Aesthetics Of Edna's Death In The Awakening

The Awakening is one of the masterpieces of Kate Chopin,a famous American female writer in the late 19th century.Since publication,the novel had been experiencing controversial criticism for a long time before it was reexamined and finally gained recognition and praise.Many scholars have analyzed and studied The Awakening from different perspectives.This thesis focuses on the death ending,based on Lu Yang and Yan Xianglin's theories of Death Aesthetics,making an in-depth and meticulous exploration of the novel to analyze the inevitability and the aesthetic value of the protagonist Edna's death,so that readers could have a better understanding of the meaning of the novel's ending and the author's superb narrative techniques.Meanwhile,this thesis intends to enrich the relevant studies on The Awakening and Kate Chopin's works on the basis of the previous research.This thesis includes five parts:The Introduction presents Kate Chopin and The Awakening,a review of the studies of The Awakening at home and abroad,as well as a brief survey of death aesthetics and the research objectives and the main argument of this paper.In the first chapter,the factors contributing to Edna's death and its inevitability are analyzed in detail.The second and the third chapters focus on the two moments of death aesthetics:the external moment(the character aims to accomplish certain self-realization by death);the internal moment(the creator,the author,aims to realize artistic or aesthetic value through the death narrative).Through the analysis,it comes to the following conclusions:Firstly,many factors have led to the death of Edna,including the direct reason(the disillusionment of love);the internal reason(Edna's disassociation of personality);and the external reason(the perplexities Edna is confronting in her awakening process,as well as the pressure from the social and family milieu in the patriarchy).Secondly,the death ending is inevitable,and it is Edna's freewill choice.For Edna,it is both a triumph and a defeat;it is an integration of her body and soul,a success for her pursuit of freedom;and it is also an escape from the reality,a result of being unable to conquer the perplexities in the reality.Last but not least,such arrangement for the novel's ending has a certain degree of rationality and aesthetic value.Through the death narrative,the author narrates the value of life and existence by means of death,creates the sublimation of the spirit and the soul of the character in the novel.Besides,it is an inspiration for women's pursuit of independence and freedom,as well as a warning to the plight of feminism.