论《觉醒》中的意象与女性意识的“觉醒”

Contents Chinese Abstract 1 English Abstract 2 1. Introduction 3 1.1 Kate Chopin and Her Writings 3 1.2 The Awakening 4 1.3 Comments on The Awakening 4 2. Images in The Awakening 5 2.1 The Definition of Image 5 2.2 The Function of Image 5 2.3 Images in The Awakening 6 3. Feminism Consciousness in The Awakening 7 3.1 The Definition of Feminism 7 3.2 The History of Feminism in America 8 3.3 The Consciousness of Feminism in The Awakening 9 4. Images and Heroine＇s Feminism Awakening 9 4.1 Bird in Cage: Before Awakening 9 4.2 Piano String Vibration: Awakening 11 4.3 Broken-Sing Bird: After Awakening 11 5. Conclusion 12 References 13 论《觉醒》中的意象与女性意识 的“觉醒” 摘 要 19世纪的美国著名女作家凯特 肖邦的《觉醒》，讲述了勇敢并且具有女性意识的女主人公埃德娜的自我意识的觉醒的故事。肖邦在此篇小说中巧妙地运用了各种意象来突出小说女性意识逐渐觉醒的过程，觉醒后的一系列遭遇，以及女主人公埃德娜因觉醒所带来的凄惨结局。通过意象的衬托，她让主人公把自己的情感意识寄托于广阔无垠的大海，自由翱翔的鸟儿，愉悦的音乐，埃德娜憧憬着如鸟儿一般，拥有觉醒的翅膀，在浩瀚的大海以及美妙的音乐找寻自我，自由飞翔。

关键词: 肖邦；
意象；
女性意识；
《觉醒》 Images and the “Awakening” of the Feminist Consciousness in The Awakening Abstract The Awakening is one of the representative novels of Kate Chopin, a noted American female writer in the 19th century. It tells the story of the self-conscious awakening of the brave and feminine heroine— Edna. Various images are used skillfully by Chopin to highlight the process of female consciousness of independence and freedom gradually awakening, a series of encounters after awakening, and the tragic ending of Edna in the novel. Through the description of these images, Chopin let the heroine give her emotional consciousness to the vast sea, the free-flying birds, the beautiful music. Edna looked forward to being a bird, with wings of awakening and looking for herself in the vast sea and wonderful music, flying freely. Key words: Chopin; image; the consciousness of feminism; The Awakening 1. Introduction 1.1 Kate Chopin and Her Writings Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, a feminist novel under the realm of naturalism and realism, was ahead of time by using imagery of multiple visions, natural elements as symbols. By means of imagery writing, all symbols can be read as kinds of metaphor. Therefore, imagery has a specific and special relation to symbolism. Kate Chopin was one of the imagism movement in 19th century, she admired those strong-minded, talented and independent women who translated many Guy de Maupassant’s novels into English. Besides the melancholic, pessimistic undertone of human lives and destinies in his writings, what impressed Chopin most was Maupassant’s writing skills and the individual consciousness he always emphasized: Chopin claimed to have felt that he spoke to her directly and intimately (Toth, 1985). She admired him most for the things that made him the writer that he was. She was intrigued by his escape from tradition and authority and for having entered into himself and looked out upon life through his own being and with his own eyes (Skaggs, 1974). Eventually Maupassant replaced other writers as her primary influence and literary model (Toth, 1985). Chopin had such an interest in Maupassant that she herself also translated many of his stories from French to English (Toth, 1985). Because of the content their stories, these stories were never published. Maupassant’s ideas were looked as immoral and immature, dealing with ideas such as sex, loneliness, and depression. He was regarded by many people as an immoral person, because he questioned the standards of the day. Of course, Kate Chopin was influenced very much by the literary trend of this period. Her novel The Awakening was written at the end of the nineteenth century, which is still a male-dominated Victorian era. At that time, society advocated sexual inhibition, especially among middle and upper-class women. As a result, critics lashed out at The Awakening, causing a great disturbance at the time. Kate Chopin’s 1899 masterpiece, The Awakening, faced the same fate as Maupassant and was considered scandalous at the time of its initial publication, with its themes of female individuality and liberation virtually ending Chopin’s writing career. Now, more than 100 years after its first appearance, Chopin’s novel is widely esteemed as one of the first feminist literature. “It wasn’t until the 1950s and 1960s that with the vigorous development of the American feminist movement, the book The Awakening received a fair evaluation from critics, believing it to be a good book with excellent ideological skills and artistic methods. A rare masterpiece in literature” (金莉，秦亚青, 1998：100). The book is also known as a pioneering work of American literary classics and feminist movements, as well as a first-rate novel (梁亚平，2004). 1.2 The Awakening In The Awakening, Chopin critiqued the society in which women, who stray from their duty as mothers or the expected married female behavior, are subject to harsh judgment and further disapproval from their husbands. In the novel, Edna, her husband, and her family went on a vacation to the beautiful island by the sea. At the seaside, with the help of Robert, Edna learned to swim, which she always wanted to learn ever since she was a child and she also swam to a place that she has never visited before. Robert couldn’t bear the pressure of social judgement; he chose to flee. So,the relationship between Robert and Edna was inconclusive. However, the departure of Robert did not stop the consciousness of feminist awakening in Edna’s mind. She would never be the same Edna who used to obey her husband. She started to love life and express her feelings boldly. Through learning to swim during the holidays, Edna began to search for their independence and freedom, which is the beginning of the transformation of Edna in The Awakening. The heroine Edna in The Awakening, a mother of two children, has very little personal free space in her life as well as other traditional American women of her age. However, Edna has abandoned her responsibilities as a wife and mother in pursuit of extramarital sensory satisfaction. Once The Awakening published, the novel couldn’t avoid harsh criticism from society, as people couldn’t handle such radical and subversive feminist writing. 1.3 Comments on The Awakening ‘ The Awakening, published in 1899, is the second novel by American female writer Kate Chopin and is a feminist novel under the realm of naturalism and realism, was ahead of time by using imagery of multiple visions, natural elements as symbols. By means of imagery writing, all symbols can be read as a kind of metaphor. Therefore, imagery has a specific and special relation to symbolism. The novel describes the self-conscious awakening process of married woman Edna. The work’s anti-traditional concept also brought negative comments to its author. Even the post of St. Louis wrote that it was not suitable for women who abide by Morality and strongly suggested that the novel should be labeled as a poison (Killeen, 2003). Chopin also lost his original reputation. It wasn’t until more than half a century later that the victory of the second wave of women’s liberation movement made The Awakening a new favorite of literary critics and a classic feminist work in the national literary world. Today, The Awakening has been recognized as a classic of American literature. From banned books to classics, it has taken a long and tortuous road. This complex experience also illustrates how social changes and the impact of social thoughts have affected people’s acceptance and judgment of a literary work. The Awakening, as the authoress’ last masterpiece, also sharing one fate with Hardy’s last one, was finally recognized and even praised as “beautifully written” by Edmund Wilson, and “exquisite” and “sensitive” by Willa Cather. However, the praised didn’t live as long as Hardy, who finally outlived the thrusts and cuts. 2. Images in The Awakening 2.1 The Definition of Image The so-called imagery is an artistic image created by the unique emotional activities of the creative subject. The word imagery is commonly used in literary criticism, and the meaning of image is roughly as follows: often refers to individual image, rather than the whole picture. Art or literature works use images to express meaning, whose primary goal is to form a concrete and perceptible image, so that readers can produce aesthetic association by virtue of the pictures depicted in words, and let the aesthetic experience or impressive things reappear its image luster in our mind. 2.2 The Function of Image Image was a poetic vogue that flourished in England, and even more vigorously in America, between the years 1912 and 1917. As a part of the modernist movement, away from the sentimentality and moralizing tone of 19th-century Victorian poetry, imagist poets looked to many sources to help them create a new poetic expression. A typical imagist poem is written in free verse, a form that use a cadence that mimic natural speech rather than the accustomed rhythm of metrical feet or lines. Rules of rhyming were also considered nonessential. But rather, it highlights the impression of a visual object or scene and the term “image” should not be taken to imply only a visual reproduction of the object which is referred to: “Imagery in literature usage include not only visual sense qualities, but also qualities that are auditory, technic (touch), thermal (heat and cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and kinesthetic (sensations of movement)” (Abrams, 1999: 121). As the first leader of the imagism movement, American writer Ezra Pond is most famous for his two-line poem In a Station of the Metro: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd: Petals on a wet, black bough” (Pound, 1913(2): 12). It is often cited as one of the purest of his imagist poems. Pound describes watching faces appear in a metro station as a “crowd”, meaning the station is quite busy. He compares these faces to “petals on a wet, black bough”, suggesting that on the dark subway platform, people look like flower petals stuck on a tree branch after a rainy night. Though short, this poem is very sensory in nature; it allows the reader to imagine a scene while reading the lines. Through Pound’s economical description of these faces as “petals on a wet, black bough”, he is able to invoke a transient tone. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, a feminist novel under the realm of naturalism and realism, was ahead of time by using imagery of multiple visions, natural elements as symbols. By means of imagery writing, all symbols can be read as a kind of metaphor. Therefore, imagery has a specific and special relation to symbolism. 2.3 Images in The Awakening This article focuses on the process in which Chopin used images to reflect the awakening of the heroine’s female consciousness. In The Awakening, we can see the diversity of images, for instance various images are used skillfully to represent several kind of our protagonist Edna in different period and the process of the consciousness of feminism from awaken to broken in the novel. All the uses of imagery portrayed are as follows. The first kind is the image of the protagonist of theme. The book described Edna from a traditional housewife to a self-conscious, modern women. In the novel, Chopin boldly created a brand-new female image, Edna, who refused to perform traditional female duties. It represented women’s longing for and pursuit of fanatical life, longing for their own liberation, and the realization of life value (Skaggs, 1974). Chopin’s feminist proposition is manifested by the continuous development and maturation of feminist consciousness in the image of the heroine Edna (李公昭, 2000). Edna is a perfect incarnation of the brave and feminine women, who gradually awakes the female consciousness of independence and freedom, through the description of the images of being a bird, looking for herself in the vast sea and wonderful music, flying freely.The second kind are the image of places. There are three places in the novel: Grand Isle, Cheniere Caminada and New Orleans. They represent the different processes of Edna’s psychological activity. The third kind is the image of the objects. The three houses that Edna once lived in and the clothes that Edna wore each have their own specific symbolic meanings. In addition, there are other images, such as colors and bird cages etc. The fourth kind is the image of the characters. Besides protagonist Edna, the author also portrays 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 fifth kind is the image of behaviors. Sleeping is a way for Edna to escape society. Learning to swim symbolizes her rebirth, and the power to pursue freedom. Painting injects new vitality into her life, and suicide symbolizes the complete freedom and liberation of her soul. The last are the most important images in The Awakening. The first, the sea. Edna’s awakening started at the seaside and ended east at the seaside. The sea symbolizes freedom and elusion at the same time. The sea can awaken Edna’s inner pursuit and desire for freedom. Zhou Xina also pointed out clearly, “learning to swim in the sea is her way and means to the free ocean” (周熙娜, 1988(1): 86). Beyond literary terms, water and the ocean are often symbols of purification. Edna’s awakening was her realization of not being able to live a life that was not confined by societal boundaries and expectations. It can be inferred that her choice to commit suicide by drowning in the sea was her way of cleansing herself of the boundaries, expectations and responsibilities that consumed her. The ocean gave her a chance to choose, and she was thrown into the embrace of the ocean. Being in the ocean is a world completely devoted to herself, because death is the complete relief (曾晓覃, 2004). In the final scene of the novel, by describing the voice of the sea as “seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude, to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation” (Chopin, 2003: 175), she is ready to take the invitation as her very last dive.The second, the bird and the winged bird. The bird is another key image that represent the free and comfortless Edna simultaneously. On Grand Island, she learned to swim and started her awakening, and on Cheniere caminada, she ate and slept like a baby. Coming back to New Orleans, she begins to paint again and moves into the pigeon house. In the end , she found a kind of freedom and liberation in the sea. In The Awakening, the most representative image was the “the winged bird”, which means the awakening failed. The third, the music. The most representative image of this difficult period for Edna is “music”, which means sex and freedom and has gained a place in Edna’s spiritual world, received a strong emotional resonance of the heroine, and accompanied her from beginning to end.The last, the naked body. The naked body is also a special image. At the end of the novel, Edna’s naked body blends into the ocean, ending her life in the sea that she had previously feared but slowly familiar with. Her death was the ultimate choice of unwillingness to compromise with reality; her death was not death in the true sense, but another way of survival. The ocean gave her a chance to choose, and she was fascinated by the ocean. Merging into the ocean is a world completely devoted to herself, because death is the complete relief. “The protagonist’s rebirth and gaining the power to pursue freedom, when she and the sea are united, her body and soul are unified. She gains courage and a sense of freedom and independence” (Wandy, 2007: 53). Almost in every process of her wakening, there is a image that is in correspondence with it. Through the description of these images by Chopin, we can follow with Edna to go into the book, thinking and making decisions together. I really got involved. I think this is the charm of literature. 3. Feminism Consciousness in The Awakening  3.1 The Definition of Feminism Since 1969 there has been an explosion of feminist writings, without parallel in previous critical innovations in a movement, that as Elaine Showalter has remarked, displaying the urgency and excitement of a religious awakening. That current criticism, in America, England, France, and other countries, is not a unitary theory or procedure. It manifests, among those who practice it, a great variety of critical vantage points and procedures, including adaptations of psychoanalysis, Marxism and various post-structuralist theories, and its vitality is signalized by the vigor (sometimes even rancor) of the debates within the ranks of professed feminists themselves. The various feminism, however, share certain assumptions and concepts that underlie the diverse ways that individual critics explore the factor of sexual difference and privilege in the production, the form and content, the reception, and the critical analysis and evaluation of works of literature. As a distinctive and concerted approach to literature, feminist criticism was not inaugurated until late in the 1960s. Behind it, however, lie two centuries of struggle for the recognition of women’s cultural roles and achievements, and for women’s social and political rights, marked by such books as Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women (1869), and the American Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845). Much of feminist literary criticism continues in our time to be interrelated with the movement by political feminists for social, legal, and cultural freedom and equality. 3.2 The History of Feminism in America With the development of the feminist movement, a new generation of female writers have entered the history arena. They urged women to be independent and fight for their interests. The concept of “home as the core” in female culture gradually disintegrated when women fought for higher education rights and political, economic, and emotional independence for themselves. At that time, all writers favored the theme of challenging traditional morality and fighting for freedom and independence. This generation of women critical writers spontaneously exerted their artistic talents and confidently ranked their literary ideals before family responsibilities. The best among them were Louisa May Olcott and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. From their point of view, motherhood is a stumbling block for women’s creativity and artistic achievement. They also queried the traditional role of women, and they are more willing to describe what happened in marriage and society. However, although feminists have proposed new concepts of human rights and were allowed by the law to vote, women are still to some extent restricted by traditional conventions. Generally, a “decent” woman should be sexless and not be able to experience the joy of sex. They were not allowed to express sexual desires like men. Women and men were expected to fill separate spheres of society. Due to such traditional expectations for women prior to the 19th century, very few women had the same opportunities for education as men. Indeed, educating women was often seen as subversive, a possible perversion of the correct social order. Therefore, women writers in the century should also force their heroines to obey the same standards of female etiquette that they should be sure to check their behavior and language appropriately. Otherwise, they would be considered as not enough femininity. Against such restricted gender roles, two generations of female writers have risen during this period of time: The first generation mainly refers to female writers before the Civil War, such as, Susan Warner, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and E.D.E.N. Southworth. Their novels were published throughout mid-19th and 20th century, reflecting feminist expression in the United States feminism culture, which mainly focus on the worship of motherhood, the bondage of mother-daughter relationships and the intimate female friendships. 3.3 The Consciousness of Feminism in The Awakening In The Awakening, Chopin expressed her own feminine consciousness by describing the behaviors of the heroine Edna in the novel. Her own life style and attitude toward life gave her a point of view that was different from men. Chopin realized that women’s lives were different from men’s, and she had to personally investigate these differences. At the same time, with this view, she described their experiences from the inner world of women. This experience is almost limited to women’s knowledge, but neglected by men. So in The Awakening, Chopin called on women to strive for personal liberation and to have their own independent personality, independent personality and life value. Kate Chopin created the literary image of Edna, the heroine of The Awakening, to reveal the arduous process of women losing themselves under the patriarchal society, and finally seeking self-liberation and self-independence (陈丽华, 2016). Edna’s awakening journey is full of hardship, hesitation, hesitation and pain. She realized that her self-deficiency woke up, and she did not want to go to sleep again. She has the courage and ability to experience life and build her inner self. Swimming in the vast ocean is a demonstration of this courage and ability. The Awakening is a tragedy of feminist consciousness. In the current society, the main theme of feminism is no longer the traditional elimination of gender discrimination in social real life so that women can achieve full freedom and comprehensive development. It has transited to a new height: the realization of gender equality, construct women’s consciousness, and eradicate all inequality phenomena and systems on the earth(杨凤, 2009). 4. Images and Heroine’s Feminism Awakening 4.1 Bird in Cage: Before Awakening In The Awakening, the most representative image was the “bird in the cage”. Kate Chopin used the image of the “bird in the cage” to symbolize women who were imprisoned both in a husband-dominated family and also in a patriarchal society. Edna’s husband, Mr. Pontellier, was disgusted by the calls of parrots and thrushes in bird cages hanging outside the door. At the end of the novel, the image of bird comes back in the reader’s vision, representing a similar fate to our protagonist Edna. At the beginning of the novel, Chopin likens Edna to a bird in a gilded cage. Although they live comfortably, like the bird in the cage, they can only stay at home, obeying men’s orders and discriminated by the male, which make they lost the self and freedom. In the novel, Chopin describes three women’s houses in the city. The house of the Pontellier is two-story luxuriousand chic villa. The furniture decoration was made by her husband, which is his proud capital. He feels that “these properties belong to him”. For Mr. Pontellier, not only the property but also the wife and children in the house are his personal belongings. To Edna, Mrs. Lebron’s traditional home looks like a “prison”, making her reluctant to go there. However, when she visited Miss Rice, although her home was small and dirty, there were many windows, sunlight and air entering through the open windows, which let her yearn to visit again. Because Rice’s home is simple but full of freedom and hope. Returning to the city, Edna didn’t want to continue to be a bird in a cage again. She’s no longer satisfied with the monotonous life, so she determined to get rid of her husband’s shackles, and began to pursue do whatever you want, think whatever you want. She becomes addicted to music, which implies she wants to achieve financial independence and self-worth, for which she even moves to a “pigeon house”. Dove House unlike “cage”, the dove image symbolizes determination and the ability to overcome all difficulties in the West. Dove nest is also often used as a synonym for home. The Dove House is a place where Edna can breathe freely without feeling being controlled. Edna’s husband decided to leave Edna and took her children, giving Edna some time to consider. After that, Edna’s father came to visit Edna. The father’s arrival represents the last salvation of Edna by the patriarchal society. Edna’s father finally realized that his daughter would not change back to his little obedient bird, like most women of that era, sacrificing all her personal space for the family. At this time, the patriarchal society gave up completely to restore the dissidents of the society. Edna enjoyed her life after her family left. She even started a romantic relationship with Robin who is playboy. If at the beginning of the novel, Robert’s appearance represents Edna’s pursuit of love and romance’s fantasy, then Ann Robin’s appearance represents Edna’s satisfaction as a mature woman to her physical needs. The experience he gave Edna was something she never had from Robert. His eyes made her heart beat faster, and she couldn’t help kissing Robin. She couldn’t help thanking Robin for her presence, which gave her a different experience in her life. Edna’s love and demand for life implied that she fully realized that her body and spirit were no longer just her husband’s appendages. Her life belonged only to herself, and only she herself had the control over her destiny (熊珈仪, 2015). Whenever Edna found it difficult to bear the pressure of society, she would go to Miss Hertz’s house and listed quietly to Miss Hertz playing the piano. Sometimes, Edna wept while listening. At the night before moving out of the villa, Edna was suddenly frustrated and disappointed as she sat in the crowd for a meal. In fact, Edna had been living in depression for a long time, and the family life at the expense of self had made her yearn for peaceful and free days more. Deep inside Edna, she believed that Robert would not turn her into an accessory like her husband did. Therefore, she was also eager to start a new life with Robert. Deep in her heart, she understood that Robert respects and cares for her, she also believed that Robert has the same life as she longed for. It was this kind of hope that made Edna very excited after receiving a letter from Robert. At the same time, Edna was willing to wait for him to return. To sum up, before Edna’s idea awakened she lived like a bird in Cage of the patriarchal society. 4.2 Piano String Vibration: Awakening In The Awakening, the piano is used as an abstract image to give specific notes to the more subtle and ethereal meaning. The musical movements conveyed by the notes convey a rich associative relationship to the heroine Edna, reflecting the speciality in her emotional field. Edna is a music enthusiast, and her reliance on music is no less than that of her good friend Race who makes music as a spiritual dependency. Because music can naturally has a special function of inspiring and conveying human emotions, people have never hesitated to describe the uniqueness and beauty of music. And the characteristic of music is that it uses music movement as a medium to convey rich associative and linguistic connections. Through these connections, in the field of human emotions, it has projected thousands of emotional colors, directly or indirectly touching many aspects of human feelings(刘鸿瑜, 1995). Edna also communicated with Robert through music. Robert, was well aware of Edna’s hobby. He cared about her and understands Edna’s self-awakening road. He invited artist Reisz to play the piano for Edna, and even when he leaved, he still asked Reisz to play Edna’s favorite Chopin improvisation to comfort Edna’s injured heart. Listening to Reisz’s piano tunes while reading more letters from Robert was an unparalleled emotional experience. “The sound of the piano entered her body, like a warm and bright light, which illuminated the dark corners of her soul and brought her joy and ecstasy” (Chopin, 2003: 97). It’s not hard to see Edna hold a very strong emotional resonance with music and on the contrary music also had a profound influence on her ideology. Music belongs to her emotional color, and directly and sharply touches the deepest part of her emotional movement. 4.3 Broken-Winged Bird: After Awakening In The Awakening, the other cure image is the “broken-winged bird”, which symbolizes once hope has been broken. So Kate Chopin used the image of the “broken-winged bird” to represent a similar fate to our protagonist Edna who after self-liberation still haven’t escaped from the prison of a husband-dominated family and a patriarchal society. At the same time, it also pushes the novel to the most wonderful climax. The example of Chopin’s utilization of symbolism occurred nearing the end of the novel when Edna began her decent into the ocean and noticed “a bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water” (Chopin, 2003: 120). Chopin used the bird as a representation of Edna’s failure to completely attain her desires without shouldering her responsibilities as a mother and wife, and meeting the demands of society. Mademoiselle Reisz states previously in the novel that “the bird that would soar above the level of pain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings” (Chopin, 2003: 122), meaning that in order to defy the pressure, needs, and wants of society, one must have courage. Chopin leaves Edna with the idea that since she could never attain the free life that she envisioned for herself, she lacks strong wings. Edna’s suicide is her ultimate defiance against the expected role of women in the Victorian society, she alone decides to have the final say in her fate, not allowing for husband, children, or society to choose for her. Through the use of symbolism, Chopin portrays Edna’s longing to be free from the expectations of society. 5. Conclusion Kate Chopin used a large number of images to express the theme, showing the heroine’s spirit about female awareness, a unique emotional world, which is also the process of her self-consciousness and sexual awakening. The important images: birds, music and the sea provide Edna with nutrition and energy for her new life. It is also their existence that has helped Edna fully integrate into the imagery world, laying the groundwork and assistance for her awakening. To Edna, sleeping in ignorance and blind contentment was worse than awakening in pain. After awakening, she saw secular prejudices everywhere in this filthy world. She simply couldn’t tolerate independence, freedom, equality, and true love, so she resolutely chose death. Her death is a lamentation of her own destiny, a yearning for free love, and a complete resistance to the patriarchal society.In the era when women were not treated fairly, she thought about the meaning of her existence and the irrationality of social life, and made it clear and bold. question. For the good ideals in her heart, at the expense of her own life, Edna was a heroic martyr in the early women’s liberation movement.It can be said that Edna’s fate is a microcosm of the tragic fate of women in the patriarchal society of the 19th century, which is very representative. Because in the social environment at that time, women’s economy right was not independent, there was no status in the society, and they needed betraying their families and being abandoned by love, so these choices almost became their inevitable choice. Edna waked up, but she was still trapped in the patriarchal society. The end of her nakedness into the sea symbolized her ultimate freedom from all shackles, her freedom forever, her liberation and her rebirth. It also showed that the women’s pursuit of equality and freedom would become a trend of liberation. So, Chopin deserved to have been the representative vanguard of the feminist critical writer. She had superhuman insight into life. Using her writing, she had broken the fantasy of happy family and romantic love in a patriarchal society. The development of emancipation consciousness provides strong evidence. Edna is a woman with a strong sense of foresight and resistance. Edna did not “die”. References [1] Abrams M. H.. A Glossary of Literary Terms(7th)[M]. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999.　 [2] Chopin, Kate. The Awakening [M]. New York: Bantam, 2003. [3] Killeen, Jarlath. Mother and Child: Realism, Maternity, and Catholicism in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening[J]. Religion & the Arts, 2003(12): 12. [4] Pound, Ezra. 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