Struggling In The Patriarchy

The Awakening, published in 1899, is the masterpiece of American female writer Kate Chopin. In her exploration of literature creation, Chopin extends sincere concerns about women's social position and their destiny in her time, and expresses her unique standpoint about women's assessment. At the beginning of its publication, The Awakening is a controversial novel. As time goes on, it displays unique fascination and attracts tremendous audiences and critics as well, both domestic and overseas, and it also gets high assessment in the history of English literature. Though written a century ago, the novel still attracts the readers intensely, for the problems the novel focuses on are similar to those of the present.This thesis intends to explore Chopin's analytical feminist standpoint reflected in The Awakening in terms of female's self-recognition and self-reconstruction with the aim to examine of the changes of women's status in American history and the social background of Chopin's time.Based on the previous research, the thesis deals with the main characters in the novel and the plot development as well. The thesis first concentrates on the analysis of the three male characters to show the different types of males in the patriarchal society. Chopin hopes to overturn the patriarchy, to win over some androgynous males and fulfill the dreams of many radical feminists. Then discussing two female characters who embody the feminist consciousness by Chopin, the thesis focuses on the major protagonist Edna. The thesis examines Edna's process of her awakening and her final ending in order to show Chopin's complex viewpoint. In the end, it is concluded the long standing controversies regarding the author and the novel and points out the significance of the novel to the readers.