包头师范学院
本科毕业论文
An Analysis of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
from the Point of Ecofeminism
从生态女性主义角度分析凯特·肖邦的《觉醒》 学 生 姓 名：罗 庆 霞 学 院：外 国 语 学 院 专 业：英 语
班 级：2 0 0 9级 本 科6班 指 导 教 师：钟 豆 梅
二 ○ 一 三 年 五 月
Abstract
Kate Chopin is widely recognized as an outstanding American writer, for she is one of the few women writers who bravely attacks the male-centered society of the nineteenth century in their works. Her masterpiece The Awakening, created at the end of the nineteenth century when the patriarchal ideology prevailed, mainly depicts the female protagonist Edna’s awakening of the selfhood. It is worthy of the recognition as a canon of feminist literature.
This writer intends to analyze The Awakening from an ecofeminist point of view. In the first part, the paper gives introduction on the author Kate Chopin and the book. The second part describes the general survey of the ecofeminism development and the main viewpoint of ecofeminism. The third part explains the relationship between man and nature from an ecofeminism point of view. It explains that people just want to get profit by controlling and destroying nature. However, female care about the nature more than male. They sympathize animals and they like nature. The fourth part mainly talks about three different females in this novel. They lived in the same period of time, but they had different lives. The last part makes a conclusion. Key words: ecofeminism; nature; awakening; woman
摘 要
凯特·肖邦是美国文学史上杰出的女作家。她之所以能够跻身于19世纪美国小说名家之列，在于她的作品折射出女性主义的光辉。她是少数在作品中对19世纪男权社会进行大胆抨击的女性作家之一。凯特·肖邦的巅峰之作《觉醒》创作于19世纪末以父权为纲的时代，描写的是女性自我意识的觉醒，是当之无愧的女性主义文学经典之作。
本文将从生态女性主义的角度分析《觉醒》这部小说。第一部分介绍凯特·肖邦和这部小说。第二部分叙述了生态女性主义的发展及生态女性主义的主要观点。第三部分从生态女性主义的角度解释人与自然的关系。男人只是想通过控制和毁坏自然来和获得利益，然而，女性则更关心自然。她们同情动物，喜欢自然。第四部分主要讲述这部小说中的三位女性角色。她们生活在同一时期却又不一样的人生。最后一部分是本文的结论。
关键词：生态女性主义；自然；觉醒；妇女
Contents
Abstract 摘 要
I. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 II. Ecofeminism ..................................................................................................................... 2
A. A General Survey of the Ecofeminism Development ................................................ 2 B. The Main Viewpoints of Ecofeminism ...................................................................... 3 III. The Ecofeminism Exploration of Man-Nature Relationship in The Awakening............. 3 A. Nature as the Victim .................................................................................................. 4 B. The Connection between Female and Nature ............................................................ 5 IV. The Ecofeminism Exploration of the Heroines in Patriarchy Society ............................. 7
A. The Revolting Edna ................................................................................................... 7 B. The Perfect Adele ......................................................................................................11 C. The Freak Reisz ....................................................................................................... 13 V. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 15 Works Cited ......................................................................................................................... 17
I. Introduction
Kate Chopin (1851-1904) who stepped on the American public stage in the late 19th century began her life as Kate O’Flaherty, born in St. Louis in 1851. Kate Chopin is a sensitive and intuitive nature-lover who often hymns the nature in her works. As Darwin maintains that all life began in water and that this life perpetuates itself through reproduction, Chopin believes nature’s “undying urge” contains a spiritual importance, thus it makes perfect sense that her heroines obtain the free individuality with the inspiration from nature. The controversial novel The Awakening is quite ahead of its time with its modern concerns and the brilliant setting as well as ambiguous characterization and symbolic imagery offers a profound space to interpret. It is indeed a gold mine for us to explore deeper into its core.
It largely attracts feminist critics for its devastating portrait of Victorian marriage and the discovery of Edna Pontellier’s talent, sexuality and individuality. The Awakening is a story of what happens when a woman does not accept her place at home. The novel moves us because it illustrates the need for women’s psychological, physical, social and sexual emancipation: the goals of feminists in the twentieth. As Chopin depicted Edna’s sexual awakening like a product of a biological imperative, the footprints of Darwinism and naturalism is also obvious. Nevertheless, the ecofeminism approach seldom touches Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. The ecofeminism declares that the same existing victimized position of females and nature under patriarchal system is the link between women and nature. In The Awakening, Chopin demonstrates homologous oppressions to women and nature and reveals the patriarchal system as the root of that dual subjugation.
This paper attempts to explore The Awakening from ecofeminism perspective with the purpose to reveal the relationship between human beings and nature and the female who were dominated by the man. In the first part, the author gives introduction on Kate Chopin and the book. The second part describes the general survey of the ecofeminism development and the main viewpoint of ecofeminism. The third part explains the
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relationship between man and nature from an ecofeminism point of view. Here, the author talks about that people just want to get profit by controlling and destroying nature. However, female cares the nature more than male. They sympathize animals and they like nature. The fourth part mainly talks about three different females in this novel. They lived in the same period time, but they had disparate lives. The last part makes a conclusion.
II. Ecofeminism
With the development of ecocrticism in late 20th century, ecofminism theory made its presence in literary studies. In the broadest sense, ecofeminism is a distinct social movement that blends theory and practice to reveal and eliminate the causes of the dominations of women and of nature.
A. A General Survey of the Ecofeminism Development
Ecofeminism is a social and political movement that sees a critical connection between the domination of nature and the exploitation of women. It emerged in the mid-1970s alongside the second-wave feminism and was hailed as the third wave of feminism. Ecofeminism developed as a theory and an activist position in response to the feminist, ecological and peace movements and as recognition of the strength of female participation. Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein explain that
Ecofeminism is a term that some use to describe both the diverse range of women’s efforts to save the earth and the transformation of feminism in the west that have resulted from the new view of women and nature...as the [seventies] advanced and as women began to understand how the larger culture’s devaluation of natural process was a product of masculine consciousness. (Murphy 48)
Ecofeminist activism grew during the 1980s and 1990s among women from anti-nuclear and environmental movements. The “Women and Life on Earth: Ecofeminism in the Eighties” conference held at Amherst was the first in a series of ecofeminist conferences, inspiring the growth of ecofeminist organizations and actions.
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Ecofeminism as an academic discourse did not develop until the mid to late 1980s. It finally came into literary studies in the 1990s as critics began to develop the insights of ecofeminism as a component of literary criticism. As a result, the reinterpretation of works by women demonstrating ecological sensibilities and proto-ecofeminist and ecofeminist themes has been, and continuous to be given more attention, particularly in women’s studies and women’s literature courses. B. The Main Viewpoints of Ecofeminism
As mentioned above, ecofemnism highlights the inner relationship between women and nature and reveals how woman and nature are marginalized and reduced to aphasia condition. “It stresses the inner link between women and nature in order to pursue the harmonious gender relations and to renew the relationship between man and nature” (Gaad 45). Thus, the term ecofeminist combines Women’s Movement and conservation of nature together. The essence of ecofeminist which aims to struggle with the male-cultural values is targeting at anthropocentrism as well as the male patriarchal society. The main claims of ecofeminism are as follows.
(1) The oppression of women and the denigration of nature are caused for the similar reasons and women are closer to nature.
(2) Ecofeminism argues against patriarchal ideologies and anthropocentrism.
(3) Ecofeminism calls for social and natural diversity for a healthy
interconnected web.
(4) Ecofeminism claims science, technology and development are tools and
products of patriarchal dominance. (King 15)
III. The Ecofeminism Exploration of Man-Nature Relationship in The Awakening The ecofeminists hold faith in the homologous domination of woman and nature by criticizing the dualistic method under patriarchal society, in which nature diminished to victimized position by being over exploited and violently destructed, at the same time,
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women dropped to inferior position by being enforced or assimilated to obey patriarchal rules.
A. Nature as the Victim
In the novel, Kate Chopin bears an ecological awareness that presents the men-dominated nature in human’s pursuit of money in the process of modern industrial civilization. Edna is a main witness of man’s domination over nature.
Men, labeled the brand of “master of all things”, were seemingly entitled to utilize and damage nature willfully with the fake excuse that nature is born to be entertained and to serve for humankind. Therefore, nature is disappointedly disappearing during the trend of industrialization and modernization. The entire description of Mr. Pontellier’s presentation by Chopin throughout the novel is sufficiently typical American businessman before readers. Chopin drew up about the modern men who become “half corpse” and “less than humanness” in that they are over-conscious in the money, social and political side but the intuitive side. Mr Pontellier is the representative of material and money. As a stock agent, his hands are always filled with the brokerage business.
The goal of Mr Pontellier’s whole life is to amass material possessions. His only interest lies in making money. His motto is “The way to become rich is to make money, not to save it” (Chopin 71). He was truly an astute merchant who leaded a materialistic-oriented life, for he was so acquainted with the market reports even though the newspapers had not yet met his reading needs. He was a typical magnate who accomplished abashedly this kind of industrial success and he was also the one marching among the constructing troop, which promoted the industrialization to be progressive with human’s infinite desirable profits and their causes for the massive exploitation. It consequently brings out the denaturing behaviors without considering the sustainable development in the future.
Man’s greedy pursuit seems never to stop. “Men not only exploit natural resources to meet their economic demands but also take animals for their entertainment. Animals are reduced to something entertaining and pleasing” (Mellor 33). The green and yellow parrot
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appeared at the outset of the novel, which ought to sing freely in the thick and picturesque forest, but only hung miserably in a cage “outside the door, kept repeating over and over: Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That’s all right” (Chopin 1)! However, when hearing this persistent maddening resistance from the birds, Mr. Pontellier does not bear any sympathy for the poor animals. Yet he arises with an expression and an exclamation of disgust for the birds disturbed his newspaper reading. Obviously, in the eye of Mr Pontellier, “The parrot and the mocking bird were the property of Madame Lebrun, and they had the right to make all the noise they wished. Mr. Pontellier has the privilege of quiting their society when they ceased to be entertaining” (1). He never respected the birds as creatures but only plaything. He saw nature as just a matter that men have the right to take advantage of.
Furthermore, New Orleans is a city where the protagonists settled down. In spite of no amount of depiction on prosperity in this industrialized setting directly, the reader could also peep at it as a commercial metropolis. The city for men is a battlefield to gallop as well as a hunting ground to massacre.
All in all, the marching processes of industrialization and modernization have not done much good to our reliable planet. The instrument they adopted to attain money including science and technology all lead to the disaster of nature such as pollution, global warming, over exploitation and destruction. The more severe consequence not only lies on the destroying home behavior but also relate to the distorted relationship between nature and human by regarding man’s natural distinct. The ecofemminists believe that the science and technology are the tools of patriarchal society. With the development of industrialization and mechanical civilization, not only the forests and farm land are polluted, but also man’s natural instinct degenerates and the harmonious relationship between man and nature is destroyed.
B. The Connection between Female and Nature
The process of Edna’s awakening is one that turns a numb and unconscious existence of her soul and body into an integrated one. Therefore, she oscillates between the
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society (including her social circle) and nature (including frequently the sea, the garden,etc.) She is driven by the unknown impulse to extract vitality and energy from the natural world.
The novel starts with the image of caged parrot speaking “a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood” and “a mocking-bird” “that hung on the other side of the door, whisting his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence” (1). As the property of Madame Lebrun, the parrot and the mocking bird has “the right to make all the noise they wished” (1). While Mr. Pontellier has “the privilege of quitting their society when they ceased to be entertaining” (1).
Flying freely in the sky, birds are usually a symbol of beautiful objects, leaving cheerful association to people. However, the parrot and the mocking-bird are deprived of the freedom of flying in the natural world though they have wings, scarcely perform practical function. They have no companions or friends. They are separated from the world they belong to, speaking an alien language. The parrot seems to have the similar fate as the heroine Edna Pontellier, who is confined into the housewifery duties with nobody truly understands her thoughts. Her solitude is the same as that of the parrot, who has no companion to understand its language and intention.
The sea plays an important role in the course of Edna’s awakening. Actually, the sea nearly runs through the whole book. The sea is captivating. To come into its embrace is to approach the pure nature and genuine human nature. Chopin describes the sea from various aspects: “the voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting, etc.; the touch is sensuous, soft, embracing, like slow and white serpent, etc; the sight includes froth and foamy crests; and the odor is seductive ”(14). In the sea, the heroine Edna begins her meditation of self knowledge and eventually accomplishes her pursuit of ideal destination. The sea also gives rebirth to Edna through her death. She is awake ahead of her Era, so to awaken is to die and to awaken for her. Each time has a sort of journey into the sea, her mind changes. Until the final immersion, her journey of awakening fulfills.
Actually, the revolt against the nature of the society cannot part from the influence or
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inspiring of nature. The revolt is in effect a new demand from nature, i.e., touching nature rather than separating from or conquering nature.
IV. The Ecofeminism Exploration of the Heroines in Patriarchy Society
Apparently, nature has been objectified and subordinated by the traditional patriarchal ideology, yet which also inferiorized women.Val Plumwood argues that “it is not women’s inherent characteristics but the patriarchal dualism which exteriorized women who are universalized as passive, emotional, sensitive and fragile human beings while men represent the active, mechanistic, intellectual, the analytical and the linear.” (Val Plumwood 42) Therefore, women for centuries are put in the secondary citizens subject to the patriarchal authority as nature controlled by human beings.
Chopin is the typical keen writer to expose women’s victimized position finely in her works especially in her controversial fiction The Awakening. Mr. Pontellier’s famous gaze at his wife as one looks at valuable piece of personal property. A. The Revolting Edna
It is rational to claim that Edna’s revolts resemble the voice of the modern women declaring their rights as an individual. Edna apprehended self-consciously that her conventional life is so empty and uneventful that she defied social conventions to challenge herself from the social norm as an exceptional individual. She turned to her own image to seek an outlet for her self-expressive values and identity. The theme in Edna’s awakening reflects an individual’s internal growth. Her actions reflected an independent woman who keenly perceived the reality of the oppressive situation and took steps onto the revolt against the inequality in society.
Chopin depicts the institution of marriage in which Edna has been otherized. The marriage is the domineering cage with definite roles and expectations for women. Edna tried every to break her marriage bond for seeking ways of asserting her individuality. Marriage becomes a confrontational site between Edna and her husband. The bond
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of marriage has been questioned as it leads toward the idea of the husband’s possession of the wife. Edna gradually dismissed her role as a mother and wife to accentuate her freedom.
Woman, who wants to have her own identity, is still considered as inferior because she does not exist without her husband. In Edna’s society, a married woman is not possible to seek autonomy in that they were expected to follow the social tradition to serve and to be submissive to her husband. Chopin creates Edna’s voices to challenge the convention by depicting her contradictory behaviors and actions. Edna’s disobedience along with her aggressive behavior unlocks the contrasting ideology between the voice of authoritative fathers and voice of the individual’s desires.
In her awakening, Edna recognizes that she no longer desires to fulfill the expectations of other people. Having internalized the social norms, Edna did not exist as her real self who has been buried underneath the illusion and the expectations of other people. Edna’s attitude about marriage conveys her husband’s expectations and her dilemma as she bears the address of Mrs. Pontellier in the frontal part of the novel. Leonce expected Edna to remain faithful to be a mother and a wife. Edna views wife and mother as constrictive to be her husband’s possession, to fulfill material’s obligations, and to conform to the social expectations. Several scenes of dining tables demonstrate Edna’s subservience to her husband. For instance, Leonce was not satisfied with the meal being served.
The fish was scorched. Mr. Pontellier would not touch it. Edna said she did not mind a little scorched taste. The roast was in some way not to his fancy, and he did not like the manner in which the vegetables were served. (Chopin 69)
When Edna understood self-consciously Leonce’s dominant tone, she defied resolutely. “It seems to me,” she said
We spend money enough in this house to procure at least one meal a day which a man could eat and retain his self-respect, but cooks are only human. They need looking after like any other class of persons that you employ. (69)
Leonce demanded Edna’s commitment as a mother-woman by consistently
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requesting her absolute devotion to the children and the household. His repressive talk functions as a reminder of Edna’s otherized responsibilities.
Edna criticized her husband’s prerogative to consider her as his property, his power and his dominance. Ecofeminist criticizes that woman’s role in the household is not just as a housewife but also as a husband’s emblem of success.That explains why Leonce insisted on Edna’s devotion to the family. However, it is obvious that Edna refused to fulfill her otherized position’s expectation that demands her commitment and devotion for her husband’s status.
Gradually, Edna defied her husband’s expectations by rejecting being treated like an otherized object by challenging the conventional ideology. Edna constructed her own expectation and played by her own rules. She counterattacked: “I mean to stay out here. I do not wish to go in, and I do not intend to. Do not speak to me like that again. I shall not answer you” (42). Later, Edna outwardly displayed her deviance by refusing to be at home for the Tuesday reception with no valid reason. She ignored her role to consult the cook in preparation for Leonce’s meals. She refused Leonce’s invitation to travel abroad and turns down Leonce’s invitation to select furniture for his house. In her attempt to stamp on her wedding ring, Edna was trying to demonstrate her anger through her frustration: “Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it standing there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it” (71). When her husband talked about her insolent behavior by ignoring her conventional roles, Edna specked back as escaping from that horrible prison who otherized women’s everything.
When moving out from Pontellier’s mansion for her own space “pigeon house”, she figuratively divorced herself from Leonce. Edna emphasized her desire to be independent to have he own income, and to have her own space: “The house, the money that provides for it, is not mine. Isn’t that enough reason” (107)? To Edna, Pontellier’s mansion symbolizes an imprisonment. In a literal interpretation, Edna’s moving out from the mansion indicates her desire to taste freedom and independence. On the contrary, in response to Edna’s leaving, Leonce was only concerned with his business reputation by fabricating a cover-up story to hide his marital conflicts. He was eager and happy to return
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to his business. His insensitivity shows that he was more concerned about his business reputation than Edna’s revolts.
Edna’s drastic action moving out from Pontellier’s mansion is an effort to seek her autonomy. What is obvious in her action is Edna’s disobedience by destroying the emblem of home as a stable entity. By moving to her own place, Edna accentuated the need to have a place of her own according to her own taste. By emphasizing her individual desire, Edna represents another’s revolt for individualism so as to break the family unit and lead a solitary life. Edna’s gradually emerged with her ability to challenge motherhood, to question her devotion to husband, children, and community as well as to defy social conventions by reacting against social expectations, and to create her own logic. By challenging the patriarchal system, Edna represents a character who dares to defy and to resist.
The love with Robert still circled Edna in other’s area. Robert’s affectionate nature has rekindled Edna’s desire for romantic love. His attentiveness became the main agent for their relationship. Robert and Creole society allow Edna to renew her vision for other possibilities in life, such as freedom for self-expression and her spiritual quest for enlightenment. Edna’s relationships with Robert and Alcee Arobin represent Edna’s search for self-knowledge.
While unfortunately, in both relationships, Edna recognized that society and community do not understand her dream to be an independent woman. When Robert expressed his desires to have Edna as his wife, Edna chided him by saying
You have been a very very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free. I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose, if he were to say, here Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours, I should laugh at you both. (146)
Edna discovered that Robert does not understand her spiritual quest as a free woman. Similar to Leonce, Robert is a conventional male who desired Edna as his possession. Edna’s critiques against women’s restricted social status in the realm of motherhood and
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family are incomprehensible to Robert. With the advent of the twentieth century, Edna voiced her opinion about changing women’s roles in society by giving woman freedom to improve her status and enjoy better opportunities. B. The Perfect Adele
The female position prescribed by the dominant patriarchal system is defined as Adele Ratignolle, who is the perfect “other”. She is perfect in that she belongs to “self-effacing species of nest-makers dominating the island”(Seyersted 134) of Grand Isle . For Adele,both body and soul has been taken up by family. In fact, she is appreciated by Chopin as the resemblance of every charm and grace in womanish way. Thus, she has embodied so often the typical bygone heroine of roman as the fair lady in our dreams. Adele’s luscious beauty resembles by “the spun-gold hair”; “the blue eyes like nothing but sapphires”; “the so red two lips that pouted that one could only think of cherries” (Chopin 11). Mrs. Pontellier was even fond of sitting and gazing at her fair friend as Adele adjust her gold thimble to her exquisite hands and sewed away with her slightly plump arms waving as well as her full bright neck bending. Edna might look upon her as a faultless Madonna. “The nineteenth-century Creolo cultural ideology advocates a relaxed tolerance of sexual discussion and a indulgence in sensual beauty, but simultaneously demands an irreproachable chastity of its women” (Skaggs 135). Adele bears the perfect characters of a pure Virgin Mary, who also balances the “mother-woman” role between purity and sexuality.
Adele, the ideal of Creole “other”, whose identity completely immersed in her marriage and the priority from her family is the “object” in the “exchange of women” commonly called marriage. She “put her husband’s preferences above her own in all things” (347) and she is extremely satisfied within her “domestic harmony” described by Chopin as marriage. Toth Emily views the superficial perfection of Ratignolles likely “results more from the extinction of Adele’s individuality than from the fusion of their two identities” (Toth 347). Edna felt that Madame Ratignolle was “that colorless existence which never uplifted its possessor beyond the region of blind contentment, in which no
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moment of anguish ever visited her soul, in which she would never have the taste of life’s delirium” (Chopin 76). At the scene of dinner table, Adele dares not to talk freely but always “laying down her fork the better to listen, chiming in, taking the words out of his mouth” (75). Adele is indeed a “mother-woman”, whose identity thoroughly submerged in her husband and children.
Adele loves her six children by making garments for them as well as taking the youngest one nurse “with a thousand endearments bore it alone in her own fond, encircling arms. Though, as everybody well knew, the doctor had forbidden her to lift so much as a pin” (16)! She is the “Angel of the home” according to the hegemonic female ideal in the nineteenth-century society. Chopin’s description of this type of woman is quite precise:
It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings... They who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels. (10)
However, the perfect Adele is satisfied with her role by ignorance of the inward life, which only developed a partially identity. The whole of her thoughts, interests and utterances inseparably related to her husband and children. For instance, her appreciation of music is for the sake of amusing the children in that she and her husband both regarded it a means of making family happy and attractive. Adele’s concerns are just beyond the narrow scope of family. Even when Edna persuaded her to leave the children behind and go for a walk on the beach, Madame Ratignolle cannot “relinquish a diminutive roll of needlework” (19). Adele Ratignolle’s thoughts and behaviors strictly enslaved by the male-hegemonic ideology prevailed in the late nineteenth century. Adele never thinks more than her husband and her children. She would not leave Monsieur Ratignolle alone because he would’t like being left alone above all things; she would not leave the house for any entertainment as well, except to go for a languid stroll around the block with her husband after nightfall. Actually, lacking self-consciousness of a woman is approval by the male-dominated society so as to reinforce the title of her the perfect “other”.
Adele has internalized the belief of the women in that times, as the perfect “other”,
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had not their individuality. They belong to the private property of their husbands but not live for their own. They had lost the ability to realize the importance of identity and the value as individual. Chiming to the men’s voice, they conduct in terms of men’s measurements and requirements. Although they were approved by the patriarchal standards, these enslaved women were the most pathetic in that they can’t sense self-consciousness by themselves as an equal being. They were otherized and victimized indistinctly but severely. C. The Freak Reisz
If Adele Ratignolle represents the perfect other, the “artist-woman” Mademoiselle Reisz contrasts sharply to Adele. She is very much the foil of the luscious, super feminine Adele. Being peculiar, she could be labeled as “the freak other” in the men-dominated society. Her unshapely impression from first appearance demonstrates in the novel as “one that no longer young and disagreeable little woman, owing a self-assertive temper to quarrel with almost everybody, owing to a disposition to trample upon the rights of others in no minutes” (33). She is a dried-up spinster “with a small weazened face and body and eyes that glowed. She had absolutely no taste in dress, and wore a batch of rusty black lace with a bunch of artificial violets pinned to the side of her hair” (33-34). Reisz’s laugh even “consisted of a contortion of the face and all the muscles of the body” (83). These physical oddities Chopin used to Reisz is for drawing a conception of unnatural existence of women by the nineteenth century. On contrary to Adele who embodied the hegemonic ideal of female beauty under men-controlled system, Reisz is thoroughly freak to the dominant ideology.
She is good at complaining and attacking others irritably. When she reminds Victor Lebrun, the younger brother of Robert Lebrun, she exclaimed that: “That Victor! Hanging would be too good for him, it’s a wonder Robert has not beaten him to death long ago” (65). She thought the warm summer weather at Grand Isle would rather be pleasant just when the mosquitoes and the Farival twins disappearing in front of her. Reisz had only said disagreeable things of her every surroundings for a grocer lives near her old lodging labeled her properly like the most unpopular and disagreeable woman lived in Bienville
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Street.
Reisz bears no attractive to others because of her strange appearance and offensive personality. She lived alone with her aging, almost deformed body, subsisting on chocolates and on a eccentric lifestyle. Yet she gave meltingly beautiful music performances with her great talent even genius and was respected and admired when she first presented her exquisite concert at Grand Isle. The appraisals came like “what passion!” “what an artist!” “I have always said no one could play Chopin like Mademoiselle Reisz!” “That last prelude! Bon Dieu! It shakes a man” (35)! Edna, with her awakening sensuality, is touched to the core by Reisz’s music. Her soul accompanied her very passions were aroused by Reisz’s performance; it deeply seems that her splendid body was beaten by the wave’s constant stroke.
Tears were filling her eyes for she trembled and shocked by this music as the sounds of nature. However, the conceptualization of female pianist is unnatural in nineteenth century. The performance and composition to music viewed by public in the nineteenth century are dominated by male ideology. Women otherized by patriarchal system just learned music as a kind of domestic decoration and a means of amusing the family and brightening the domestication. Some female artists at that time were succumbed to public scrutiny by focusing on domestic interests. Excluded by people’s recognition, Reisz has no worthy possessions except by her “magnificent piano” which testified the sacrifices she did to pursue the solitarily artistic life.
Reisze is a brave but freak with the reason that the contemporary society not only despises her gift but also compels her to a small sphere where she can only breathe with her music. Her freedom is obtained by inevitably becoming eccentric and offensive. She stated herself that she holds the “brave soul that dares and defies” (86) and had “strong wings to soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice” (112). In fact, there appeared seldom the women like Reisz who dares to show their own voice and pursues their independence in nineteenth century. The patriarchal society doesn’t accept such women so they are excluded and isolated to be freaking “others”. Furthermore, the perfect “others” even don’t give sympathy and apprehension for them while criticize and compel them. The
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society would rather love the traditional Adele Rathgnolle as perfect wives but the distorted Mademoiselle Reisz.
The women who have awakened to pursue freedom and individuality were victimized and otherized by the patriarchal society. They were overwhelmingly suppressed and excluded by androcentric ideology which enforces them to be freak and to suffer from the male-centered society.
V. Conclusion
As a productive and remarkable author who kept the meticulous records in early 20th American literature, Kate Chopin indeed puts the great concern on human-nature relationship, especially the women-nature affinity in her controversial novel, The Awakening, in 1899. Kate Chopin is quite qualified as writer with ecofeminist awareness and sensitivity by revealing and criticizing the patriarchy which bears the mutual root of domination over women and exploitation of nature.
By setting ecofeminist criticism as a methodology, this thesis makes an attempt to examine its embodied ecofeminist theme and disclose Chopin’s ecofeminist stance by her celebration of woman-nature interconnections. The procedure of analysis of this thesis primarily approaches to the dissection of the oppressed situation of nature and the otherized position of women reflected among the lines. Through the descriptions that men either exploit natural resources or mistreat animals to meet their needs, Chopin shows her ecological concerns for the endangered ecosystem. Through the depictions of the abnormal inferiority of three “others”, Chopin displays her awakening consciousness to the tragic destiny of women under patriarchy society. The caged birds as well as the three “others” mercilessly suffer from the brutality of a certain patriarchal structure. Hence, the heroine Edna has experienced the transpersonal communion and identification with nature so as to culminate the “self-consciousness” as a human being in this universe. Her immanence in the sea empowers her to reintegration into nature as an interpretation of their cooperative cognition against and unmasking the homologous domination on women and nature.
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All in all, The Awakening successfully created by Kate Chopin demonstrates through ecofeminist claims that women bear the value not to be subordinated by men and nature bears the value not to be oppressed by human. It seems certain that a new cultural consciousness should be constructed to hold out the cooperative cognition, mutuality and sustainability so that a new path could be opened to the whole inter-dependent unity existing through its diversity.
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Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2007.
Gaad, Greta Calaire. Ecological Politics: Ecofeminists and the Greens. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.
Griffin, Susan. Woman and Nature: The Roaring inside Her. New York: Harpercollins Press, 1978.
Mellor, Mary. Feminism and Ecology. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Murphy, P.D. Literature,Nature, and Other: Ecofeminist Critiques. New York: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Wendy, Martin. New Essays on The Awakening, Beijing: Peking University Press, 2007. Skaggs, Peggy. “Three Tragic Figures in The Awakening”. New York: Louisiana Studies, 1974.
Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin: A Life of the Author of The Awakening. New York: William Morrow&Company, 2000.
Ynestra, King. What is Ecofeminism? New York: Ecofeminist Resources, 1990. Val Plumwood. Ecofeminism: Symbolic and Social Connections Between the Oppression of Women and the Domination of Nature. Charlotee: University of North Carolina Press. 1991.
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