Herland

by

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Ellador is the young Herlandian woman who marries Van. Ellador is one of the few children of an Over Mother (a woman who is given special permission to have more than one child). Ellador stands out from many of the other women for her intelligence and openness. She is stunningly beautiful and unfailingly kind and patient. Ellador tells Van about Herlandian religion and the education of children, and after hearing about American customs from Van she becomes increasingly interested in leaving Herland to learn more about the rest of the world. After her marriage to Van, Ellador struggles to understand why American women have sex with their husbands for any reason other than to create a child. Because of this, Ellador asks Van not to ask her to have sex with him until they are both ready to have a child, which is something Van struggles with but ultimately agrees to. After Terry is told to leave Herland as a consequence for trying to rape Alima, Ellador decides to leave with him and Van.

Ellador Quotes in Herland

The Herland quotes below are all either spoken by Ellador or refer to Ellador. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Womanhood and Femininity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 11: Our Difficulties Quotes

This is one thing which we did not understand—had made no allowance for. When in our pre-marital discussions one of those dear girls had said: “We understand it thus and thus,” or “We hold such and such to be true,” we men, in our own deep-seated convictions of the power of love, and our easy views about beliefs and principles, fondly imagined that we could convince them otherwise. What we imagined, before marriage, did not matter any more than what an average innocent girl imagines. We found the facts to be different.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Jeff Margrave, Terry O. Nicholson, Ellador, Celis, Alima
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12: Expelled Quotes

In missing men we three visitors had naturally missed the larger part of life, and had unconsciously assumed that they must miss it too. It took me a long time to realize—Terry never did realize—how little it meant to them. When we say men, man, manly, manhood, and all the other masculine derivatives, we have in the background of our minds a huge vague crowded picture of the world and all its activities. To grow up and “be a man,” to “act like a man”—the meaning and connotation is wide indeed. That vast background is full of […] men everywhere, doing everything—“the world.”

And when we saw Women, we think Female—the sex.

But to these women, in the unbroken sweep of this two-thousand-year-old feminine civilization, the word woman called up all that big background, so far as they had gone in social development; and the word man meant to them only male—the sex.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Terry O. Nicholson, Ellador, Alima
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
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Herland PDF

Ellador Quotes in Herland

The Herland quotes below are all either spoken by Ellador or refer to Ellador. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Womanhood and Femininity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 11: Our Difficulties Quotes

This is one thing which we did not understand—had made no allowance for. When in our pre-marital discussions one of those dear girls had said: “We understand it thus and thus,” or “We hold such and such to be true,” we men, in our own deep-seated convictions of the power of love, and our easy views about beliefs and principles, fondly imagined that we could convince them otherwise. What we imagined, before marriage, did not matter any more than what an average innocent girl imagines. We found the facts to be different.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Jeff Margrave, Terry O. Nicholson, Ellador, Celis, Alima
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12: Expelled Quotes

In missing men we three visitors had naturally missed the larger part of life, and had unconsciously assumed that they must miss it too. It took me a long time to realize—Terry never did realize—how little it meant to them. When we say men, man, manly, manhood, and all the other masculine derivatives, we have in the background of our minds a huge vague crowded picture of the world and all its activities. To grow up and “be a man,” to “act like a man”—the meaning and connotation is wide indeed. That vast background is full of […] men everywhere, doing everything—“the world.”

And when we saw Women, we think Female—the sex.

But to these women, in the unbroken sweep of this two-thousand-year-old feminine civilization, the word woman called up all that big background, so far as they had gone in social development; and the word man meant to them only male—the sex.

Related Characters: Vandyck “Van” Jennings (speaker), Terry O. Nicholson, Ellador, Alima
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis: