On Female Images In Kate Chopin's "Wiser Than A God" And The Awakening From The Perspective Of Image Schema Theory

The heroine Edna Pontellier from Kate Chopin's The Awakening has usually been reconsidered a positive female image daring to chase the independence and freedom out of her marriage despite her sexual and emotional marital infidelity including her ignorance of her two children since some critics such as the feminist ones rediscovered it and regarded it as a canon.This thesis argues that the truth is quite different based on the comparative analysis of both images utilizing the image schema theory of cognitive linguistics.First of all,this dissertation chooses the heroine Paula Von Stolz in her short story "Wiser Than a God"(1889)as another research object from Kate Chopin's all published works(including two novels and over one hundred short stories)based on fully understanding Chopin and her works.It tries to explore these two female images,Paula and Edna by comparing one with the other,elucidating how people's cognitive characteristics uncover the construction of the female images in Kate Chopin's works through using the image schema theory.The following six schemas of the image schema theory are applied into analyzing these two female images at length,which are CONTAINER schema,PATH schema,UP-DOWN schema,FORCE schema,CENTER-PERIPHERY schema and BALANCE schema.With the help of a detailed analysis of the language portrayed in them,the findings are as follows.(1)CONTAINER schema: Both Paula and Edna have been in the dynamic process of in the container—breaking the old container—in the new container,which projects their growth and mental changes.As for Edna,the transformation the CONTAINER schema indicates that she changes her attitudes towards her family,love and career.(2)PATH schema: It contains both physical path and imagined path,which indicates Paula's and Edna's persistent efforts and pursuit for their careers and dreams.(3)UP-DOWN schema: It reflects that though Paula is on the "down" side of social status,she still tries to rely on her own efforts to change her destiny.As for Edna Pontellier,it embodies the inequality of social status between her and two men,her husband and the other man,Robert out of her marriage.(4)FORCE schema: This schema indicates some help as well as obstacles or barriers on Paula's way to seek for career.She is not always sailing smoothly along the way.Meanwhile,it also embodies that Edna is also faced with some barriers and temptation when chasing for her so-called career and freedom.It indirectly shows Edna's selfishness and immorality as a wife and mother.(5)CENTER-PERIPHERY schema: This one demonstrates Paula always tries her efforts to change her current situation and realize her career.In terms of Edna,she also tries to seek for her independence in economy and freedom in love through analyzing her with this schema.(6)BALANCE schema: This schema demonstrates that Edna separates the relationships from her family,love and career,which results in her suicide in the end.This is exactly a contrast to Paula: she manages to keep these aspects in a balance,which would certainly bring her multiple harvests in love,family and career in the end.Finally,conclusion can be drawn that Paula owns independence,self-esteem,self-improvement and filial piety based on empirical structures and analysis with different image schemas.She successfully achieves freedom in spirit and independence in economy.In addition,she is likely to gain her true love in the end.All of these are in line with Chinese outstanding female images.In contrast,Edna Pontellier places these things in contradiction to her marriage,although she in The Awakening also wants to ask for independence in economy and to have her own career.She tries to look for her so-called independence and freedom out of her marriage,which results in that she betrays her husband,abandons her children,fails to gain independence and freedom and steps in the road to death in the end.In a word,this paper tries to show us the real positive female image in Chopin's works with the assistance of more objectively analyzing way by the image schema theory.Moreover,it aims to be helpful in how to cultivate morality and strengthen Chinese culture self-confidence to some degree.In addition,it is expected to expand and broaden research scope and depth on Kate Chopin and her works to some degree by using linguistic methods as well as provide a small reference on interpreting other literature works.