Herland and romanticism

        While the novel Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was not written in the romantic time period of literature, it has some characteristics of romantic literature, as shown in the detailed descriptions of the setting and how intertwined with nature the three men are.  They are traveling not only away from the familiar civilization that they know, but away from any culture they know and become immersed in what was considered mythical women’s land up in the mountains.

        The descriptions in chapter four about the adventure the men had while running away to their plane were filled with vivid ones of nature.  On page 32, the description of the vine that kept the men form falling off the ledge is one that enables the reader to picture it in his head and the way it is the life-saver of the escapees is similar to in romanticism when nature was often described as if it were alive and magical at times.

On page 33, the description of their days, spent sleeping in a “penetrating dry heat,” and nights spent traveling in the forest that seems, from description and pictures seen in the head of the reader, to not only be alive, but to embrace everyone and everything.  Through Gilman’s words, the reader can picture not only the men and their adventures, but the setting in which they do this, and that talk and attention to detail of the nature is reminiscent of Romantic pieces.