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摘 要

本文运用文本细读的方法来分析《觉醒》中所体现出的凯特肖邦的婚恋家庭伦理观。通过结合小说发生年代的社会背景以及女性当时的社会地位，从婚恋家庭伦理的角度来分析《觉醒》中出现的艾德娜与庞德烈的夫妻关系、艾德娜与罗伯特的恋人关系以及通过对比庞德烈家庭和拉蒂诺尔家庭的成员关系来发现人物关系之间存在的伦理问题，探讨由于当时社会父权制的影响造成伦理失衡，最后总结出凯特肖邦的婚恋家庭伦理观。本文旨在提醒人们勇于追求自由和真爱以及需要意识到父母的表率作用对子女成长的重要性。

关键词：凯特肖邦；《觉醒》；婚恋伦理；家庭伦理

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Kate Chopin and her works 1

1.2 Close reading and the study of significance 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. The Background of The Awakening 3

4. The Love and Marriage Ethics in The Awakening 5

4.1 The loveless marriage -Edna and Mr.Pontellier 5

4.2 The pursuit of free love -Edna and Robert 7

5. The Family Ethics in The Awakening 9

6. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

1.1 Kate Chopin and her works

Kate Chopin (1850-1904), an American female writer, is famous for the portrayal of daring images of woman in her novels and short stories. Her novel The Awakening is famous today around the world. She is considered as the one of the America’s essential authors.

After the death of her father when Kate Chopin was four, she was brought up by her mother and grandmother. They were both French and Kate Chopin was deeply influenced by them. In her family the different languages, cultures and values existed. The French culture and literature had much influences on her thinking shown in her works.

From 1889 to 1902, she focused on writing short stories for both adults and children. And the short stories were published in many famous magazines. Her short stories collections Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897) had received much praise among the critics in America. Until in 1899 The Awakening was published she suffered much condemn. In the novel her description of the sexual consciousness of heroine in the sympathetic tone shocked the American reviewers and readers. The novel was even taken off from the shelf of the library.

The Awakening is a novel about the heroine Edna who dares to pursue free life and love regardless of her marriage and family. At the end of the 19th century, her family has a vacation on Grand Isle. After meeting Robert who is gentle, caring and totally different with her husband, Edna’s female consciousness begins to awaken. When her family come back to New Orleans, Edna can not tolerate her marriage any more. She has many changes and does not want to live like before. She decides to move into the pigeon house and breaks off relations with her family. Although Edna wants to have free love, Robert leaves due to the oppression of society of that time. At last Edna chooses to end her life in the sea. The heroine Edna is a tragedy of the times.

1.2 Close reading and the study of significance

In literary criticism, the term close reading describes the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of a text. A close reading emphasizes the single and the particular over the general, affected by close attention to individual words, the syntax, and the order in which the sentences unfold ideas, as the reader scans the line of text. Close reading was technically developed by the New Critics of the mid-twentieth century, and so became the fundamental method of modern criticism.

Close reading is a kind of reading in semantics and its characteristics are as follows. Close reading is centered on the text. It emphasizes that the text itself is an independent existence. Literary criticism is description and comments on the woks. When referring the real intention of the authors, researching the works is necessary. The intention realized in the works is the real intention. It also stresses the relationship between text language and thought and if the thoughts, feelings, tones and intention of text language can be mastered, the meaning of works can be seen.

Close reading emphasizes that the context has influence on semantic analysis. It thinks that context is very important in understanding the deep meaning of words. In the context there are varies relationships between certain word, sentence or paragraph and context. This kind of relationship determines the specific meaning of certain word, sentence and paragraph. It also regards the internal organizational structure of context as the key point. The research of literary background, environment and external cause can not solve the problems including the description, analysis and comments of the works.

The Awakening is a controversial fiction with feminism. The heroine Edna is the main study object. When researching The Awakening, the author Kate Chopin is always ignored. The thesis chooses the angle of the love, marriage and family ethics to make an interpretation of the novel using the way of close reading. People pay less attention on the feelings of Kate Chopin so that no one has yet written it.

2. Literature Review

Kate Chopin, is a U.S. known writer who is good at short stories and novels. She is now considered as a forerunner of the feminist authors of the 20th century. Her works are typical feminist works, reflecting the female consciousness awakening.

The Awakening tells about a married woman who wants to pursue her free life and love. Once The Awakening appeared in 1899, the work and the author suffered much condemn. The Awakening attracted much attention until the 1950s. In 1960s as the feminist movement set off the second high tide in America, The Awakening is regarded as an outstanding work full of female and critical consciousness. Since then, studies on Chopin’s novels have gone deeply into many aspects, such as feminism, female awakening and female consciousness.

In domestic, some scholars have paid attention to her works from the following aspects. Feminism is the most distinct feature of her fictions. Sun Shengzhong’s article published in Foreign Literature studies the female awakening from the points of dual personality and unreal dream of Edna. And another article focuses on the novel with the method of ethical literary criticism from the perspective of western feminism. Ren Haiyan from Nanjing University attempts to reveal that Chopin’s portrayal of the awakening of female consciousness is for the sake of presenting the awakening of subjectivity and human being’s solitude. Han Hongying praises the awakening of female self-awareness and sex awareness by reciting the theme and social meaning in the novel. From aesthetic and philosophic perspectives Wan Xuemei analyzes transcending the conflict between life and death by using both Lao Zhuang’s and Thoreau’s ideas on nature.

In short, although many studies have been made of her works, there seems to be few articles mentioning about the love, marriage and family ethics of Kate Chopin. What’s more, studies on The Awakening are numbered. So it is necessary to spend time researching the love, marriage and family ethics from the perspective of close reading.

3. The Background of The Awakening

In 19^th century American women are in a time of gender inequalities. Although women have their own legal, social and political rights in some degree, they still have no rights to vote for something and to prosecute or be prosecuted. They cannot appear in court as a witness and they almost lose their control to their private property in the marriage. When the couple divorces, women are seldom given the legal guardianship of their children. They are even not allowed in higher education institutions. The woman still should submit to their husbands and fathers. The choices of jobs for them are very limited. Women of higher class often take care of their children and family at home while women of lower class choose to work in factories. But their income is not so satisfactory.

America has undergone the second industrial revolution which brings great changes to the country. With the rapid development of Urbanization, industrialization and market economy, the number of middle class has rapid growth and people can live much longer. But at the same time social contradiction is increasing. The traditional lifestyle is changed and Puritan morality suffers big shock. The political, economic and social status of American women begins to have great changes.

In the beginning of the 19^th century, the family often worked together in their own small family factory for making a living. When the economy grew quickly and the big enterprises and cities began to transfer, American families worked outside their home instead of working in their own family factory. The males were the persons who support their families and the females should stay at home to take care of their children and families, clean and cook. In that time women was strictly restricted in some range of morals and they could not resist any more.

The background of The Awakening is the first period of high tides of American feminist movement. In 1860s, with the appearance of feminist movement American women were fighting for more rights of receiving education and a better working environment. But in the patriarchal society the role of women could not be easily changed. Women who were devoted to the feminist movement were not so much. Most of them were in accordance with the mode arranged and designed by men in their small living space. In the turn of the century, American women especially in the middle class were warned that they must strictly comply with the principles of morality and purity. American ethics defined women as the accessories of men, and their status were decided by the relationship with men.

“Women in middle class began to actively take part in social activities and their minds became aware and open. Countless restrictions and fetters were challenged by women.” (Wang 137) In addition, female organization provided opportunities for their receiving education and broadening their horizon. The New Women began to occur in the American history. “The New Women are named by feminist in England , and now it is used to refer the new-style and self-conscious young ladies.” (Schaffer 40)

During the first feminist movement with the awakening of rational self-consciousness, American women were challenging the patriarchal society. “American women of this period obviously showed the independence of modern women, and the biggest features were the pursuit of individuality, freedom, confidence and innovation.” (Rosenberg 63) They urgently required the equal status and rights with men in the fields of politics, economy and society. There were huge differences between man and woman. Therefore woman got rights in some fields, their traditional role still had not changed.

4. The Love and Marriage Ethics in The Awakening

The love and marriage ethics are moral ideas with the combination of male and female and the combination ways. The ideas of love and marriage ethics are developing and changing with the birth of human and development of the society. The ideas of ethics exist since the birth of human society.

When referring to the love and marriage ethics, love morals and marriage morals can not be avoided. Various concepts of people’s lives are involved in the range of ethics. Marriage ethics are basic ethical relationship between male and female for reproduction from generation to generation. In modern society people all believe that love is the basis of marriage. Men and women decide to get married because they fall in love with each other, not for profits or family reasons. In successful marriage love is not yet enough, and the couple relationships are more important. Tolerance, trust, equality and respect can bring happy and harmonious marriage.

4.1 The loveless marriage -Edna and Mr.Pontellier

In The Awakening Edna is a smart and sensitive woman and she has an enviable family. Her husband is recognized as the best one and she has much money at her disposal. Edna ought to be happy in her marriage life because her husband is subordinate to her and she also has two clever and cute children. But Edna is not a traditional woman who should act as a good wife and loving mother. She is completely different from Adele who loves her children, serves her husband wholeheartedly and is a family-oriented housewife. Piano is not Adele’s interest or hobby but she can play it for her children to cultivate their taste and build artistic atmosphere in her family. She always caters to her husband’s topics and opinions. Edna will never become that kind of woman. Edna has a lot of dreams in her inner world and she thinks that “I would give up the essential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself.” (Chopin 90)

In the novel when Mr. Pontellier looked at Edna who just came back from the sea he said, “Your skin burned so much that I can’t even recognize you!” (Chopin 3) He looked at Edna “as if his precious treasure had just been destroyed.” (Chopin 3)In the eyes of the husband, the wife is just like a home furnishing, and is his private property. Edna must meet her husband’s need. In the patriarchal society, Edna is only the accessory of her husband without freedom.

During the vacation in Grand Isle the behavior of Mr. Pontellier is very strange. He can not adapt to the environment and doesn’t want to accompany Edna. He would rather play billiards to kill time. They are lack of the emotional communication. This kind of relationship between them is an affiliation. Mr. Pontellier wants to control everything and thinks that Edna is a part of his possession. All the behaviors and words which may threaten Mr. Pontellier’s rights of controlling are not allowed to take place. In the novel Mr. Pontellier’s pursuit to money is crazy and he protects all he possesses. The origin is the patriarchal society and it leads the ultimate broken marriage.

When Edna begins to change with her attitudes towards her husband and children, Mr. Pontellier chooses to visit Doctor Mandelet. In 19^th century, women who have feminist thoughts are sick. Mr. Pontellier only cares about his profits and wealth but is not responsible for his wife and life. Everything he does is to protect his economy profits. It can be seem in which he does in newspaper. To Mr. Pontellier, his wife’s disloyalty and others’ comments on his marriage are unimaginable. Mr. Pontellier is closely related to money and greed. In her life Edna is not an emotional one and between the twenty-eight years she is largely influenced by her husband and family. The experience on Grand Isle lets her awaken and realizes that the life is so unsatisfactory that she decides to move out from her house and paint to make a living by herself.

4.2 The pursuit of free love -Edna and Robert

During the summer on Grand Isle Robert and Edna meet and fall in love with each other. Robert’s accompanying lets Edna have a different attitude to her present life. Edna thinks that her life becomes complete and new desires arise. With love she is not only satisfied with a good wife and mother and begins to pursue freedom and independence. Mr. Pontellier is busy with his work and ignores Edna’s life. Edna has to seek comfort from Robert.

Active Robert seems to care much about their relationship but Edna always tries to avoid his hospitality. When Edna draws Madame Ratignolle, Robert wants to hug Edna but is refused. Robert is a glib person and often talks about his own emotion to others. When he is faced with Edna he becomes honest because he thinks that Edna is different from other married women. Edna tells Madame Ratignolle about her good feeling to Robert. Madame Ratignolle’s warning lets Robert become angry and he thinks that he is falling love with Edna. But the reality is that Edna’s status can not allow their love become public.

In a party Robert invites Ms. Reisz to play piano for Edna. The music is so touching that Edna can not control her tears. At that time Robert helps her releasing her emotion. Edna is used to rely on Robert. Gradually Edna becomes the active one but Robert is afraid of this change and decides to leave Edna. Although Robert loves Edna, he has to leave and thinks his decision is rational. Robert has to surrender to morality. What he does makes Edna realize that her dream is broken.

In the opening environment of Grand Isle and influences of creoles’ kindness and enthusiasm, Edna’s nature is gradually awaken. When Edna and Adele are walking on the beach, Edna tells her childhood memory under the gentle touch of Adele. This is the first time that Edna is willing to communicate with others and it provides an opportunity to let Edna release her emotion that is deeply hidden in her heart.

Robert has helped teach Edna to swim. For Edna swimming is a kind of symbol, a symbol of new birth and freedom. The Sea lets Edna feel satisfied with her body and feeling and it also brings her the courage and independence. And the music of Ms.Reisz makes Edna’s emotion release again and Edna realizes that she can act as an artist to begin with her new life. When family and career have conflicts, she is confused and has to make a choice. To be an artist and a person who can dares to pursue her real love is more attractive to her.

Adele or Ms. Reisz cannot become the example of Edna. Edna is different from Ms. Reisz because she doesn’t want to give up her love just for art. She can’t continue to tolerant the boring, loveless and passionless marriage. Edna is different from Adele because Adele has nothing apart from her husband and children. The new life gives Edna much motivation and courage to paint and brings her new emotional experience. She wants to be a successful artist and also needs a lover who can understand and support her.

Edna can’t tolerate the boring and loveless marriage any more and wants to devote to a new kind of passionate life. She wants to choose her lover according to her willing. Robert’s appearance arouses Edna’s strong desires to love. Gentle and caring Robert lets Edna realize that she is a real woman. But Robert’s abandon makes her come back to the cruel reality. To realize her dreams and pursue true love, she has made enormous sacrifices. She has abandoned her traditional role and broken social and religious customs. She hopes that she can receive understanding and support. Robert loves her but can’t understand her. He can’t fight against holy marriage with her and chooses to leave her. In the ending of the novel Edna is in desperation and comes back to the sea. She just likes"A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water." (Chopin 165)

Although there are some love tragedies in the history, people’s pursuit of love and marriage has never stopped. What does love mean? It means that a person can be happy for his/her happiness and can do everything that he/she needs to do to make the partner more happily. And he/she can get pleasure from it. Marriage is the best ending of love. Love should listen to the heart and can not be changed with external constraint and other features. In The Awakening the relationships between the characters are not so satisfying. They are influenced by their own profits or the moral ethics of patriarchal society. In the society of that time any feminist thoughts can not be tolerated and finally it leads to Edna’s tragedy. Kate Chopin aims to awaken people that marriage without equality and respect may lead to an unhappy ending and people should pursue the real love.

5. The Family Ethics in The Awakening

Marital relations are the basic relations in family ethics. Couples should be equal, love and respect each other and if they can stick to the marital ethics they will have a happy life. Hegel has pointed out"Marriage is the ethical love with legal meaning." (Hegel 102) The marriage between Edna and Mr. Pontellier is not based on love and this leads to the final tragedy.

Family is considered as the cell of the society and is a basic form of social organization. In ethics the lifestyle of a family and the relationship between members are frequently explored. In a family the handling of parent-child relationship is very important. The behaviors of parents in daily lives have huge influences on children including the aspect of ethical morality.

"Love is the core principles in family ethics. It includes equality, respect and the consolidation of rights and obligations. Understanding and care also can not be ignored." (Wang 30) When dealing with the relationship between parents and children, some principles can not be ignored. Equality is important because the old, the young, the male and the female should be treated equally and they should respect each other. Do not force children to do what they don’t want to do. The love of parents is so essential for their children that can influence the way how they deal with the problems when they enter into the society.

In the novel Mr. Pontellier is always busy with his work and doesn’t care his wife and children. He only cares about his career and profits. What he can satisfies his sons are snacks that he brings back. Edna is not a traditional woman that can take good care of children and family in every aspect. “If the boys hurt themselves while playing, they would not come crying to their mother for help. Instead, they would simply get back on their feet and continue to play.” (Chopin 13) The nurse accompanies the boys much longer than their parents.

Mrs. Pontellier is not a very motherly mother. All of the other mothers are the type who never stopped protecting their children. No injury is too small for them to get upset about. For them, their children are the most precious things in the world. So they see their main purpose in life is to watch over them as carefully as possible. A woman named Adele Ratignolle is this kind of mother. She sews clothing for her children to protect the children from the freezing air. Edna can not understand the behavior of Mrs. Ratignolle and she thinks this is a bit too much.

Her feelings for her children are not always the same. She loves them, of course, but there are times when she hardly ever thinks about them. When the boys are not around, she would suddenly miss them greatly, but the feelings soon are replaced by a sense of comfort and freedom. When their family returns to New Orleans Edna is agitated and finds drawing is the only thing that can interest her. She cares her children and family much less than before. This leads to Mr. Pontellier’s dissatisfaction. As parents Edna and Mr. Pontellier are not so responsible. The nurse plays the role of parents who should accompany and take care of the boys.

The Pontellier family is not a satisfactory family. The father is always wholeheartedly devoted to his career and cares little about his sons and wife. The mother is busy with her own pursuit of freedom and independence. They both ignore the feeling of their children. They are the irresponsible parents that can not be accepted by the society. Perfect family may have a good atmosphere in which parents and children should be with mutual respect and be deeply attached to each other. And parents should set a good example for their children and let children feel their deep love.

6. Conclusion

As a female writer, Kate Chopin observes the world through her eyes and talks about life from her perspective. The Awakening is a story about man and woman, love and marriage, family and society.

The thesis, analyzing Kate Chopin’s love, marriage and family ethics in The Awakening, is divided into three parts. Firstly, it tells about the ethical background of the work. With the beginning of industrial revolution, industrialization and urbanization continuously develops and the social contradiction begins to aggravate. More and more women seek their own rights and fight for freedom and independence. Secondly, Kate Chopin’s love and marriage ethics are put forward by analyzing the marriage of Edna and Mr. Pontellier and the unacceptable love between Edna and Robert. In the patriarchal society women are the personal properties of men. The appearance of Robert lets Edna begin to change so she can not tolerate her marriage any more. She moves to her own space and looks forward to free love and life. But in that society it is unrealistic and she chooses to end her life in the sea. Finally, it talks about the family relationship in The Awakening. There are happy and harmonious families. But the family which has many hidden problems also exists. Parents fight for their own career or freedom and even do not care the feelings and needs of their children. The family may has huge influence on the whole life of children.

Kate Chopin’s love, marriage and family ethics can be seen from the analyses of the thesis. The marriage without love, trust and respect may lead to irretrievable tragedy. The pursuit of free love will not stop. The importance of happy and harmonious family life is stressed. Woman’s desire for the value of self-awareness, self-realization and self-liberation should be encouraged and praised.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: The Ungar Publishing Company, 1981.

阚鸿鹰： 《lt;觉醒gt;：女性性意识觉醒的先声》. 西南民族大学学报（人文社科版），2005（9）: 23-28.

[Han Hongyin. The Awakening: Harbinger of the Awakening of Woman’s Consciousness. Journal of Southwest University (Human and Social Science Edition), 2005（9）: 23-28.]

黑格尔：《法哲学原理》. 范杨，张企泰译. 北京：商务印书馆，1982: 102-110.

[Hegel. Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Translated by Fan Yang and Zhang Qitai. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1982: 102-110.]

Rosenberg, Rosalind. American Women in the Twentieth Century. New York: Hill and Wang, 1992.

任海燕：《一个孤独灵魂的觉醒-论凯特肖邦的lt;觉醒gt;》. 湖南科技大学学报(社会科学版)，2007（10）: 42-45.

[Ren Haiyan. The Awakening of a Solitude soul: on Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Journal of Hunan University of Science and Technology (Social Science Edition), 2007（10）: 42-45.]

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