摘 要

1. Introduction..............................................................................................................1

1.1 The introduction of Kate Chopin......................................................................1

1.2 The introduction of A Pair of Silk Stockings, The Story of an Hour and The Awakening 2

2. Literature Review and The Purpose of the Thesis 4

2.1 Literature review 4

2.2 The purpose of the thesis 5

3. The Awkening of Female Consciousness 7

3.1 Mrs. Sommers - awakening self-consciousness 7

3.1.1 The loss of self-consciousness. 7

3.1.2 The ignorant awakening 9

3.1.3 The broken dream 10

3.2 Mrs. Mallard - desiring for freedom 10

3.2.1 The birth of self-consciousness 11

3.2.2 The establishment of self-consciousness 12

3.2.2 The dream of an hour 12

3.3 Edna - stepping out for freedom 13

3.3.1 The women with independent thoughts 14

3.3.2 The discovery of self-consciousness 15

3.3.2 The pursuit of freedom 16

4. Reasons for the Awakening 17

4.1 Unhappy families 17

4.2 Oppressed social milieu 18

4.3 Different individual choices 19

5. Conclusion 21

References 22

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the people who have offered me valuable throughout the completion of this thesis. Only with their generous assistance can the thesis be finished smoothly.

First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Zhu Li, who with extraordinary patience and consistent encouragement gave me great help by providing me with necessary materials, valuable advice and continuous inspirations. At first, she gave a general direction on how to choose the topic and from which aspects should we discuss it. She offered some excellent examples to guide us on the right way of writing. In terms of the former preparations, she was both painstaking and patient. On the later half of the thesis writing, she kept on pointing out the problems of the thesis and urging us on the correction. Her advice was valuable in making our thesis more precise. What’ s more, she persisted on putting forward our own ideas and making distinctions between our own viewpoints and the others’. Besides, she suggests me on making the body part more precise and clearly states out the viewpoints. Without her strong support, this thesis could not have been completed smoothly.

My sincere gratitude also goes to my roommates Ni Wenyan and Shang Shiyao for their invaluable assistance throughout the preparation of the original manuscript. They make valuable comments and sound suggestions on how to compose the thesis. What’ s more, they inspire me when I hit a bottleneck.

Lastly I would thank for my loving families for their unconditional support on me throughout four years. I also express my everlasting gratitude to my dear friends Ji Liuyue and Shi Yu of whose help inspired me a lot and help me work out my bottlenecks during the difficult periods of the thesis. It is their everlasting encouragement that accompanies me throughout four years.

Abstract

Kate Chopin was one of the most important earlier feminist writers in American Literature during the 19^th century. This thesis will choose three typical female characters from her works, namely, The Story of an Hour, A Pair of Stockings and The Awakening to reveal the wakened self-consciousness in various degrees and its reasons for the awakening. These female characters are subjected to the traditional feudal image of women, but eager to break away from tradition and gain freedom. The analysis on the image of these women and the environment in which they exist are the focus of this paper.

This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is divided into two parts. The first section is a basic introduction of Kate Chopin. What’ s more, the brief introduction of The Story of an Hour, The Awakening and A Pair of Stockings is also included. Chapter two consists of literature review and the purpose of the paper. Then the following is the most vital section of this thesis. Chapter three is the analysis on the heroines of the three works. I choose three typical figures. They are Mrs. Sommers in A Pair of Silk Stockings awakening her self-hood, Mrs. Mallard in The Story of an Hour desiring freedom and Edna in The Awakening who has rebelled against the tradition and taken her first stepped step for gaining her freedom. Chapter four is collaborated with the reasons for the awakening of female consciousness in heroines and its different degrees from the perspective of families, society and their own choices. Chapter five is the conclusion.

Keywords: Mrs. Sommers; Mrs. Mallard; Edna; Female Consciousness; Freedom

中文摘要

凯特·肖邦是19世纪美国文学中最重要的女性作家之一。本文将从她的作品中选择三个典型的女性角色，如《一双长丝袜》中的萨默斯太太、《一小时的故事》中的马拉得太太以及《觉醒》中的埃德娜,分析这些女性的觉醒程度及其觉醒原因。这些女性角色受制于女性的传统封建形象，但渴望脱离传统并获得自由。对这些女性形象及其存在环境的分析是本文的重点。

本论文分为五个章节。第一章分为两个部分：凯特肖邦的生平介绍，《一双长丝袜》、《一个小时的故事》和《觉醒》的简介。第二章阐述了文献综述和论文的写作目的。接下来是文章的主体部分。第三章分析三部作品中女主人公。本文选择了凯特·肖邦作品中三个典型的女性形象，分别是《一双长丝袜》中试图自我觉醒的萨默斯太太、《一个的故事》中渴望自由的马拉德夫人以及《觉醒》中反叛传统走向自由的埃德娜。第四章则从家庭、社会以及个体选择的角度阐释了女性意识觉醒及其觉醒不同程度的原因。第五章是总结本文主要论述的主要内容和本论文的不足之处。

关键词：萨默斯夫人；马拉德夫人；埃德娜；女性意识；自由

Introduction

1.1 Introduction to Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin(1851-1904) is a feminist author who is now regarded as a forerunner of 20^th-century American literature.

Chopin was born Kate O’ Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri. Chopin was the third of the five children. At the age of five, she was sent to Sacred Heart Convent where she learned how to manage money matters and make decisions independently. During the same year, her father passed away due to a train accident. Therefore, she was brought back home, sharing the life with her grandmother and great-grandmother for two years. She came back to the academy after the two-year-tutoring of her great-grandmother. The instruction was a significant period which was conducive to cultivate Chopin’s character.

However, tragedy had been a common thing for Chopin. From 1863 on, she gradually suffered the losses of her friends and families, her friend Kitty been banished from St. Louis for supporting the war and her half -brother dying of a fever, but the worst of all was the death of her great-grandmother during the chaos. Chopin married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and moved with him to New Orleans. She gave birth to seven children from 1871 to 1879. In 1879, her husband failed in cotton brokerage. They then moved to the country in Cloutierville, Louisiana. Unfortunately, Oscar Chopin died in 1882 and left behind him with $42000 in debt. Next year, Chopin’ s mother passed away. So the poor woman had to deal with great depression which came from the losses of her intimate families. In this situation, Kate started her literary career. She wrote short stories for both children and adults that were published in such national magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The Century Magazine, and The Youth's Companion. Her works aroused great controversy because those stories tackled bold sexual descriptions which was considered to be too far ahead of time and therefore were not embraced by the crowd.

Chopin published several novels and collections throughout her life. Her collections includes Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Some important short stories including Désirée's Baby (1893), a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana, The Story of an Hour (1894),and The Storm (1898) were world- renowned. The Storm is a sequel to At the Canadian Ball. One of her most controversial novels is The Awakening (1899). The characters in her stories were usually residents of Louisiana. Many of her works were set in north central Louisiana. It is a region where she lives for years. This can be commonly seen in her stories.

It is only after her death that she is widely known as one of the noted writers in her days. Fred Lewis Pattee(1915) believed that "some of Chopin's work have surpassed the works produced in France or America. She showed upon the crowd what may be described as a high narrative skills.”[8]

1.2 Introduction to A Pair of Silk Stockings, The Story of an Hour and The Awakening

A Pair of Silk Stockings is a short story, telling the story of a mother who would spend a windfall on herself rather than on her children. Mrs. Sommers stumbles upon a small fortune of $15. After a few days of reflection, she finally decides to use the money to buy clothes for her children so they may look pretty and nice. The exhausted Mrs. Sommers rests at a counter and begins her shopping adventure. There, she finds a pair of silk stockings for sale and is attracted by their smoothness. All of a sudden, she neglects her plan to buy clothes for her children, instead she spends her money and afternoon for herself. She purchases boots matching with her stockings, buys fitted kids gloves, reads expensive magazines at lunch in a splendid restaurant, and ends her day sharing chocolates with a fellow theater audience. After the play, she boards the cable car to return home with "a poignant wish, a powerful longing that the cable car would never stop anywhere, but go on and on with her forever." Chopin tells the contradiction of the attitude of a mother who struggles between family responsibilities and self-satisfaction under the pressure of life. And this kind of contradiction is highlighted through the usage of a large number of contrasts in language selection. Meanwhile, the contradiction also allows the reader to see the dilemma women at that time faced between what they actually desire to be and what the society force them to be.

The Story of an Hour is one of Kate Chopin’ s short stories. Initially, it was published in the name of The Dream of an Hour. As the name implies, it tells the story that happens in the elapse of an hour. The heroine, Louise Mallard hears the news that her husband is dead and finally finds that he is still alive after all. At this point, the heroine dies at the sight of her alive husband. This story aroused great controversy when published. According to American society at that time, it is easy to realize why this short story is unacceptable since the protagonist hopes for liberation at the sacrifice of the death of her husband. Emily Toth(1999), a professor of English and Women’ s Studies at Louisiana State University argues that Kate Chopin has to make the heroine die to make the story publishable.[10]

The Awakening is the representative work of Kate Chopin. It is one of the earliest American novelettes stressing on female issues. It retells the life of a married woman and mother, Edna Pontellier who wants to seek happiness and liberation, for which she gives up her family and has an affair with another man. However, on account of tremendous social moral pressure and restrictions, she eventually commits suicide. This story arouses most of the controversy and accusation of Kate Chopin in that it contains comparatively frank descriptions of female sexual desire and the rebellion of the social norms and established gender roles. This is not acceptable in the society at that time in America. Under this circumstance, Kate was depressed and her works were scarcely recorded by history. However, in 1970s, some critics started to notice this novel and the Norwegian scholar Per Seyersted restudied Kate Chopin, making her and her works famous again.

2.Literature Review

2.1 Literature review

Not so much research has been done regarding Kate Chopin until 1960s since she was not that famous as the contemporary authors. Due to her excessive description and compliment on sex and on the deviant women, she was not praised but condemned by people. She was not accepted since people at that time were still pious puritans even though dramatic changes had been made to change people’ s daily lives. This can be clearly understood through people’ s reactions to her novelette The Awakening, which was accused of vulgarity and disquieting when published. Only when she was dead had people begun to accept this bolshy story.

Most of the research on Kate Chopin can be divided into three main parts: the pure study of feminism, the analysis on writing techniques and the analysis on character images. Kate Chopin was known as an inchoate feminist writer. Since she started the beginning of feminism, some scholars studied her early understanding on feminism. Xiong Jia-yi(2012) analyzed Kate Chopin’ s novel The Awakening to study the awakening of the feminism.[19] She analyzed and interpreted the manifestation of the feminist awakening in this novel and reinterpreted the manifestation of feminism through the protagonist’ s spiritual statues, social activities and material aspects.

Other researches have been done on the analysis on writing techniques and the typical means of artistic expression. One of the biggest features of Kate Chopin’ s writing techniques is irony which has been studied a lot. Wang Jia-gui(2015) interpreted in details how this technique is performed in Chopin’ s short story The Story of an Hour.[17] The irony of the novel lies in both the mental changes in the mere one hour and the satirizing ending. The misdiagnose of the doctor pushed the story to an ironic climax. What’ s more, through the prudent choice of the words, the author strengthens the atmosphere of irony. Sun Sheng-zhong(2003) gave a detailed analysis on The Story of an Hour and The Storm. He pointed out that sarcasm was the most- often used technique in Chopin’ s story. He added that Kate Chopin herself was an irony.[16] When The Awakening was published, it did not receive much approval or compliment. When she died, it became a hit. He also talked about several other typical techniques used in Chopin’ s stories. For instance, symbolism in her fiction The Storm. One of the most apparent image, which is also the main image in this fiction is the storm. It symbolizes the heroine’ s awakening consciousness and eruptible emotions. The fiction starts along the arrival of storm and ends with the decline of storm. So does her emotions.

As about the analysis on character images , much research had been done on the heroine of The Awakening - Edna. Zhai Min(2018) gave a thorough analysis on Edna’ s borderline disorder personality.[21] She explained the reason why Edna’ s disorder personality appeared. Others interpreted the women characters in The Awakening and other novels. Yang Yue-mei(2012) introduced 7 women characters from Chopin’ s novels.[20] She defined each women characters with specific labels. For example, Désirée, from Désirée’ s Baby, was a suicidal woman, the ideal mother -- Adéle Ratignolle.

From the above, we know that many researches have been done on Kate Chopin. And from which aspect do these researches go on. However, most of the researches put emphasis on The Awakening or other famous stories. They scarcely put several stories together and find the similarities as well as differences existing in those stories. Therefore, this thesis will analyze three heroines from Chopin’s stories to explore their similar but unique experience of self-awakening. Also, the reasons for their awakening will also be discussed.

2.2 Purpose of the thesis

Female consciousness is an old and gradually reborn topic and it is the focus in the study of Kate Chopin. Hence, this thesis aims to study three different stages of the awakening of female consciousness in three different characters of Kate Chopin’ s fiction. Through the analysis of these female characters, the process of the awakening of self-consciousness will be revealed. And the reasons for the awakening will be explored. This is exactly the purpose of this thesis.

Through the cultivation of the rebellious female characters, Chopin tries to awaken the sleeping women at that times. Apparently, this kind of rebellious criticism of the cruel patriarchal society arouse rejection from the social traditions. However, it is these stories that flood the contemporary women with the liberation of self-hood at the early stage. The early feminist writer though not accepted immediately by the crowd was eventually recognized by the world. She made undeniable contributions to the female emancipation. Hence, it is worthwhile to study the awakening of the female consciousness in Chopin’ s fiction and explore the reasons behind it.

3.The Awakening of Female Consciousness

In this chapter, I will analyze three typical women figure in Kate Chopin’ stories. The first one is Mrs. Sommers from A Pair of Silk Stockings. She is defined as the woman who awakes from self-sacrifice to selfhood. The next is Mrs. Mallard from The Story of an Hour. She is described as the woman who starts to desire for freedom and anticipate liberation. The last one is Edna in The Awakening. She is the woman who has stepped out chasing freedom. Through the analysis of these three heroines with unique character traits, we can see three different stages of the awakening of the self-consciousness in women at that time.

3.1 Mrs. Sommers – awakening self-consciousness

Mrs. Sommers, a classic woman in Kate Chopin’ s story-A Pair of Silk Stockings, struggles between self-satisfaction and and family responsibilities. In the 19^th century, it is a common sense that women should be responsible for delivering and raising up babies. However, for men, it seems that they have and should have nothing to do with it. In this situation, the status of being a mother gradually becomes the victim of a family. Mr. Sommers is exactly this type of women. She raises up four children all by herself. However, something changes since she gets the unexpected fortune. Throughout the story, we can easily find that mental changes in Mrs. Sommers is clearly seen in three stages. She, at the first stage, is the wholeheartedly sacrificed housewife, then she suddenly awakes from the foolish self-sacrifice, but in the end she has to give in to the reality and becomes the woman fitting the society. The three stages is just Mrs. Sommers’ s awakening period.

3.1.1 The loss of self-consciousness

The whole story starts from the unexpected $15. Iancu Anca-luminita(2017) claims that the heroines in Kate Chopin’ s stories have the unobtrusive experience of self-awareness usually aroused by an outer event or an inner feeling.[1] It is a catalyst that prompts them to act differently than expected. In this story, that catalyst is the $15 which later pushes Mrs. Sommers to the way of self-awakening.

One day, the little Mrs. Sommers unexpectedly got a small fortune of $15, which actually to her is quite a big sum of money. At her first thought, she believes that this money should be used on her three children for some new clothes or stockings that could make her little family look fresh and new for once in their lives. This is clearly seen in the first three paragraphs:

Little Mrs. Sommers one day found herself the unexpected possessor of fifteen dollars. It seemed to her a very large amount of money...... gave her a feeling of importance such as she had not enjoyed for years...... She would get caps for the boys and sailor-hats for the girls. The vision of her little brood looking fresh and dainty and new for once in their lives excited her and made her restless and wakeful with anticipation (Chopin, 1976: 165).[3]

From the description of these three paragraphs, a wholeheartedly sacrificing female character is vividly presented to us readers. Conventry Patmore(1906) once describes the women to be the perfect model for everyone to admire in his poet The Angel in the House, wearing a laurel, like an angel.[7] The poet believes the ideal wife is nothing more than a well-served servant. As long as those women bear those responsibilities, they are regarded as perfect as angels. Therefore, those women who sacrifice their own sorrow and happiness and subscribe to their families are called “the angels in the house”. Before the change, Mrs. Sommers is exactly this type of women. In the 19^th century, women enjoy low status in both family and society. There is a word that needs to pay attention to. That is the first word in the text -“little.” The “little” here is not only the adjective used to depicts Mrs. Sommer’ s figure, but also a word to imply the low status in her family. However, though she enjoys such a low status, she still throws her whole heart to her family. What is more pathetic is that she cannot feel this impartiality in her but continues to give into this kind of inequality. In this situation, we can no longer call them the angels but the prisoners or the slaves. It is this kind of social environment that force them to accept this low status and gradually loss their true selves.

3.1.2 The ignorant awakening

However, something stealthily changes when Mrs. Sommers goes shopping. She anticipates a lot for this day. When she arrives at the department, she finds a pair of exquisite, costly silk stockings under her hand.

“...her hand had encountered something very soothing, very pleasant to touch...she went on feeling the soft, sheeny luxurious things--with both hands now, holding them up to see them glisten, and to feel them glide serpent-like through her fingers”(166, Chopin).[3]

Through the use of words such as “soothing”, “pleasant”, “soft”, “sheeny”, “luxurious” and etc., it makes a contrast with Mrs. Sommers current life. Her life is barely soothing, comfortable or luxurious. This kind of recognition pushes her to startle the realization that she exists as an independent human being with essential physical and mental needs.

The soft textile pushes her to ask more about it, which further tempts her to buy the stockings and spend money on herself. This is the start of her ignorant awakening. She disregards the initial thought of buying her family new items. Instead, she purchases shiny, pointed boots, new gloves and costly magazines. Usually, she would tolerate the hunger and go home for lunch. This time, however, she goes to a restaurant with white table cloths, shining glasses and waiters serving wealthy people. At this time, she is not able to remind herself of any of her children any more. With those money, she goes to the cinema to kill her time. She talks with other women about the comedy and clothes. It seems that she has changed from the woman who always spares efforts to buy bargains to the woman who can watch the movie all the day. She no longer cares about her family and starts to care about herself. Her self-consciousness gradually flares up.

However, Allen Stein (2004) argues that Mrs. Sommers does not develop self-consciousness in the process of consuming the fifteen dollars. She is driven by the consumeristic desire rather than the desire to break the tackles and develop the inner self-consciousness.[9] As far as I’ m concerned, at the surface, she is the woman driven by the material desires. At the deep level, it is the desire for those wonderful things that pushes her to realize the existence of herself. She should not be the woman devoting all to her family. She should keep her desires rather than wipe them out for her families’ sake. Hence, in this aspect, Mrs. Sommers is the one who has awakens herself.

3.1.3 The broken dream

Due to the sudden material gratification, Mrs. Sommers could not actually grasp the feeling of awakening and hold on but is just flooded with the consumption. So when the show is over and music ceases, all ends up. All the dreamy imaginations vanish and Mrs. Sommers has to come back to who she actually is. She walks to the station, comes back home and become the woman who has to be responsible for her children and husband. She will keep on struggling between self-will and social moral expectations.

From the above, it is implied that the little unexpected fortune makes Mrs. Sommers realize the existence of her self-hood and her consciousness awakens in the period of shopping in a occasional situation. That is to say, she could hardly awakes her self-conscious and realizes the existence of freedom without this sum of money. It is horrible for women who shares the same life with Mrs. Sommers in that without the awakening they would be forever trapped in the cage of marriage and reduced to the victim of the family. However, this kind of consciousness-awakening is so short as a dream that Mrs. Sommers can’t really grab this feeling of awakening and has to wake up and comes back to the real world when the dream ends.

3.2 Mrs. Mallard – desiring for freedom

It is never tolerable at any times for any wife to be happy for the death of her husband. The protagonist Mr. Mallard in The Story of an Hour shares such an experience. And her pursuit of freedom starts from the “sad” news. The story starts on the premise that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble. It follows with the development of how Louise Mallard reacts when she deals with the news of her husband's death.

3.2.1 The birth of self-consciousness

The story starts with the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. Mrs. Mallard’ s sister Josephine tells her in “broken sentences and veiled hints”(Chopin, 2010:1) that her husband died of a railway accident.[4] This is the first scene of the story. It can be easily found that she is forced to accept the sad news. “...hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept it”(1, Chopin).[4] This is Mrs. Mallard’ s reaction to the death news at first. However, she finds that the others in the room might have expected for how she reacts. Then as the social morality requires, she has to weep with desperation. With a restricted view of the first scene, we can find that in this male-dominated society, women are of passive low status and have to accept all the unfairness the society forces on them.

There is a significant period of the birth of her self-hood. After the essential performance of cry, Mrs. Mallard goes alone back to her room and sits down in an armchair. Woolf(1967) once wrote in her story that if a woman wants to breed her own thoughts, she must own her room.[11] And it is in this room that Mrs. Mallard bursts out the desire for freedom. “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair...seemed to reach into her soul”(2, Chopin).[4] This is the description when Mrs. Mallard entering the room. The open window in this place implies the touchable freedom outside. The scenery outside the window which is full of vitality seem to imply her anticipations on the coming liberation. This room is just the place where Mrs. Mallard awakens her sleeping female consciousness.

“There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully...reaching toward her through the sounds,the scents,the color that filled the air”(2, Chopin).[4]

Suddenly, she herself has a feeling of relief that she is free of her husband. Initially she tries to push this feeling away but finally gives in and accepts it. She even begins to anticipate the life she lives for herself. In such a patriarchal society, women’ s thoughts are severely oppressed and restricted. So when Mrs. Mallard breed the feeling of freedom, she at first pushes away and rejects it. However, in the end, she on earth cannot resist the lure and yield to it. She keeps telling herself, "free, free, free!"(2, Chopin).[4] She wants to free herself from the men-oriented world. And this is the birth of Mrs Mallard’ s self-hood, breaking out the constraints of the secular society and embracing freedom.

3.2.2 The establishment of self-consciousness

After the depicts on a series of mental activities, Chopin portrays Mrs. Mallard’ s individual consciousness as being shaped. “She knew that she would weep again...bitter moment along procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely”(3, Chopin).[4] This is the transition chapter where Mrs. Mallard say goodbye to the feudal patriarchal society and anticipates the free future life.

“There would be no one to live for her during those coming years, she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers”(3, Chopin).[4]

At this time, after a series of reflection, Mrs. Mallard has already turned into a brand new woman finishing the establishment of her self-hood. And finally she shouts out free!

3.2.3 The dream of an hour

Iancu Anca-luminita(2017) argues that the heroines, in various ways, in Kate Chopin’ s short stories experience a brief moment of illumination.[1] She believes that this works on Mrs. Mallard in The Story of an Hour.

Just as the story of Cinderella, the beautiful dream will always wake up. After a few minutes, Mrs. Mallard finally opens the door with the beautiful anticipation for the future life. However, when getting down, the front door opens and someone comes in. It is Mrs. Mallard's husband, Brently Mallard, alive and well. With huge mental changes, she has become the person totally different from the one an hour ago. So when at the sight of her husband, Mrs. Mallard lets out a cry and dies of heart attack. In the end, the doctor diagnoses that Mrs. Mallard dies because of the ecstasy of seeing her husband alive. How ridiculous!

The contrast of the attitude of Mrs. Mallard towards her husband’ s death is worth mentioning. At first, she weeps for the death of her lover, playing the role of an ideal woman which a patriarchal society requires. While after a series of self-realization, she feels that she has been liberated from the oppressing man’ s world, which actually is not subjected to the traditional social norms. In the dreamy one hour, Mrs. Mallard experience the realization and construction of self-consciousness but these self-recognition and self-realization suddenly collapsed when her husband comes home. Chen and Wang(2001) conclude in their book that that ideal women in traditional patriarchal literature are passive, obedient, selfless and devotional and those who refuse to accept the specific role given by society will be regarded as devils.[12] Hence, in such a social background, Mrs. Mallard has to die in the end.

In the way of the awakening of self-consciousness, Mrs. Mallard is full of rebellious spirit. She is quite brave to challenge the traditional social norms and desires to be freed from this man-oriented world even at the sacrifice of her life! Her story reveals that women at that time find it tough and hard to realize the construction of female consciousness. Someone fails in silence just as Mrs. Sommers does. They would suddenly grab something of self-consciousness but finally gives in to the oppressed patriarchal world or traditional social morality. While the others, like Mrs. Mallard, through a long period of struggle, try to awaken her self-hood but only come to nothing at the cost of her life!

3.3 Edna – stepping out for freedom

The Awakening is one of Kate Chopin’s prestigious work in the 19^th century. It tells the story of Edna Pontellier, who resents the fixed role of being a good wife and kind mother, spares no effort to realize self-independence and finds the real self-hood. However, when she finds it impossible to reach the ideal utopia, she immerges herself to the sea without hesitation and maintains the freedom at the expense of life. From this novel we know that in a patriarchal society, the realization of women’ s self-consciousness is quite hard.

3.3.1 The woman with independent thoughts

This story opens with the Pontellier family’ s vocation on Grand Isle at a resort on the Gulf of Mexico. Our protagonist is Edna Pontellier. She marries Léonce Pontellier who is a successful businessman in New Orleans. They give birth to two sons. She bears the life of being a good wife and mother as the social morality requires. However, different from other wives, Edna is good at and fond of independent thinking.

Everyone believes that Edna’s marriage is quite enviable since her husband is rich and shows great fondness of her. However, only Edna knows that Mr. Pontellier’s love is quite superficial. Wang(2011) argues that Mr. Pontellier’ s fondness of Edna is the same as his appreciation for a precious and exquisite private object rather than a lover with peer status.[18] This kind of fondness makes no difference with the love for her husband’ s fancy houses. He never cares about her inner feelings.

“If it was not a mother’ s place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business”(Chopin, 1985:7).[3]

As for Edna, this kind of role is definitely what she wants in a family. She wants love and romance. She hates losing her self-hood during taking care of a family. When her husband accuses her of not taking care of children carefully, Edna weeps. “An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness...”(8, Chopin).[3] At first, Edna does not realize this kind of oppression arises from her dissatisfaction to the current life. Though as a woman with independent thought, she could only put the blame on her carelessness and Mr. Pontellier’ s blame. Due to the deep persecution the patriarchal society have on women’s minds, Edna does not succeed in awakening her self-consciousness in the beginning.

3.3.2 The discovery of self-consciousness

There are two women that accelerate Edna’ s process of self-discovery. They are Adèle Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz. In this story, Mrs. Ratignolle is a typical angel in the house who has completely lost her self. The appearance of this character promotes Edna’ s awakening progress. For a long time, Edna used to hide her emotions. She performed as reserved and self-contained. However, Mrs.Ratignolle’ s extraordinary charm attracts her and makes her become honest and frank, which prompts her to speak out her inner thoughts heaped up in her mind for years. This makes her realize her thirsty for freedom.

“But a woman who would give her life for her children could do no more than that your Bible tells you so...a pity for that colorless existence which never uplifted its possessor beyond the region of blind contentment”(56, Chopin).[3]

The act of Mrs. Ratignolle being a good wife and mother and her persuasion exacerbate Edna’ s discontent with the role of being an angel in the house. The ignored self-consciousness awakens bit by bit in Edna’ s heart.

Another woman is Mademoiselle Reisz, who is a woman with strong self-awareness. So brave is she that she has the courage to rebel against the social tradition and ethical requirements. She is not merely independent in her thoughts, but also wins independence in finance by her superb piano skills. This, to some degree, violates people’ s images of traditional woman. Therefore, she is rejected and isolated by people. “To be an artist includes much; one must...moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul”(75, Chopin).[3] She encourages Edna to abandon her long-standing social customs and prejudice, awakening Edna's spiritual world. With those changes, Edna no longer takes orders by her husband and starts to pursues independence and freedom. She even gives up her husband’ s Tuseday reception. This is the first shift during Edna’ s way of awakening.

Due to Edna’ s changes, her husband asks a doctor and follow the advice of leaving Edna alone. Under this circumstance, Edna enjoys the independent life without her husband and children, which gives her enough physical and mental space to really live and reflect on her life. She moves out to a bungalow where she pursues the life she really desires. And this is exactly the place which Virginia Woolf(1967) appeals for.[11] In such an independent environment, Edna takes real steps to seize the freedom she longs for. She has sexual relations with a man frequently for sex needs. She makes a living on painting to seek for the economic independence. In this stage, the female consciousness in Edna actually bursts out and makes her free and independent. She refuses to be oppressed by the man’s world!

3.3.3 The pursuit of freedom

However, the attempts Edna makes for freedom is nothing but in vain. The tackles of the social morality exhausts her.

“There was no one thing in the world that she desired...the children appeared...had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul’ s slavery for the rest of her days”(134, Chopin).[3]

In the end, Robert returns to New Orleans and tells Edna about his passionate love. However, he is shamed of falling in love with a married woman and finally leaves her forever. Suddenly, Edna realizes that there is no one in the world that can really understand her. She rushes back to Grand Isle where she first awakens herself and commits suicide. She escapes the world where she cannot be understood in an extreme way.

The awakening of these female figures in different degrees, even though not succeed, still gives the contemporary women dramatic cultural and emotional shock. They gradually realize that they are not accessories to the husband and the family, they should have lived as an in-dependant human being!

1. Reasons for the Awakening

Beauvior(1988) once wrote that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”.[2] It is the social environment around her that makes what she is. So this chapter will discuss the inducements for the awakening of these heroines. The first two sections will focus on the similar factors that stimulate their self-awareness. The third part will stress on the differences that leads them to various endings.

4.1 Unhappy families

Throughout the stories analyzed above, all the female figures share a common point in that they do not live in a real sense of happy family environment. This kind of unhappiness may deal with the feeling both mentally and physically. For instance, Mrs. Sommers, who had enjoyed a pretty nice life before her marriage, is living precariously after getting married. She regards $15 as a tremendous fortune.

“It seemed to her a very large amount of money, and the way in which it stuffed and bulged her worn old porte-monnaie gave her a feeling of importance such as she had not enjoyed for years”(1, Chopin). [3]

And it is this great fortune that makes her begin the awakening of self-consciousness. She has to calculate every penny before she spends it. And every time she considers in the first place is her children. There is no herself existing in this family. She is exactly the appendage and slave to the family. Hence, this kind of unhappiness in material life and the lack of self-existence in family life finally pushes her into awakening.

As for Mrs. Mallard, she also lives an unsatisfactory life. There is no romantic love between her and her husband. She does not love him and he loves her as a personal belongings. Mrs. Mallard always feels that she is living for others not herself. There are always powerful will that forces her to do the things she actually does not appreciate.

“There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature”(2, Chopin).[3]

This is Mrs. Mallard’ s mental reactions when she finds her husband dead. There is nothing sad left but the anticipation for the future, which on the other side reflects her unhappy life! This kind of unhappiness or dissatisfaction for family life eventually awakes her up from the unfortunate life!

In Edna’ s case, she shares the similarity with Mrs. Mallard. They are both regarded as the personal items and are not treated as the independent human beings. More importantly, Edna is the woman who pursues love and freedom. She could not accept her loveless marriage. In this way, her husband’ s attitude of treating her like a useful tool of a good wife and mother makes her begin the awakening of self-consciousness. He defends that“if it was not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it”(7, Chopin).[3]

All in all, the dissatisfaction of their unhappy families is only the blasting fuse of the awakening of self-consciousness. Their being regarded as the tool for delivering babies and raising up children makes them discontent with the family life. However, this is just a surface reason. More important is the torment the society has forced on them.

4.2 Oppressed social milieu

Through the cultivation of the these female characters, Kate Chopin expresses the discontent with the real world and what the society imposed on women. The inequality exists not merely in the family life but also in every aspect of life.

The 19^th century was still a patriarchal society. Gu(2002) points out that women should enjoy the same rights to education, political rights and financial growth as men.[14] A woman should be the subject of independent personality, not attached to the object or other of a man. But in such a man-oriented society, all the critical positions were reserved for men, regardless of the positions in politics, economy, law or even in family. Female status in this society was extremely low. They were not allowed by the man’ s world to get employed or make a living on their own. Almost three-forth of the women did not get the traditional occupations. In this condition, women had no choice but to attach to the men to make a living. They had no choice but to abide by the orders making by the men. Love and devotion for the families without precondition were regarded as the essential virtues of the women. They were defined as or forced to be the considerate wife and responsible mother. They were called by the name of “the angel in the house”(Patmore, 1854).[7] The inequality in two sex evoked the rebellion of the women. However, this kind of rebellion, naturally, were not recognized by the whole society, which in contrast stirred up their dissatisfaction on the family and the society. Thus the awakening initiated.

With more and more women realizing their unfair treatments and social status, the feminist movement breaks out. It is a political movement where the women ask for equal rights on reproduction, politics, economy, law, employment and etc. Just as Beauvior(1949) once said “in order to be a person who is as equal and independent as a man, a woman must enter the world of men, just as men must enter the world of women. Everything should be a complete exchange of equality.”[2] Women gradually come into these fields and take a place of it. As the industrial revolution expands, the cottage industry flares up. However, even though this business mode gives women a bit of freedom in finance, it still traps the women in the family and forces them to be the angel in the house. But more than that it blunts the differences between man and woman in traditional handicrafts and the women’ s status of being labour force are gradually recognized. More importantly, with the development of revolution, factories appear, which separate the home from the workplace. Women are no longer trapped in home and they have the legal right to get out for a living. Thus women grow more independently. In this process, the awakening of female self-consciousness initiates.

4.3 Different individual choices

Liu(2003) argues that the liberation of women requires the awakening and construction of female subjective consciousness: from obedience and dependence on men to self-discovery and self-recognition[15]. However, the process of awakening and construction is by no means an easy task, because it requires subjective consciousness and external objective conditions to work together. Apart from the similar external environments, the inner choice is another vital factor that decides different degrees of the awakening of self-hood. Mrs. Sommers chooses to take the things as they are. Though the sparkle of awakening flashes through her head, she cannot hold it tight and finally failed in the process of pursuing freedom.  “...to detect a poignant wish, a powerful longing that the cable car would never stop anywhere, but go on and on with her forever[3]”(169, Chopin). Her longings for freedom finally stops on freedom.

As for Mrs. Mallard, though she fearlessly take the challenge of rebelling against the social ethnics and morality, she ends up with death. When she finally makes up her minds to free herself from the practical restrictions, the real society gives her heavy blow. Pathetic as the end of Mrs. Mallard, she is equipped with strong rebellious spirit. Even though the cruel reality stops her, she has made big progress in the process of self-awakening than Mrs. Sommers.

Edna, among these rebellious heroines, is the most radical one in pursuing liberation. Her choice of moving out from her family, realizing economy independence accelerates and reinforces her determination of awakening herself from the patriarchal society.

1. Conclusion

This thesis focuses on the analysis of the awakening of self-awareness in various degrees in three unique heroines. Mrs. Sommers accidentally gets the chance of awakening but fails to really being liberated since she does not equip the courage to break the inequality in the real world. Mrs. Mallard is the one who anticipates freedom but loses out to the cruelty of the patriarchal society. As for Edna, she has realized the awakening of self-consciousness in herself but does not allowed by the world for its existence. From the above, we can draw the conclusion that the awakening of female consciousness is full of thistles and thorns at the early stage. The rebellious woman characters usually fails with a pathetic ending. For those who have awaken but are incapable of breaking the shackles of paternity with courage could only bear the persecution in the rest of their lives. Zhang(2011) argues that only by awakening female consciousness can women criticize and resist the patriarchal system and change their status of being oppresses and finally achieve the goal of changing society[22]. Hence, though the process of self-awakening is fulfilled with difficulties and hardships, it is quite essential for the woman to realize the awakening of self-hood.

Apart from the exploration of the these female characters, this thesis also spares efforts on the causes of the self-realization. They awaken from the discontent marriage life. The lack of importance in family makes them recognize the unfairness in the real world and eventually the oppressed social milieu forces them to break the shackles in the true life! And what matters is their individual choices, that defines the degrees of their awakening. However, the defect of this thesis is that the analysis of the cause of the awakening of female consciousness is not discussed in a meticulous way. Therefore, I hope that this thesis could benefit and inspire the others to start the more detailed study of the female characters in Kate Chopin’ s work!

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