Herland | Characters & Character Analysis

Herland Characters

Vandyck Jennings

Vandyck is the narrator of Herland and the story is told entirely through his point of view. As a sociologist, Vandyck's perspective is critical to the author's mission to convert readers to her socialist-feminist perspective. At the beginning of the story, Vandyck is the antithesis of everything in which the author believes. He subscribes to the then-current viewpoint that women are inherently inferior beings. Vandyck has been convinced by academic studies and statistics, which indicate that women are poor students of math and science. He also believes, as do most men of his era, that women are inferior athletes, and that on a social level, they are jealous, emotionally unstable creatures. Given all this irrefutable evidence, so prevalent in American society, Vandyck knows that women are incapable of creating a civilized nation. As a sociologist, the only female-dominated societies with which he is familiar are primitive matriarchies. Author Gilman, on...
(read more)