest of the world. The enslaved men made a grab for power, killing the remaining male enslavers, male children, and older women, but the young women fought back and killed the enslaved men. The remaining women—both the Aryan women and the women who had been enslaved—worked together to form a functioning society. After several years, one woman became spontaneously pregnant five times, and each of her five children had five children. This asexual reproduction is referred to as parthenogenesis. When the population grew too high, the women discovered they could prevent pregnancy by distracting themselves with other work when they felt the desire to procreate.

Motherhood is now the central value of Herland. The society’s goal is to continually progress social conditions to benefit the children and future generations. Their agricultural system utilizes food-bearing trees. The Herlanders used crossbreeding to engineer trees that produced plentiful fruit and nuts, and the forests were replanted with food-bearing trees. The country has no dangerous predators, and their cats have been selectively bred to be gentle and to hunt rodents. The men attempt to manipulate information about the United States to maintain their sense of superiority, but they let several negative social aspects slip, such as poverty and the widespread confinement of diseased, aggressive dogs.

Eventually, the men are allowed to socialize with the larger population, including the young women. The Herlanders value education, and the information the men have given to their tutors has been disseminated among the population. As such, the women ask difficult, in-depth questions that the men frequently cannot answer. Terry, who is sexually aggressive, and Jeff, who idolizes women, struggle to socialize with the women and often offend them, while Van tends to easily converse with the Herlanders. Jeff and Celis form a stable romantic relationship, Terry and Alima start a casual relationship, and Van builds a strong friendship with Ellador, which turns into a deep romantic partnership. The men inform the women about marriage, and the three couples are married in a temple. While Jeff and Celis are relatively happy together, both Van and Terry are dissatisfied with the lack of sexual interaction. Ellador does not feel that sex outside of procreation is right, and although Van would prefer to have a more sexual relationship, he learns to accept Ellador’s boundaries because he would rather be with Ellador under her terms. Terry, who is more aggressive, makes Alima uncomfortable, and she avoids being alone with him. He hides in her room one night and tries to assault her, but she, with the help of fellow Herlanders, easily subdues him.

Terry is imprisoned, and a council rules that he must leave Herland. Van and Ellador are to accompany him, and they set about making plans. Before they can depart, the Herlanders ask Van and Terry to keep Herland secret. Despite the men manipulating the information they told the women, the Herlanders have inferred that the outside world is not safe. While Van immediately agrees to the terms, Terry refuses, but changes his mind after he is threatened with being imprisoned in Herland for life. Van, Ellador, and Terry leave for the US.