The Crux
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Gothic World Literature Editions, 2021
For a book that makes no bones about its campaigning intent, The Crux (first published in 1911) is remarkably entertaining. Its stated aim is for young women to be better informed about syphilis and gonorrhea, so they do not find themselves trapped in a marriage that will lead them into disease, death, and the risk of children with disabilities.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman is best known for her terrifying short story The Yellow Wallpaper, which charts a young woman’s descent into psychosis as a result of her smothering imprisonment in enforced rest and isolation. It is a powerful and relentless narrative. Gilman’s technique in this book could not be more different. Instead of the intense single focus of The Yellow Wallpaper, she creates a detailed and vivid picture of her protagonists and their milieu, and her keen eye and wit mean that there is no shortage of humour along the way.
Her heroine is Vivian, young and idealistic, and chafing at the constraints of her stultifyingly respectable New England town. After her disappointment at the departure of her bad boy neighbour, Morton, purveyor of her first – and to date only – kiss, she has thrown herself into her studies, despite her parents’ refusal to countenance a career for her. Endless, unchanging, ‘oldmaidhood’ seems to be her only prospect.
Salvation arrives in the form of energetic feminist Dr Jane Bellair, who persuades Vivian and her neighbours to move west to Colorado, to take up the opportunity of running a boarding house in a growing and vibrant town. Vivian’s parents object, but as she’s 25, they can’t actually stop her.
In fact, in a neat reversal of the sandwich generation situation, Mr and Mrs Lane, having claimed that they are looking after Vivian and Mrs Lane’s mother, find themselves abandoned by both, as the formidable Mrs Pettigrew decides to light out for the West, too – ostensibly as a chaperone, but really just to have some fun, which she certainly does, since the boarding house comes to provide a lively built-in social life.
Needless to say, Morton reappears, bearing, to Dr Bellair’s practised eye, the unmistakeable signs of sexually transmitted disease, and promptly begins to woo Vivian. Thankfully, he is not Dr Bellair’s patient…
Gilman’s characters fall easily into stereotypes: the pragmatic lady doctor; Vivian, the willowy intellectual; Susie, the innocent flirt; the fluttery yet manipulative Mrs St Cloud; Mrs Pettigrew, the battleaxe with a heart of gold (not to mention charm and a captivating insouciance). Nevertheless, she fleshes them out fully, to the point where we care about their destinies.
And her revulsion for Morton – his coarseness, his dishonesty and his venality – is palpable. Yet Vivian cannot help but be drawn to him: ‘As she looked at him, the very things she most disliked, his too free manner, his coarsened complexion, a certain look about the eyes suddenly assumed a new interest as proofs of his loneliness and lack of right companionship.’
It’s a shame that The Crux is not better known. Despite its didactic purpose (many other feminist issues beyond the need for better sex education are discussed along the way), the clever plotting, satisfying dialogue and an engaging cast of characters make this something of a page turner.
