Sleep is an indispensable part of human life, and so it is for the characters in literary works. Sleep in literature is sometimes skipped by the writer with few words due to its natural features and to disadvantage to narration, while sometimes it is depicted carefully with implied meaning. This dissertation states that the importance of sleep images should not be undervalued with The Awakening, the feminist novel of Kate Chopin as an example. Sleep images can be discovered through the writing including the heroine’s falling asleep, wakening, refusing to sleep, her death as the extreme state of sleep, and so on. They assist the transform of Edna’s emotion and self-awareness, witnessing her sexual, emotional and spiritual awakening. This paper will analyze how the sleep images contribute to the feminist theme of the book, and the meaning of Edna’s death will be elaborated in particular as it is a key of her resistance to the patriarchal world.
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How to cite this paper
Women’s Awakening: Analysis of Sleep Images in The Awakening
How to cite this paper: Xing Zhang, Heng Wu, Wenjing Min. (2023). Women’s Awakening: Analysis of Sleep Images in The Awakening. The Educational Review, USA, 7(2), 265-268.