LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Midterm Submission 2007
Kristen (Brock) Bird
June 18, 2007
Utopia Engendered
Utopias are like living organisms, embodying unique characteristics dependant upon the entity forming, controlling and manipulating the utopia. Despite the foreseeable differences in religion, politics and approaches to a utopia, all such communities share at least one characteristic: the perfect world cannot exist. Because individuals comprising the community are autonomous, thinking creatures with personal desires, wants and aspirations, a utopia can never achieve perfection for the entire community. Utopias, therefore, are communities in which the perfect ideal is achieved for one subset of the culture while simultaneously another subset of the society experiences an imperfect dystopia.
Since an ideal world cannot exist, utopias carry inherent frustrations, although the community may not acknowledge such difficulties in order to keep the “perfect world” mentality intact. (Objective 3f) One way to expose such frustrations, however, is to examine one subset of the culture throughout several utopias to find if there are common problems. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, and Ayn Rand’s Anthem each contain treatment of a subordinated gender, and therefore, the utopia becomes dystopic for the inferior, suppressed gender in these works.
Gilman’s Herland is a society comprised completely of women, and therefore the “inferior” gender becomes the three men who invade the boundaries and discover a world that has no room for domineering males. Vandyck Jennings is the reader’s narrator through the literal land of women, and at one point he explains to the women of Herland how the society from which he hails operates, offering a contrast to Herland’s near-perfection for women.
“To the man there is growth, struggle, conquest, the establishment of his family, and as much further success in gain or ambition as he can achieve. To the woman, growth, the securing of a husband, the subordinate activities of family life, and afterward such ‘social’ or charitable interests as her position allows.” (101)
In the beginning of Van’s narrative, he comments that aging women in his world pass into “private ownership,” and later when the men first encounter the ladies of Herland, they are dangling from the trees, seeming to the men as ripe fruit, ready to be picked and devoured. The men, however, quickly find that traditional gender roles have been reversed in this new land and that their male mindsets will be metaphorically devoured instead.
At least two of the three men have difficulty adapting to the way of life in which they are nonverbally and indirectly deemed inferior to the race of women. Terry, a male chauvinist, repeatedly struggles against the women who have physical authority and mental superiority. Jeff, however, readily accepts the idea that the women of Herland embody perfection and that he must submit to them. Van struggles between the two extremes before seeming open to Herland’s form of utopia. Though these men comprise an almost null percentage of the three million women in Herland, they may still be recognized as a subset for which Herland is not an utopian ideal.
Gilman’s Herland is one of few utopian novels in which women are offered the opportunity to be the subset of the culture that experiences the ideal world. In Herland, women are not viewed as property to be owned – for who would own them since homogeneous, of one family as well as one gender? Instead, the women of Herland have been offered an opportunity to redefine the concept of the female.
Traditional gender roles are frustrated, and the merging of masculine and feminine into one “Person” offers a haven for the women. A few typically masculine characteristics that define the women of Herland include the following: short hair, open and frank speech, career-oriented mentalities, educated minds, and controlling personalities. Along with these characteristics, the women also possess extreme nurturing capabilities (since their ultimate desire and highest calling is Motherhood) and beauty, which are traditional feminine attributes. The fact that they are a person, rather than the fact that they are women, defines them and allows opportunity and freedom regardless of their gender.
Bellamy’s Looking Backward and Rand’s Anthem, however, revert to the traditional view of women in utopias. Although these two utopian narratives stress equality of the sexes and even attempt to portray this parity by allowing women certain freedoms and acknowledgements of their rights as citizens, inevitably women are forced back into some form of a subordinated role.
In Bellamy’s narrative, the main character Julian West states, “What a paradise for womankind the world must be now!” (91) His observation is ironic because the new world is indeed a paradise compared to the life women endured in the nineteenth century. But in reality, the new society is far from ideal because although the utopia strives to impart sameness of status to men and women, the equality seems to be only theoretical.
The best example given is the treatment of the two females, Edith and her mother Mrs. Leete. Edith’s character is sweet, gentle and kind, all fine feminine virtues. But from Dr. Leete’s expository account of women’s contribution to the labor army and women’s lives unburdened with the cares of the household, one would expect young Edith to be dashing off to work or school every morning. Instead, the reader finds Dr. Leete’s daughter shopping and eating out, never once talking about the fine career she should have chosen or the highbrow education she should have received.
In reality, women, as a subset of Bellamy’s utopia, are not truly granted equality and are instead subordinated to the rules and methods determined by men. Edith and Mrs. Leete dine with the men and offer them comfort and support, but as Julian and Dr. Leete begin having educated discussions, the women make themselves scarce, leaving matters of importance to the men. Like Liz Davis’ presentation of Christianopolis, the women are allowed education, yet never tire of attending to the wants of their husbands, even if these wants interfere with their own desires, goals and dreams. Even the style and language of Dr. Leete’s account of the new society is filled with masculine pronouns that do not even suggest that women have a place in society. As Dr. Leete nears the conclusion of the narrative and outlines specific roles of women, the reader finally discovers principles that are never actually backed up by the behavior of the characters.
Bellamy’s story is set within a socialist society, but the same treatment of women is also evident in a society founded on individualism as seen in Rand’s Anthem. In order to best understand the treatment of women as the story moves from a socialist, oppressive society into an objectivist, oppressive relationship, the reader must follow the progress of the only individualized female character, the Golden One.
The Golden One is first drawn to Prometheus on the streets of the socialist society as if she “had heard a command in our eyes.” (42) Here is the first instance in which the Golden One acknowledges any sort of command from an individual, although she has followed mandates from the collective throughout her life. After Prometheus escapes and she follows him into the woods, she utters a statement that sounds highly religious when compared to Ruth’s statement to Naomi in the Old Testament. “We wish to be damned with you, rather than blessed with all our brothers. Do as you please with us, but do not send us away from you.” (83)
The Golden One’s actions up to this point take on the characteristics of a love story, and Prometheus’ evident physical and emotional attraction to her enforce this romance narrative aspect of the novel. But questions about the nature of their relationship arise when the Golden One makes a statement to Prometheus after following him into the woods. Until this point the statement she makes has only been spoken as a forced or brainwashed utterance declaring allegiance to the state. But after Prometheus discovers the house and declares that they will live in it until the end of their days, the Golden One responds, “Your will be done.” (92)
The Golden One has merely shifted subordination from the collective to an individual. Though her life promises to be much better under Prometheus’ authority, a feminist view cannot help but be disappointed that although she has escaped the confines of the communal society, she has willingly subjected herself to a role in which her female successors may never truly be free. Prometheus unintentionally summarizes the woman’s new plight near the end of the story as he lists frustrations he experienced while under the state’s control. He concludes by stating, “What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey?” (97) What kind of life is that? This life is the new life chosen by the Golden One.
Women in most utopias we have examined seem to fulfill their purpose by acting as catalysts for the romance narrative, which is an important function of the novel. Indeed, without the intrigue and charm that women bring to the narrative, such books might be dismissed as boring or trite. (Objective 1b) Women in these novels also offer a jumping off point for the discussion of interdisciplinary studies such as gender roles and feminist studies while also inviting readers to examine their own world by comparing and contrasting to utopian fiction. (Objective 4b, 4c) Brouke-Rose Carpenter’s historical presentation noted that feminist utopias are almost always classified as science fiction rather than literary fiction. Perhaps the reason is owing to the idea that women and men coexisting equally is indeed an idea only able to be realized in a world that does not exist.
LOG: 12:55-2:55pm
4:10-5:20pm
Note: I did not include a reference to a 2005 midterm because I could not find one that fit. Instead, I referred to two historical presentations from this summer.