Abstract:

The Awakening is one of the representative works of a famous American female writer Kate Chopin. It focuses on the heroine Edna's pursuit of self-independence and freedom, and the transition from a traditional housewife into a new woman with strong feminist consciousness. So, Edna is a true feminist pioneer. By analyzing The Awakening，this paper intends to study the protagonist’s campaign against the fetters of conventional patriarchy in the male-dominated society and her struggle of pursuing selfhood and independence．

Keywords: The Awakening；feminism；freedom

摘  要：

《觉醒》是美国著名女作家凯特•肖邦的代表作品之一。《觉醒》主要讲述了女主人公埃德娜为了追求独立的自我和自由，从一个传统家庭妇女转变成一个具有强烈女性意识的新女性的过程。因此,埃德娜是一位真正的女性主义先驱者。本文通过对《觉醒》的分析，旨在研究女主人公埃德娜如何在男权社会中反对传统男权主义的束缚，以及她为追求独立的自我和自由所作出的努力。

关键词：《觉醒》；女性主义；自由

1 Introduction
1.1 A Brief Introduction of Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin was one of the most outstanding writers in the late nineteenth century in America. She was skilled in drawing the outline of simple, realistic social customs paintings. American “The Critic” wrote an article to praise that Chopin is a remarkable observer in Louisiana. It shows the readers freshness, peaceful and exotic landscape painting through her poetic and realistic style.
Kate Chopin was born in S .Louis; Missouri in 1850. Her father passed away when she was four. Her childhood was influenced by her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, all of whom were women stem from French Creole pioneers. In 1870, she married a wealthy Creole cotton farmer, Oscar Chopin. For the next decades, Chopin lived a wealthy life which is the recollection as the material for the novel The Awakening. After her husband died, she took charge of his plantation.
Because of the deaths of her husband and mother, Chopin found herself in a state of depression. Chopin found comfort in her friendship with Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer, her obstetrician. He introduced Chopin some writers such as Charles Darwin and Tomas Henry Huxley and encouraged her to write. He also thought that writing would be a sort of therapeutic healing process during her hard times because he said, "He understood that writing could be a focus point for her extraordinary energy, as well as a source of income". Chopin began to write to alleviate her pain.