Unbroken Fetters

Kate Chopin was an American woman writer in the late nineteenth century. The Awakening was her masterpiece. It was a novel which generated great controversy as soon as it was published. It became the target of criticism. The temporaries of Kate Chopin could not accept its advanced and "radical" theme and ideology. They could not bear a woman like Edna, who denied the traditional roles as a mother and a wife, to pursue freedom and independence, as well as the meaning of being an individual, belonging to nobody anymore. The public were shocked by the bold ideas of the novel, especially by the description of Edna's sexual awakening. Take the May 4, 1899 edition of The Mirror LX for example, which said that the novel was "ugly, cruel, loathsome monster passion". Therefore, The Awakening became a forbidden fruit in the field of literature. It was not until the second half of the twentieth century that The Awakening was rediscovered and recaptured the attention of scholars such as Lewis Leary, Cynthia Griffin Wolff, Nancy Walker and so on. Articles on Kate Chopin and her works were published in rapid succession. At first, people just paid their attention mainly to the feminism it embodied, making the novel a tool for the feminist movement. Then, they began to explore the other aspects of the novel, from its romanticism, realism to its naturalism and existentialism. There are many persons who are interested in its symbolic meaning as well. However, something important is ignored, that is the economic relationship embodied in the novel. This thesis tries to study the novel from the aspect of Marx's political economy.Chopin's heroine Edna was a married woman. However, she fell in love with another man, Robert. Besides, she had a love affair with a playboy Arobin. Edna's relationships with the three men are complicated but all represent the economic relation. Facing the two roads——one is a solitary road, which was chosen by Reisz; and the other one is a "cozy" cage, where Adele lived in, which one would Edna prefer? To be a free solitary soul or to be a caged bird? Edna is facing the typical Hamlet-like question. In fact, due to the economic environment and the circumstances in which she lived in, she would choose neither Reisz's model nor Adele's model. She realized that when the level of productivity failed to support her awakened ideology, it was impossible for her to get rid of the traditional roles as a mother and a wife imposed on her by the male-dominated society, not to mention the self-emancipation. At last, she walked into the sea, choosing death as her only choice.By describing Edna's tragedy, Chopin shows the great power of productivity. For women, in order to get freedom and emancipation, realize their role as an individual, the most important thing to do is to emancipate the productivity first.