LITR 5439 Literary & Historical Utopias

 Research Posting 2009

Cana Hauerland

Gilman’s Utopian Narrative and Genres

While not intentionally reading for utopian genre purposes, I found many utopian narratives written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I discovered that many of Gilman’s writings have utopian elements in them, and these usually involve women. The women in Gilman’s utopian narratives are often offering utopian advice or information about their world, or are seeking after a utopian atmosphere. A main utopian theme that keeps evolving is women seeking after (or telling about) peace and unity. In addition to discovering an underlying women-utopian theme in Gilman’s works, I also noticed the narrative qualities of each work and how it contributes to Objective 2a, the kinds of stories that arise from utopian or dystopian communities. In this research posting I will explain the plot of each utopian story and its significance to the utopian narrative in addition to a final thought on Gilman’s creation of a possible women-utopian genre.

Although not considered Gilman’s first utopian narrative, I found “The Cottagette” to be a start to her utopian writing journey. The short story begins with the main character, Malda, who moves into a two-room cottage that is surrounded by nature. The cottage is missing a kitchen but has a two-minute walk to the communal dining area. The area of the cottage is called High Court and is “the working basis of a [music] establishment” (47). Malda describes eating with highly thoughtful musicians and high musical thinkers in their boardinghouse near the cottage (48). After reading about the qualities of High Court, I immediately began thinking about the utopian qualities of this narrative. Malda is an individual who moves to High Court to concentrate on her art, and she rooms with a woman who concentrates on her music. The women have moved to High Court for a purpose, which is to be around people who believe in the same things, so they all could work in harmony and peace together. They eat together and live around each other in a place that is “a mountain place, easy enough to get to, but strangely big and still and far away when you were there” (48). I believe this short story is a basis for how every utopian community begins. Someone gets an idea to start a community in which everyone that moves there is seeking the same type of community. The same visions equal less conflict, and the people are able to grow in their interests that are accepted by other people. Since this story is unknown as a utopian story, these findings reveal that utopian narratives are more common that we think, and that learning utopian elements allow us to notice utopian qualities. Although the community in “The Cottagette” is a utopian-like community, the story has no further information on “how” and “why” this community is utopian. The reasoning for this lack of questioning is likely because Gilman had other purposes for the story line other than a character entering a utopian community to ask “how” and “why,” for Malda already understands the way of life and only questions it when she it trying to please a man domestically. The story then moves on from the utopian description. Nevertheless, the elements of Malda’s utopian community still remain, and “Cottagette” reveals how “light” utopian qualities in a narrative can exist.

Known as Gilman’s first utopian novel, Moving the Mountain has a story line that compares greatly to Looking Backward in the idea of someone coming into the new utopian world after living in a dystopian world. However, on the contrary to Looking Backward, Moving the Mountain is described as “new and wonderfully essential because the people, not the technology are changed” (178). A woman named Hallie tells of the changes made to the utopian world in Moving the Mountain to the new comer, John, who is from a dystopian world. Some of the changes made to the new world are “[raising] the productive capacity of the population; [securing] the right to our natural resources; [and] [learning] to administer business without waste” (182-183). The goods of the new country are not “equally distributed”, but everyone has enough and also has the resources to perform the occupation of their choice (183). John is amazed at the good quality of the food and wealth of the people. Hallie informs him that good quality is in every city, and that women, too, run businesses and live together in equal harmony with men (188). This novel may be considered Gilman’s first utopian novel because the narrative gets deeper in explaining the differences in the utopian world verses the dystopian world. Also, the changes made in the new society are for everyone in the world and not just a community within the old world. Moving the Mountain reveals the complexities of a utopian narrative. A utopian narrative can reveal changes to everything in the world, and this provides for a longer narrative. There are explanations needed for each change in the world and for how those changes are proven to work. In this type of utopian narrative, there is usually a newcomer unaccustomed to the changes asking “how” and “why” in order to explain to the readers the characteristics of the new utopian world.

Herland, known as Gilman’s second utopian novel, is a mixture between “The Cottagette” and Moving the Mountain. The women in Herland are located within a community far away from the dystopian world, and the women are bonded through feminism, motherhood, and sisterhood. These qualities of Herland compare to “The Cottagette,” which is a community located outside the dystopian world and has people who bond through a musical and artistic unity. On the other hand, Herland compares to Moving the Mountain because of the depth in which the explanations of how their utopian world exists in harmony. The three men visiting Herland have lived in the dystopian world and are asking “how” and “why” in which the women explain to them their functioning society. Herland is another example of the deeper explanations of a utopian narrative.

The sequel to Herland, Ourland is a unique approach to the utopian narrative because it takes a utopian character, Ellador, and places her into a dystopian world. Ellador is now the one asking “how” and “why” to her dystopian-born husband. She cannot understand the methods and explanations of Terry or Van. Some of these include Terry’s labeling of war as “human nature.” Ellador cannot understand why Terry calls war “human nature” if only men fight in wars, nor can she understand why women do not fight in wars (201). Terry also places a sex label on child bearing as “woman nature” and Ellador does not understand why he does not do the same with war. Neither does Ellador understand the United States when she visits there. She has visited other parts of the world with Van by this point in the novel and believes the USA to be the great new land as she was told. However, when Ellador and Van arrive to the new land, she cannot believe her eyes and begins to cry. Ellador’s reaction to the US is lengthily but an important narrative of a utopian character examining dystopian worlds:

This is the top of the tree, Van; this is the last young nation, beginning over again in a New World—a New World! Here was everything to make life richly happy—everything. And you had all the dreadful record of the past to guide you, to teach you at least what not to do. You had courage; you had independence; you had all the intelligence, education, opportunity. And such splendid principles to start with—such high ideals. And then all kinds of people coming! Oh, surely, surely, surely this should be the Crown of the World! Why, Van—Europe was like a man with—delirium tremens. Asia was like something gnarled and twisted with hopeless age. But America is a Splendid Child…with…” She covered her face in her hands.

Ellador cannot fathom America’s chance at a new beginning to have resulted in the same dystopian functioning society that she has seen elsewhere. The turnout is such a waste and disbelief to Ellador that it makes her cry. Ourland is a unique utopian narrative because it describes a dystopian world from a utopian’s viewpoint. In most utopian narratives, we gain a sense of the utopian world through explanations and examples deriving from a dystopian character asking “how” and “why” to utopian characters. In Ourland, the perspective is entirely new and unique because Ellador is a utopian character asking “how” and “why” to dystopian characters.

Gilman provides unique insights of the utopian narrative in each of these writings. These four utopian narratives provide examples of how a story can simply scratch the surface of utopian elements, get into deeper explanations with a dystopian character asking questions of a utopian world, or go even further by reversing the average utopian novel with a utopian character asking questions of a dystopian world. In addition, these stories offer readers insight on the differences between a utopian community within a dystopian world that doesn’t allow people to practice as they wish, or an enlightenment to whole new world that is the opposite of one previously experienced. For further insight, I also noticed that Gilman’s narratives have a purpose lying deeper than the utopian genre that we know and study. While Gilman achieves the utopian genre, she seems to be communicating a new women-utopia genre as the women in her stories are all seeking equality in society.