Terry Herland Summary

Brief summary of Terry’s attitudes, perspectives and responses to Herland

Terry represents the macho, domineering aspects of patriarchal society. He has an instinct to lead and dominate, hence explaining him being the driving force behind the expedition to Herland and the most forceful of the three friends. He presents a seemingly “fearless” image when he heard that it was “no place for men. Dangerous” then “Terry’s jaw set”. In fact, he is excited and curious at the prospect of finding out more about a dangerous place. His dominance and confidence of being able to conquer Herland made him overly arrogant as thinks that the women will flock to him and that he will be able to take over their society and be the king. He does not expect much
from Herland, mainly because he knows its simply just a female dominated country, and that being so, he perceives it to be run down, incapable of any form of orderliness and progress-“awfully primitive”. It is evident that he does not expect much from the women in Herland and has the theory that men are naturally superior to women. He views women as little more than objects created for his use and enjoyment and also perceive them as dependant on men and interested only in the decorative and trivial. His definition of women is also very superficial and limited to only those who are youthful and beautiful and he considers those who are old and unattractive outside the category of feminity and womanliness. Even upon entering Herland, and seeing for himself that his pervious assumptions of Herland had been anything but what he had perceived it to be, he is still unconvinced. In his rashness and his refusal to admit that women in Herland were fully able and capable to survive successfully without men, it led to him addressing the situation of being confronted by the women with the stereotypical behaviour that he(together with Van and Jeff) could out fight the women, which later led to his and their inevitable capture.