Analysis Of The Female Characters In The Awakening

Kate Chopin (1850-1904) is a famous woman writer in America in the 19th century. The themes of her works include love, marriage, independence, freedom, concern for women etc.Kate lived in a time when her surroundings included the abolitionist movements and the emergence of feminism. Kate took strong interest in her surroundings and put many of her observations to words. She was nonetheless a woman who took women extremely seriously, she never doubted women's ability to be strong. Her sympathies lay with the individual in the context of his and her personal life and society.The Awakening is a very controversial novel. It was published on April 22,1899. The novel was widely condemned all over America on moral grounds and Kate Chopin was denied membership in a local arts club. Critics called it morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable. It was banished for decades afterward.However, after 1969, when a biography sympathetic to The Awakening was published, along with an edition of her complete works, Kate Chopin became known throughout the world. In this novel, Edna, the protagonist, is the wife of a successful businessman, Leonce. She spends much of her time with a close friend named Adele Ratignolle who is a typical mother-woman, whereas Reisz seems to be a soul teacher to Edna. Later, Edna meets Robert Lebrun, who is the son of the woman managing the cottages on Grand Isle. Robert and Edna get to know each other better and better. Towards the end of the vacation, they begin to fall passionately in love with each other. However, Robert realizes this relationship is ultimately a forbidden love, and leaves Edna in the end. Edna feels desperate and hopeless so she goes to the sea and drowns.This thesis will focus on the living status of the three female characters:Edna, Adele and Reisz and analyze them on the basis of the Hierarchy of Needs Theory of Maslow who is a famous humanistic psychologist in the field of psychology. This paper consists of five parts. In the first part, there is an introduction of the writer Kate Chopin and her novel The Awakening. The second part illustrates the psychological theory which the paper is based on and its founder Psychologist Maslow. In the third part, the three female characters are concretely analyzed according to the Hierarchy of Needs Theory. The fourth part compares the protagonist Edna with the other two female characters:Adele and Reisz on the basis of each hierarchy. The final part is the conclusion of this thesis. Through a psychological analysis of the main female characters in the novel, the paper veritably reflects the fact that how people's basic needs influence their behaviors when they are in a status of satisfaction or deficiency. A deep understanding of people's basic needs and their importance will help people know and actualize themselves more completely.