Rebellious And Romantic:Kate Chopin And Her Work The Awakening

Kate Chopin is an outstanding American woman writer in the late nineteenth century. Her masterpiece The Awakening tells the story of the heroine Edna’s gradual self consciousness awakening. For more than half a century, scholars have interpreted this work around feminist, naturalism, regionalism, writing skills and so on in detail. Based on the previous studies, this thesis attempts to analyze the writer and her work from two lines rebellion and romanticism. Combining with the writer’s growth experience and background, it points out that the rebelling against religion which is the representative of the patriarchal society and the quest for romanticism make Kate Chopin and the character Edna one of the highlights on the way to strive for women’s self consciousness.This thesis employs the methods of text analysis and literature review to interpret Kate Chopin and The Awakening from the perspectives of rebellion and romanticism. This thesis is divided into five chapters:Chapter One is the introduction, which scans Kate Chopin and her work The Awakening as well as previous studies at home and abroad; then the thesis puts forward the significance and main argument of the thesis. In Chapter Two, the thesis first introduces19th century American religion,then19th century cult of true womanhood,finally19th century American romanticism, which in turn set up the theoretical foundation for the text critique of The Awakening. In Chapter Three, the thesis focuses on the detailed analysis of the rebellious thoughts on Kate Chopin and The Awakening including rebelling against religion and cult of true womanhood. In Chapter Four, the thesis places emphasis on the detailed analysis of romanticism thoughts on the writer and work, it also points out that Kate Chopin’s romantic thoughts are influenced by the19th century romanticism in America.The conclusion summarizes the views of this thesis and stresses that Kate Chopin is rebellious and romantic, which is inseparable from her upbringing and surroundings. And in fact The Awakening happens to be a carrier, which carries Kate Chopin’s rebelling against religion and quest for human being’s free romanticism. In the end, Edna kills herself in the sea, but her death is worthwhile. Because her death awakens women’s self consciousness which is suppressed by religion, human being’s romantic nature and the quest for true love get development and advancement. The rebellious spirit and romanticism on Kate Chopin and her work The Awakening bring readers lasting shock. This thesis, by combining the perspectives of rebelling and romanticism, expects to enhance people’s understanding to Kate Chopin herself and expand the research of The Awakening, at the same time, it hopes to provide reference for other scholars to study relevant classic works.