Burroughs and Gilman: Final Thesis

For my final thesis, for once, I only wrote about the rejection of tradition and the embracing of rationalism in Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. You can read the story here, and my analysis of the story here. You can also find the analysis of A princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs here. For my final thesis, read on.

A major theme explored by Gilman in Herland is the rejection of tradition, and the adoption of pure rational thought. In our world, and our community, we see the myriad of different traditions that affect the way we do things - because they were always done this way. Even today, we fight to change laws standing for over 200 years, laws and traditions we find obsolete, and yet we often fail.

The women of Herland started their society from scratch, and understood that any laws they created were in need of scrutiny and of constant change - and hence they have no laws that have been around for 100 years, perhaps none more than 20 years.

The understanding that laws and customs are human creations and bound to change as the situation in the society changes over time is something that Gilman believes we need to adopt at a personal level to make sure we can also progress as a society.

Rationality as the modus operandi can be seen in the Herlandians' decision of communal living, where no mother raises her own child, and thus all children have hundreds of mothers to love them. No woman is allowed to rear more than a single child, and some with bad qualities are forbidden to rear children to ensure bad qualities are bred out of the race.

We can also see their rejection of tradition in favour of rationalism when they do not see a point in a marriage ceremony, or comprehend the need, or logic, behind the need for 'private life' after marriage.

Pure rationalism goes hand in hand with rejection of all preconceived notions such as traditions and customs, and Gilman shows how a purely rationalistic society, her utopia, can escape all the social evils that come with redundant customs and traditions, not least the subjugation of women, as in her real world.