Herland

by

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Alima Character Analysis

Alima is the Herlandian woman who marries Terry. Like Terry, Alima is strong and passionate. Unlike Terry, Alima’s passion does not take the form of lust and after their marriage, the two frequently argue about her unwillingness to have sex with him. Eventually, Terry and Alima fight so much that she asks Moadine (Terry’s former tutor) to stay in a room near her for protection and Alima stops spending time with Terry. One night, however, Terry sneaks into Alima’s room and hides. When Alima comes in, Terry tries to rape her in order to make her more submissive to his desires. Alima fights back and calls for help, Terry is taken away, and the Herlandians decide to expel him from Herland. Despite this, Van says Terry is madly in love with Alima and becomes heartbroken when Alima refuses to say goodbye to him. That last thing the characters hear about Alima is that she moved to the northern part of the country to get away from Terry.

Alima Quotes in Herland

The Herland quotes below are all either spoken by Alima or refer to Alima. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Womanhood and Femininity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8: The Girls of Herland Quotes

You see, if a man loves a girl who is in the first place young and inexperienced; who in the second place is educated with a background of caveman tradition, a middle-ground of poetry and romance, and a foreground of unspoken hope and interest all centering upon the one Event; and who has, furthermore, absolutely no other hope or interest worthy of the name—why, it is a comparatively easy matter to sweep her off her feet with a dashing attack. Terry was a past master in this process. He tried it here, and Alima was so affronted, so repelled, that it was weeks before he got near enough to try again.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Terry O. Nicholson, Alima
Page Number: 101-102
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9: Our Relations and Theirs Quotes

“They’ve no modesty,” snapped Terry. “No patience, no submissiveness, none of that natural yielding which is woman’s greatest charm.”

I shook my head pityingly. “Go and apologize and make friends again, Terry. You’ve got a grouch, that’s all. These women have the virtue of humanity, with less of its faults than any folks I ever saw. As for patience—they’d have pitched us over the cliffs the first day we lit among ‘em, if they hadn’t that.”

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Terry O. Nicholson (speaker), Alima
Page Number: 107
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10: Their Religions and Our Marriages Quotes

“What is a ‘wife’ exactly?” she demanded, a dangerous gleam in her eye.

“A wife is the woman who belongs to a man,” he began.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Terry O. Nicholson (speaker), Alima (speaker)
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11: Our Difficulties Quotes

This is one thing which we did not understand—had made no allowance for. When in our pre-marital discussions one of those dear girls had said: “We understand it thus and thus,” or “We hold such and such to be true,” we men, in our own deep-seated convictions of the power of love, and our easy views about beliefs and principles, fondly imagined that we could convince them otherwise. What we imagined, before marriage, did not matter any more than what an average innocent girl imagines. We found the facts to be different.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Jeff Margrave, Terry O. Nicholson, Ellador, Celis, Alima
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12: Expelled Quotes

In missing men we three visitors had naturally missed the larger part of life, and had unconsciously assumed that they must miss it too. It took me a long time to realize—Terry never did realize—how little it meant to them. When we say men, man, manly, manhood, and all the other masculine derivatives, we have in the background of our minds a huge vague crowded picture of the world and all its activities. To grow up and “be a man,” to “act like a man”—the meaning and connotation is wide indeed. That vast background is full of […] men everywhere, doing everything—“the world.”

And when we saw Women, we think Female—the sex.

But to these women, in the unbroken sweep of this two-thousand-year-old feminine civilization, the word woman called up all that big background, so far as they had gone in social development; and the word man meant to them only male—the sex.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Terry O. Nicholson, Ellador, Alima
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
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Alima Quotes in Herland

The Herland quotes below are all either spoken by Alima or refer to Alima. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Womanhood and Femininity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8: The Girls of Herland Quotes

You see, if a man loves a girl who is in the first place young and inexperienced; who in the second place is educated with a background of caveman tradition, a middle-ground of poetry and romance, and a foreground of unspoken hope and interest all centering upon the one Event; and who has, furthermore, absolutely no other hope or interest worthy of the name—why, it is a comparatively easy matter to sweep her off her feet with a dashing attack. Terry was a past master in this process. He tried it here, and Alima was so affronted, so repelled, that it was weeks before he got near enough to try again.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Terry O. Nicholson, Alima
Page Number: 101-102
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9: Our Relations and Theirs Quotes

“They’ve no modesty,” snapped Terry. “No patience, no submissiveness, none of that natural yielding which is woman’s greatest charm.”

I shook my head pityingly. “Go and apologize and make friends again, Terry. You’ve got a grouch, that’s all. These women have the virtue of humanity, with less of its faults than any folks I ever saw. As for patience—they’d have pitched us over the cliffs the first day we lit among ‘em, if they hadn’t that.”

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Terry O. Nicholson (speaker), Alima
Page Number: 107
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10: Their Religions and Our Marriages Quotes

“What is a ‘wife’ exactly?” she demanded, a dangerous gleam in her eye.

“A wife is the woman who belongs to a man,” he began.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Terry O. Nicholson (speaker), Alima (speaker)
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11: Our Difficulties Quotes

This is one thing which we did not understand—had made no allowance for. When in our pre-marital discussions one of those dear girls had said: “We understand it thus and thus,” or “We hold such and such to be true,” we men, in our own deep-seated convictions of the power of love, and our easy views about beliefs and principles, fondly imagined that we could convince them otherwise. What we imagined, before marriage, did not matter any more than what an average innocent girl imagines. We found the facts to be different.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Jeff Margrave, Terry O. Nicholson, Ellador, Celis, Alima
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12: Expelled Quotes

In missing men we three visitors had naturally missed the larger part of life, and had unconsciously assumed that they must miss it too. It took me a long time to realize—Terry never did realize—how little it meant to them. When we say men, man, manly, manhood, and all the other masculine derivatives, we have in the background of our minds a huge vague crowded picture of the world and all its activities. To grow up and “be a man,” to “act like a man”—the meaning and connotation is wide indeed. That vast background is full of […] men everywhere, doing everything—“the world.”

And when we saw Women, we think Female—the sex.

But to these women, in the unbroken sweep of this two-thousand-year-old feminine civilization, the word woman called up all that big background, so far as they had gone in social development; and the word man meant to them only male—the sex.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Terry O. Nicholson, Ellador, Alima
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis: