Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Herland, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Womanhood and Femininity
Gender Roles and Relationships
Community
Motherhood and Reproductive Control
Summary
Analysis
Terry is delighted to be invited, along with Jeff and Van, to deliver a lecture to groups of young women and girls. When they stand up before the first group of girls to deliver a brief summary of world history, the men look for Celis, Alima, and Ellador, but are unsuccessful. After the men deliver their first lecture, Somel asks them if the girls can meet them and ask questions. Terry eagerly dives into the group of girls prepared to sweep them off their feet, Jeff is ready to worship them all, and Van is eager to observe and learn from them. Terry soon offends many of the girls with his compliments and “too-intimate glances,” but Jeff and Van prove popular with most. Afterward, Terry is annoyed by his unpopularity and says that the group was made up of boys, not girls.
Even after spending months with their tutors and learning about Herlandian culture, Terry’s first interaction with groups of young women highlights how little he’s actually learned. He has yet to accept that masculinity is not revered in Herland and thus inadvertently offends many by coming on too strong. To him, the only way to explain this is by calling the women boys and thus unfeminine.
Themes
Jeff, Van, and Terry continue delivering lectures, eventually reuniting with Alima, Celis, and Ellador. Soon, the men begin courting the three—Jeff falls madly in love with Celis, Van and Ellador grow closer, and Terry and Alima begin a tumultuous relationship characterized by frequent arguments. Van learns from Somel that as soon as the women of Herland saw the men’s plane, they recognized the possibility of integrating them into the society and again becoming a bi-sexual civilization. Reports of the men were being sent out all over the country the whole time they were kept in the fortress, but very few women had shown an interest in starting a relationship with one of them. All of them, however, immediately became interested in learning about the world the men came from.
Even though all of the women of Herland have an intellectual interest in Jeff, Van, and Terry, few of them feel any desire to have a romantic and/or sexual relationship with them. This further highlights how important learning is to the Herlandians and how unimportant the possibility of romance is. In fact, because there have not been any men in Herland in so long, the women have no conception of what romance is. This echoes Jeff’s earlier comment that because there are no men in Herland, there are no romantic adventure stories.
Themes
Somel tells Van that his popularity is due to the fact that the women believe he seems more like them. Van is initially offended that he’s being compared to women, but soon remembers how different the women of Herland are from Western conceptions of womanhood. Recognizing this, Somel explains that she understands that she and the other Herlandians don’t seem like women but asks if there aren’t characteristics common to all human beings as “People.” This, Somel explains, is why the women like Van—he is “more like People.” Jeff, on the other hand, is too gallant and doesn’t treat the women like the self-sufficient, strong people they are, and Terry is unable to buy the women’s esteem with jewelry and trinkets.
Through Somel’s statement that the women of Herland prefer Van to his companions because he treats them like “People” (meaning “equals”), Gilman reveals what American women want, as well—to be treated with equality and recognized as men’s equals. They do not want deference (which Jeff shows) or condescension (which Terry shows), but just to be accepted (which Van does).
Themes
Van describes his budding relationship with Ellador, saying that they began as friends and enjoyed talking with, teaching, and traveling with each other. Over time, however, the platonic feeling between them gradually transforms into romantic love. Ellador, Alima, and Celis, it turns out, had been the first to see the men and had taken the greatest care to guard their plane, and it was understood throughout the country that the three women had a special claim on the men. However, the courtship between the three couples is not easy because of “the lack of any sex-tradition.” For instance, when Jeff tells Celis that women shouldn’t have to carry anything, she becomes confused and asks why. Looking around at the strong women working nearby, Jeff is unable to say that it’s because women are the weaker sex like he would in America.
In this context, “sex-tradition” means gender roles. Because American heterosexual relationships are defined by gender roles, things are simple and easy, at least on the surface—each individual has a certain set of rules and expectations to follow. But in the relationships between the American men and the Herlandian women, there are no rules; they are creating something new by themselves. This has the potential to result in either intensely happy relationships if the couples can meet each other’s needs, or devastatingly bad ones if the couples cannot compromise and find common ground.
Themes
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Jeff tells Celis that elsewhere in the world, people believe that motherhood is enough of a burden for women and so they shouldn’t have to take on any others. Celis calls this beautiful, but Alima asks if men carry everything everywhere. Terry tells her not to take everything so literally and asks why she doesn’t want to be revered and taken care of. Alima points out that the men don’t like it when she, Celis, and Ellador take care of them. Terry grumpily tells her that that’s different but is unable to explain why.
In this passage, Alima, Celis, and Ellador make it known that they do not want to be revered or treated as weak, but rather treated as equals. This hearkens back to Somel’s comment to Van that the women all prefer him because he does treat them as equals, giving them respect rather than condescension or undue reverence.
Themes
Van and Ellador discuss everything openly together to smooth the way for when “the real miracle time” comes. They are able to help Jeff and Celis understand, too, but Terry refuses to listen. Madly in love with Alima, Terry wants to “take her by storm,” which nearly ends their relationship entirely more than once. Van explains to the reader that sweeping a woman off her feet when all she’s been taught to value and look forward to is “the one Event” is a simple thing that Terry had mastered in America. When he tries it on Alima, however, she is disgusted and it is weeks before she allows Terry near her again. The more Alima turns Terry down, however, the more intensely he wants her.
What Van means by the “real miracle time” is the period when either Alima, Celis, or Ellador will feel that exultation that indicates their bodies are ready to conceive. This is when it will be acceptable to have sex. To “take [Alima] by storm” means that Terry wants to completely overpower Alima in a show of superiority and dominance. The “one Event” American women look forward to is marriage; Van implies that because it is what they most look forward to, it is easy to convince them to surrender themselves to any man who promises to marry them.
Themes
Jeff, Van, and Terry try to prepare Alima, Celis, and Ellador for their weddings, but must explain the importance of the ceremony to all the women. Terry looks forward to marriage, saying that the women “have never been mastered.” Van tells him not to try to “do any mastering,” but Terry laughs him off. All three men struggle to help the women understand Western views of marriage and the concept of “home,” because all the women know is their deep love for each other and their country. Van notes that the women love the country because it gave them a happy life, but, more importantly, because it’s where their children will grow up and learn. All the “surrendering devotion” Western women give their families, Herlandians give to each other and their country—for example, by eradicating childhood illness and perfecting the art of childhood education.
To “master” a woman, by Terry’s use of the word, is to force her into a position of inferiority and submission. This foreshadows the climax of the story when Terry does try to “master” Alima by attempting to rape her. The men have often complained that Herlandian women aren’t traditionally feminine, but their version of femininity can actually be most clearly seen in the “surrendering devotion” they give to their country. If this devotion was shown to individual men, it would be easily recognized as femininity. But because it is not geared towards pleasing men, it seems unusual.
Themes
Literary Devices
