The Blurb
"In place of happy love, lonely pain. In place of motherhood, disease. Misery and shame, child. Medicine and surgery, and never any possibility of any child for me."
First published in her magazine The Forerunner, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Crux is an emotive tale on the nuances of female independence, social expectation and love in early 20th century America.
Following an all-female group who move west to open a boarding house for men, The Crux focuses on the experience of Vivian ― and her desire for the undesirable. Deeply in love with Morton, a charismatic young man infected with both syphilis and gonorrhoea, Vivian’s expected journey through her ‘marriage’ years is abruptly turned upside down.
Torn by her personal intuition, the advice provided by her female companions and the knowledge that Morton will never give her healthy children, Vivian is faced with a permanent choice ― to forfeit love for the benefit of future generations.
Balancing female and male perspectives on illness, personal preservation and nationalism, The Crux tracks Vivian’s path through heart break, emotional development and female camaraderie.
As an allegory for Gilman’s own branch of utopian feminism, The Crux is a story of sacrifice and partnership deliberation within the framework of 20th century disease hysteria, eugenic ideology and developing modernism.
Often omitted from her writing canon, The Crux is an integral aspect to understanding not only Gilman’s own writing ― but the history of feminism as a whole.
"The Crux is essentially a seminar in biological, feminine and social correctness. As stated in the original Forerunner publication, the novel was intended for a specific set of people - young and impressionable women primarily, followed by men and anyone else willing to listen. The Crux, in its barebones, is a nationalist parable for all of America to heed."
from Ambrose Kelly's new introduction to The Crux.
My Review
I wasn't aware of Charlotte Perkins Gilman before starting The Crux and thus was grateful for the detailed introduction from Ambrose Parry which not only sets the scene and context for the story but also gives an insight into Gilman's own life, passions and other works. One of those passions was to educate young women through her literature, particularly about sexual health, and The Crux was written primarily for that purpose. For young men too but mainly women.
The story follows Vivian Lane, a young woman who wants to achieve things in life, make a difference, but who also feels the heavy expectation of duty - to get married, have children, stay home and look after the house, care for her parents. At seventeen years of age she falls madly in love with Morton, shortly before he leaves town, and their paths don't cross again for eight or nine years. By then, she has moved away with a mixed group of women and set up a boarding house for men. She is mixing with a variety of men, talking and dancing with them, experiencing a very different life from the stuffy one she'd had living at home with her parents. But Morton's reappearance in her life awakens buried feelings and forces her to make a very difficult decision.
It was important for me when reading this to keep in mind when it was first published. Written and set in the early 1900s, attitudes towards women and understanding of sexual health have changed significantly (some may argue not enough, particularly for the former) since. It was great for me to familiarise myself with life at that time - attitudes, fashions, architecture and travel - really interesting. And whilst women were expected to adhere to certain expectations, those in the book who broke the mould were generally treated respectively by men, perhaps even admired? Whilst I liked Vivian, I found it difficult to warm to her but had a fondness for the older women her little group who had given up everything they knew to embark on an adventure. Loved that.
Whilst the writing style in The Crux is somewhat old fashioned today and occasionally a little stilted the ideas discussed are anything but - female strength, empowerment and choice, employment, love, duty, sexual health and child bearing. An important piece of work.
The Author
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 – 1935) was an American humanist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle.
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