A Critical Study Of Symbolism In The Awakening

The Awakening is the masterpiece of American woman writer Kate Chopin whose life is like a miracle in American literary history. She began to write when she was 39 and she gained success soon after that. In the following 10 years, she published two collections of short novels, two long novels, and became a famous local writer. In 1899, her second novel The Awakening published which marked the complete maturity of her writing skill and thinking. The book described the spiritual pursuit to individuality and freedom of a woman in 19^th century when the Women's Movement was prevailing in America. But the immediate response to the novel after its publishing was overwhelmingly negative. It aroused great hostility among contemporary reviewers because it traced the psychological and sexual awakening of a woman. Not only was the publication of the book prohibited but Chopin herself was also forced to stop writing. This shocked her very much. Five years later she died silently. During the next decades of years Chopin and her works were almost forgotten by people. It was with the rapid development of the Women's Movement in 1950s that the book was republished. In 1969, the Norwegian student Per Seyersted published The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, which made the American critics begin to reevaluate the special woman writer. Modem critics have noticed the abundant detailed description and imagination of the book. They have found that the book that brought disaster to Chopin in the past is really a classic.To represent the theme deeply, Chopin uses many symbols. The thesis explores the characteristics of the symbols and the causes of adopting them.The introduction gives a brief introduction to the life of Chopin, her status in history, the background of the novel and some of the comments on it by the experts.The first chapter is about the connotation of symbol and the functions it has on theworks.The second chapter analyzes the characteristics of the symbols in the novel from three points.The first part is the abundance of the forms. The first kind is the symbol of the title. The book depicts the awakening process of Edna from a traditional housewife to a self-regarded modern woman. Her awakening refers to her awareness of spiritual pursuit and sexual consciousness. It is also the process of the gestation, revival and growing of her female consciousness. The second kind refers to the symbol of settings. There are three places in the novel: Grand Isle, Cheniere Caminada and New Orleans. They represent the different process of her psychological activities. The symbol of the objects is the third part Both the houses that Edna has lived in and the clothes she has wore have special symbolic meanings. Besides these, there are also other symbols, such as the colors etc. The fourth kind is the symbol of characters. Besides Edna, the author also depicts five other main characters. They represent the different parts of personality, that is: material and money, ideal and love, desire and sexuality, responsibility and moral, self and passion. As to Edna, she is a combination of them all. The last kind is the symbol of activities. Sleeping is a means of escaping from the society, learning to swim gives her rebirth an empowerment, drawing adds vigor to her life, and committing suicide represents the complete freedom and liberation of her soul.The second characteristic is the combination of the whole symbols and the part symbols. The sea and the birds are two kinds of important symbols in the novel. It is on the beach that Edna awakens and ends her life. The sea symbolizes freedom and elusion at the same time. The bird is another core symbol that symbolizes the free and comfortless Edna simultaneously. The ring that appears only twice in the book refers to the wife and mother prescribed by her husband. The darkness that Edna seeks inmeans the husband-authorized society.The third one is the combination of symbols with the plot and the depiction of characters. The story mainly happens at three places. On Grand Isle she learns to swim and begins her awakening, on Cheniere Caminada she eats and sleeps like a baby. Coming back to New Orleans, she begins to paint again and moves into the pigeon house. At last, she finds a kind of freedom and liberation in the sea. Almost in every process of her wakening, there is a symbol that is in correspondence with it. On top of the five main characters mentioned above, other people also have symbolic meanings, such as the woman in black, the lovers and the twins.The third chapter is about the causes of adopting the symbols. The first reason is the maturity of the theory. Symbolism first appeared in France in 1880s. From 1890s, it began to spread to England, America, Russia, Italy and Spanish. By 1920s, it had become a kind of international genre. This offered theoretical foundations for Chopin to use symbols. Secondly, surrounded by independent and strong women, Chopin grew up. She grasped French very well even when she was young; she liked literature and music; she liked reading many classic works of European writers, and she was skilled in writing. All these made it possible for her to use symbols. The last reason is the influence of the social background. Though the Women's Movement was upswing the women weren't really liberated especially in the south part of America. In contrast to this, they were requested high in sexual morality. That is to say, the Women's Movement didn't bring them real spiritual and physical freedom. This made Chopin unable to use direct description to express the rebellion of the women but choose the method of adopting symbols as they can make the novel obscure and blurry. Even by doing this, the novel got a force-out at last and Chopin was greatly struck. Later Chopin mocked herself that if she had known the mess of the matter she would have deleted Edna completely.The wide adopting of symbols and images is a main character of The Awakening, and it is also a means for the writer to depict characters and develop the plot. The symbols run through the theme to influence the characters and the structure of the novel. They vividly portray out a woman in the late 20* century who dares to challenge the traditions and seek the freedom and love. The usage of symbols can not only explore the spiritual world of the characters but become the main clue of the plot. It plays a crucial role in deepening the theme of the novel.Altogether, With subtle usage of symbols in The Awakening, Chopin combines the description of objects and their symbolic meanings perfectly and units the symbolic meanings and the structure of the novel skillfully to explore the problem of marriage, motherhood and the independence, desire, sex of the women artistically and this makes her world famous. The author mainly describes the psychological dilemma and romantic sentiment of Edna to make the readers understand why Edna dives into the sea at last. Therefore, the theme is deepened and the expression is strengthened.