53 pages • 1 hour read
Charlotte Perkins GilmanHerland
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1915A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Our Venture”
Van, Jeff, and Terry drop to the ground and travel along a river until sunrise, when they stop to eat and gather nuts. They hide in a crevice on a high bank and sleep. For days, they travel by night in this manner. The men arrive at the biplane, which has been sewn into a large canvas bag. Ellador, Celis, and Alima are watching them, and Jeff suggests asking them for help. The men use the women’s language to explain their story; Terry feigns hunger, and the women toss them food parcels. After the men eat, the women encourage the men to play a game of knocking a nut off a tripod of balanced sticks. The men enjoy the game but want to leave, so they ask for knives to release the plane. Celis, Ellador, and Alima show their knives but stay out of reach. Terry suggests they grab the women and steal their knives. The women run away, and when the men fail to catch up, they return to the plane.
Around 100 Herlanders are waiting for them, and Van, Jeff, and Terry submit and return with them. The journey is pleasant, giving the men the chance to talk to the Colonels and see the country and people. Van, Jeff, and Terry expect punishment, but the only change made is that a light has been installed in the garden. The next day, the tutors tell them that they expected them to return to their plane, and they were watched from a distance while they were traveling. The tutors also explain that the men are viewed as guests; they are quarantined because of the violence they demonstrated, but the Herlanders hope that, once the men and women can communicate, the men can be trusted to roam free.
Van, Jeff, and Terry study the Herlanders’ language with more intensity, and Terry laments that the stories are not dramatic or romantic. The men, who are no longer under guard, learn that the men of Herland disappeared 2,000 years prior. Jeff tells them that some forms of life procreate through “virgin birth,” or parthenogenesis. He explains the concept of virginity. The tutors want the men and the Herlanders to learn from one another, and they are particularly interested in the women outside of Herland, which makes Van uncomfortable. The tutors are excited to learn the history of the world and of fatherhood, explaining that their birds and cats practice sexual reproduction and that the father birds often participate in caretaking, but the male cats do not. Herland had other animals, but they took up resources and were eliminated. The men explain meat and milk production in the US, and the women listen uncomfortably.
Chapter 5 Summary: “A Unique History”
The cats in Herland are selectively bred to be quiet and to target rodents rather than birds when hunting. Terry asks if the women use bird feathers for adornment, which the tutors think is silly, as they only wear hats for practical purposes. They ask if men wear feather adornments; the men share that only Indigenous people and soldiers do. The tutors make notes of everything they learn from Van, Jeff, and Terry. They ask about animal domestication in the outside world, which drives a conversation comparing the dogs of the US with the cats of Herland. Herland’s cats are selectively bred to be gentle and clean, and the males are carefully secluded to control the birth rate. The men reveal that male dogs are kept in larger numbers while female puppies are often killed, as well as dogs being subject to diseases and behavioral issues. The women are aghast that people keep dangerous dogs. They ask questions to clarify their understandings, writing down Terry’s mention of burglars. The tutors learn that some male dogs are kept chained so they don’t get stolen or into fights, and dogs sometimes bite people.
Once Van has a solid understanding of the Herlanders’ language, he explores their history. The Herlanders descended from an Aryan group who enslaved Black individuals. War drove them into their remote location, claimed most of their men, and a volcanic eruption blocked the mountain pass, sealing Herland away. The enslaved men rebelled and killed the remaining male enslavers, male children, and high-ranking females; in return, the young females and the enslaved females banded together to kill the violent men. The women worked together to survive, and the previously enslaved women taught their valuable skills to the others.
After several years, a woman became spontaneously pregnant, giving birth to a female infant. They developed a religion centered on motherhood—the mother was moved to the Temple of Maaia, the Goddess of Motherhood. The woman had five children through parthenogenesis, and those children each had five of their own, and so on, resulting in a new race of people. Several characteristics of stereotypical masculinity and femininity disappeared, and, without men or predators, they remained safe. Terry does not believe the story, despite the insurmountable evidence, and he complains that the Herlanders are unwomanly: “What does a man care for motherhood—when he hasn’t a ghost of a chance at fatherhood?” (45). Van and Jeff sympathize with Terry, who they recognize is used to drama and attention. Van realizes that stereotypical femininity is “reflected masculinity,” which emerged because women were forced by the patriarchy to please men.
The early Herlanders built a society based on motherhood; they sought to improve conditions for children and future generations, and education became a top priority. The men argue that competition is necessary for progression and innovation, and they present a biased image of the outside world. The tutors counter that they do not need competition to bolster their work ethic, as mothers in the outside world do not require competition to care for their children. Terry shares that only poor women work in the outside world.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Comparisons are Odious”
Van’s pride in the US wanes as he and the others are questioned by their tutors. They ask for clarification about the population and sex rations and ask what poor means. Van explains it as an economic inevitability. The tutors assume that the poorer third of the female population does not procreate given their precarious financial situation, but Jeff responds that poorer females tend to have more children while wealthy women have fewer. Terry announces that US laws go back thousands of years, suggesting Herland is similar; however, Moadine shares that they don’t have any laws older than 100 years, and most were made within the last two decades. The tutors explain that the people of Herland are excited to see and meet the men in a few weeks.
Given their geographical limitations, the Herlanders have little geographical, geological, historical, or anthropological knowledge; however, they have developed strong understandings of astronomy, physiology, chemistry, botany, and physical science. Knowledge is disseminated throughout the population so that everyone has a basic understanding of everything, leading Van to conclude that Herlanders are better educated than US citizens. The Herlanders take the information provided by the men and create outlines and maps to make sense of the outside world; this information is shared with the wider population.
Terry confronts Moadine about what they intend to do with him, Van, and Jeff. Moadine answers that it depends on the men: They don’t yet trust the men to freely socialize with the young women. Terry insists that they wouldn’t hurt the women, but Moadine is more concerned that the women would hurt the men: “If, by any accident, you did harm any one of us, you would have to face a million mothers” (50). Moadine argues that the Herlander concept of motherhood transcends the men’s understanding. Once the Herlanders developed the ability to reproduce, they recentered their society to optimize the environment for the children. The population expanded exponentially, which forced the Herlanders to adapt their food system. When the population grew unmanageable, the Herlanders formed a council to work through the problem. Van turns to Somel for clarification on how the Herlanders prevent pregnancy. In the process, he brings up abortion, and the concept disturbs Somel. She politely explains that the women can avoid falling pregnant by distracting themselves from the urge to have a child, which is the precursor to pregnancy. The children are viewed collectively: “[W]e each have a million children to love and serve—OUR children” (53). With the population limit in place, the Herlanders focused on improving the quality of life.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
In this section, Herland is further explored through its unique structure: The setting and context-development portions of the plotline are more significant to the text than the rising action and climax. The setting develops as Van learns more about the society, and the satirical elements are revealed through the comparisons between Herland and patriarchal cultures, highlighting the theme of Patriarchal Gender Distinctions. This context develops implicitly by the men’s peaceful recapture, which suggests the Herlanders do not have violent intentions, and explicitly through Terry confronting Moadine. Moadine’s response—“We are trying to learn of you all we can, and to teach you what you are willing to learn of our country” (49)—supports that education is a crucial component to their society, highlighting the theme of Prioritizing Education and Efficiency. It also provides the foundation for the detailed description of Herland’s values and its comparison to the US. Herland’s social values are inextricably linked with its history. Before the entry into Herland was sealed off, the country was populated by patriarchal enslavers, but the men’s violent tendencies resulted in their eradication—first through the Aryan men going to war, and then through the enslaved men being killed by the women for their violent uprising. After their initial act of violence against the men, the remaining women form an increasingly nonviolent and efficient society. The presentation of Herland is intended to satirically criticize patriarchy, namely the patriarchal culture of the US.
Although Gilman’s comparisons sometimes extend to other countries, like England, most are centered on the US, which is where Van, Terry, and Jeff are from. The main areas of contrast deal with domestic animal husbandry, procreation and population control, and economic and legal systems. The discussions on dogs and cow milk are intended to criticize animal husbandry methods common in the western world, which are often deemed cruel and even inefficient. In contrast to these methods, Herland prizes efficiency and quality in all things, as demonstrated through their need for gentle animals that serve purposes, such as their cats being trained to catch rodents in addition to providing companionship. The women are unable to comprehend the existence of angry dogs who protect their owners from crimes like burglary. Further, the comparison of cats and dogs provides a metaphor for the differences between women and men, with cats representing clean, orderly women, and dogs representing violent, unpredictable men.
Population control is first introduced in the animal husbandry discussion and later revisited when Van questions how the Herlanders were able to slow their exponential population growth. Abortion is alluded to, and both Van’s and Somel’s statements reflect Gilman’s socially conservative anti-abortion views. The population control methods between the cultures are juxtaposed, with the Herlanders representing passive and efficient methods of preventing childbirth, and the outside world representing violence and inefficiency. This, like the cat and dog comparison, becomes a metaphor for the stereotypical differences between men and women. As a collectivist society, Herland prioritizes the well-being of their citizens, particularly their children, above all else. This is contrasted with the individualism of the US, which is based on capitalist competition, which, in turn, leads to numerous social consequences, including poverty and criminal activity. In this comparison, Gilman suggests that individualism is a patriarchal value that is inefficient and induces suffering. Gilman also targets the reliance on tradition in the US legal system when Moadine asserts that Herland does not have any laws older than 100 years. This critique is made more ironic because the men shared their “ancient” legal practices as a point of pride. However, Van and Jeff both find that their senses of pride in their country are slightly dimming as they learn more about Herland.
Throughout the cultural comparisons, the men purposefully skip over facts or use embellishing language to mislead the women. For instance, when Zava asks for the male version of “virgin,” Jeff vaguely replies that, although the same word applies to men, it is rarely used to describe them. This offers criticism of the patriarchy for valuing men as humans but valuing women according to their sexual function. As Jeff settles into Herland, he starts revealing damning information about the outside world. The men do not want the Herlanders to judge their culture, as Van narrates when trying to describe abortions: “None of us wanted these women to think that OUR women, of whom we boasted so proudly, were in any way inferior to them” (52). Before arriving in Herland, the men believed a woman-led society would be inferior. When confronted with the reality, they realize that Herland is superior to the US in government, society, agriculture, and much more; still, they are unwilling to give up their intrinsic sense of male superiority.
A Society Founded on Motherhood emerges as the tutors share the history of Herland. The first instance of parthenogenesis supplied the Herlanders with hope for the future, and motherhood became the foundation for their social progress. Their religion is based on the principle, and it is reflected throughout their culture, including through their agriculture: “Here was Mother Earth, bearing fruit. All that they ate was fruit of motherhood, from seed or egg or their product. By motherhood they were born and by motherhood they lived—life was, to them, just the long cycle of motherhood” (46). This emphasis on motherhood emphasizes the value of motherhood and women, and it reinforces that the patriarchal oppression women face is biologically unfounded. Additionally, the women’s willingness to let the men enter their society demonstrates their curiosity and interest in education and science. They treat the men as almost alien, studying them first in small numbers while releasing information about the men to their citizens, and, if and when the men are deemed safe, they will be introduced to the others. This emphasis on safety, particularly of the younger women, foreshadows Terry’s later sexual violence and the inherently forceful nature of men who are too far lost to patriarchal values of female submission.
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By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
