Herland

Terry is a wealthy explorer who is depicted as stereotypically masculine. He enjoys facing challenges, and it was he who first proposed that the men embark on an expedition to Herland. Even after witnessing Herland, Terry is skeptical that only women inhabit the country. He feels that women are too competitive to work together. At the same time, he harbors fantasies of taking over Herland, a feat which he believes would be easy. Terry encourages the men to disobey the women, and he leads the escape attempt. Frustrated with the lack of drama, Terry consistently complains about Herland and degrades its inhabitants, referring to the young women as “neuters” because they are not sexually interested in him, and to the middle-aged women as “Colonels.” Terry falls in love with Alima, but he feels entitled to control her, which hinders their relationship. After their marriage, he makes her uncomfortable to the point where she refuses to be alone with him. He hides in her room and attempts to sexually assault her because he feels it is his right. Terry’s desire for control is seen again in his threat to share the location of Herland, but he ultimately values his freedom more and consents to secrecy.

Terry is the antagonist in Herland. He consistently creates conflict by inciting Van and Jeff into disobedience and degrading the Herlanders. He is portrayed as a dramatic misogynist who sexualizes women, valuing them only so far as he is interested in sleeping with them, and feeding off drama and attention. His attitude satirizes stereotypical masculinity, challenging the stereotype that men are logical, and women are emotional. For example, the Herlanders are amused by his aggressive emotional displays: “At first he used to storm and flourish quite a good deal, but nothing seemed to amuse them more; they would gather around and watch him as if it was an exhibition, politely, but with evident interest” (49). His character also demonstrates oppression from another perspective. Terry feels emasculated and oppressed in Herland, which makes him lash out in aggressive emotional rants; this portrayal may help some male readers relate to the oppression that women experience under the patriarchy.

Terry is also Alima’s antagonist. He believes that women enjoy subservience: “He thought, he honestly believed, that women like it” (95). Even after Terry assaults Alima, Van demonstrated empathy toward Terry; while this empathy may inspire some contempt toward Van, it also speaks to the idea that people are a product of their environment. Terry was conditioned by the patriarchy to sexualize women, and the conditioning was so strong that his education in Herland could not reverse its impacts. The Herlanders, excepting Alima, treat Terry as they would a native-born criminal—they quarantine him while treating him with respect because they understand that he has been shaped by his culture. He is undeserving of retributive punishment but is quarantined and exiled for the Herlanders’ safety. As such, his plotline demonstrates how a quarantine-based, rather than punishment-based, justice system would function.

Jeff Margrave is a doctor, and he is the friend of Van and Terry. Like the other male characters, Jeff is portrayed as intelligent, strong, and adventurous: “Dear old Jeff was no milksop or mollycoddle either. He was a strong, brave, efficient man, and an excellent fighter when fighting was necessary” (90). Jeff is also depicted as sentimental and romantic. When he is allowed to meet young women, he develops a small following of similarly sentimental women, and he forms a happy and strong romantic relationship with Celis, who becomes pregnant shortly after their marriage. Although Jeff does well with Celis, he offends some of the other young women who do not appreciate his worshipping attitude.

Jeff represents stereotypical romantic patriarchal views: “Jeff’s difficulty was his exalted gallantry. He idealized women, and was always looking for a chance to ‘protect’ or to ‘serve’ them” (66). Jeff considers women as needing protection because they are inherently weaker. He can be viewed as both similar to Terry and as a foil to Terry. Jeff, like Terry, sexualizes women, though he does so through his idolizing behaviors and ideas, such as when he discourages Celis from partaking in physical work because she is a woman. Unlike Terry, Jeff does not demean the women; he respects the Herlanders and values their culture to the point where he refuses to return to the US with Van and Terry.

Jeff is a side character who experiences a minor character arc based on his changing relationship with Terry. When they first arrive in Herland, Jeff listens to and supports Terry, but as time goes on, he loses respect for Terry. Jeff’s views toward women, however, do not change much; he appreciates women from the beginning. His positive views result in his love of Herland and his refusal to leave. He recognizes the country as superior to the US, and he does not hold any irrational pride for his culture.

Ellador, with Celis and Alima, finds Van, Jeff, and Terry when they first land in Herland. She appears again when the men escape and return to their biplane, and she forms a close relationship with Van once Van can mingle openly with the people in Herland. Ellador comes from a respected line of Over Mothers, or women who have been asked to have more than one child, and she is described as “brown: hair dark and soft, like a seal coat; clear brown skin with a healthy red in it; brown eyes—all the way from topaz to black velvet they seemed to range” (68). Although Ellador and Van begin as friends, their relationship evolves into a romantic bond; however, Ellador is skeptical of engaging in sex without the intent to procreate. She lays a clear boundary, which Van, who has learned to value women as people, respects.

Ellador is a static side character who is portrayed as intelligent, strong, and adventurous. She represents independent womanhood. She has a happy marriage, but she prioritizes her own moral code and her desire for adventure over marriage and parenthood. Together, Van and Ellador’s relationship symbolizes equality in marriage; the two are equally matched in strength, intelligence, and adventurousness, and they respect each other and take each other’s values and needs into consideration.

Alima is one of the young women who first discover the men, and she later enters a tumultuous relationship with Terry. She is described as “a tall long-limbed lass, well-knit and evidently both strong and agile. Her eyes were splendid, wide, fearless, as free from suspicion as a child’s who has never been rebuked” (25). Alima leaves Terry, and he later hides in her apartment and attempts to sexually assault her. Alima comes to symbolize abused women—particularly women who are abused within their marriages.

Alima is a side character, and her main characteristics are her size, strength, and naivety. While she is strong enough to defend herself against Terry, she is depicted as naïve—she does not understand that Terry feels entitled to use violence to take what he wants from her. This portrayal is intended to demonstrate that, in the patriarchy, men pose the biggest threat to women. Having been born and raised in Herland, Alima has not been conditioned to accept the male authority and violence that was, at the time, accepted in patriarchal societies. Further, while Van blames Alima for Terry’s violence, Gilman does not; Gilman’s intent is to demonstrate that the patriarchy is dangerous and oppressive to women, and her inclusion of Van’s sympathy toward Terry serves as a reminder that patriarchy is somewhat ingrained in all men.

Celis is a young Herland woman. She, along with Ellador and Alima, is the first to encounter Van, Jeff, and. After the men go through their tutoring and are allowed to interact with the rest of the Herlanders, Celis enters a relationship with Jeff. She is happy in her marriage with Jeff, and she gets pregnant with his child.

Celis, a forester, has blue eyes and, like the other women, short hair. She wears blue clothing, and Van describes her as “a blue-and-gold-and-rose person” (68). Celis is distinct from Alima and Ellador, the other young women appearing in the story, in that she is more sentimental and accepting of Jeff’s worshipping nature. She also appears to be more comfortable engaging in sexual activity with her husband, given that she is the first to become pregnant. Together, she and Jeff represent happy marriages; they are respectful and accepting of each other and share similar goals and outlooks, which results in a happy relationship.

Somel, Zava, and Moadine are the tutors assigned to teach Van, Jeff, and Terry, respectively. They teach the men the Herlanders’ language and history, and they take in information from the men and share it with the other women. Somel, Zava, and Moadine share similar character traits that make them effective tutors for the men; they are patient, tolerant, calm, and intelligent.

Zava is Jeff’s tutor, and they get along well. She is a minor side character who appears in various conversations that help develop the plot and the themes. Somel, too, has a relatively minor role. Van appreciates Somel and describes her as: “A mighty comfortable soul […] giving one the nice smooth mother-feeling a man likes in a woman, and yet giving also the clear intelligence and dependableness” (52). He seeks Somel’s advice when he needs clarification or when he is too embarrassed to ask Ellador. The relationship between Somel and Van impacts Van’s character arc; through their interactions, Van loses much of his prejudice toward women, and he realizes that the patriarchy is oppressive.

Moadine, who is Terry’s tutor, appears in the interactions between the men, and she aids Alima when Terry assaults her. Moadine—who is described as a patient, courteous, strong woman—represents sisterhood. When Terry’s aggressive sexual pursuits become too intense for Alima to handle on her own, Moadine moves into the apartment next to Alima, and she comes immediately to Alima’s side when Terry attacks. Afterward, Moadine returns to overseeing Terry in his imprisonment. Her characterization is used to emphasize Terry’s stereotypical masculine emotional outburst—while Terry is portrayed as fretful, Moadine is describes as “grave and strong, as sadly patient as a mother with a degenerate child” (97). Gilman’s intent is to implicitly refute the notion that men are stoic and rational, and women are emotional and irrational.