A Challenge To The Patriarchy

In the late nineteenth century, the feminist consciousness of American women writers was on unprecedented upsurge. Kate Chopin was perhaps the most successful woman writer with the most outstanding achievements. Within ten years of her creative career, she produced two short story collections and two novels and became an established regionalist writer. In 1899, she published her masterpiece, The Awakening, in which she portrayed the figure of Edna, the representative of the New Woman who rejects the traditional role of mother woman and pursues personal freedom and independence. However, in an era when traditional forces were still prevailing and overwhelmingly powerful, both Chopin and the novel received vehemently adverse and hostile attacks. With the development of women's movement in the 1960s, the novel was rediscovered and came to be considered something of a landmark in the nineteenth century American literature.In this thesis I adopt the feminist perspective to expose the oppression that the female protagonist suffers in a patriarchal society and explore the heroine's awakening and rebellion. Chapter One consists of two sections: the first section is a brief sketch of the historical and biological contexts of the novel and its author; the second is a presentation of the theoretical groundwork-feminism. Chapter Two provides a general examination of how patriarchalism works in the novel. After an examination of feminist definition of the term patriarchy, I offer an analysis the traditional patriarchal ideology, matrimonial institution, religion and law as represented in the novel. Chapter Three offers an analysis of the process of the female protagonist's awakening. Chapter Four explores how the heroine challenges the patriarchal ideology by taking revolutionary initiatives. Despite the restrictions and confinement composed by convention of her time, Edna wins her freedom and independence. Her suicide is not a demonstration of her weakness nor concession; instead, it is the manifesto of her fearless struggle for freedom and independence.Chapter Five concludes by restating the significance of Edna's awakening and rebellion and the contribution Chopin has made to the forming of American women's literature.