凱特.蕭邦 在<<覺醒>>中描繪了至少三種人際關係:夫妻,親子及朋友。在
第一種關係中,探討的重心是人與人如何共享親密及了解。愛德娜,里昂
斯.龐提烈夫妻及哈緹諾夫婦的婚姻是討論點。小說中的婚外關係可作為
婚姻關係的對照。大海意像可用來說明人與自然之間共享之親密,是人與
人之間所不能形成的。在第二種關係中,本文將探討小說中的四組親子關
係。結論是親子關係乃為一不可切斷之人際關係。本文最後討論同性朋友
之間的關係。小說中所反映的男性友情,並不像女性友誼那般親密。這兩
種友情各自有其不同目的: 男性著重在維繫男性形像,因此他們對待他們
的男性朋友通常缺少坦白及親密。另一方面,小說中的女性在建立她們與
女性之間情誼的同時,往往伴隨著設法解決她們與男性之間的問題的目的
。探討這些人際關係顯示:小說中的人物並沒有建立一種真正包含直接,親
密的雙向關係。

Kate Chopin in The Awakening has portrayed at least three kinds
of human relationships: the husband-wife relation, the parent-
child relation and the relations among friends. In the first
kind of relation, the problem of how one human being can be
united with another to share intimacy and understanding is the
focus. The marriages of Edna and Leonce Pontellier and of the
Ratignolles are discussed. The extramarital relation in the
novel is examined as a contrast to marital relation. The sea
imagery is used to illustrate that a human being can share with
nature the intimacy that they cannot achieve with other human
beings. In the second kind of relation, four combinations of
parent-child relation are studied. My conclusion is that the
bond of parents and children is uncuttable. The final relation
analyzed in the thesis concerns the different ways of treating
friends of the same sex. Male friendship, as reflected in the
novel, is not as intimate as that of the females. These two
kinds of friendship differ in purpose. Males focus on their
maintenance of their masculine image. Therefore, they usually
lack the frankness and intimacy toward their male friends. On
the other hand, female characters build their relation with
their female friends often with the purpose to solve the
difficulties they encounter in their relation with males. The
study of these relationships reveals that a truly close
relation, which involves direct and intimate two-way devotion,
among the characters is not established.
Kate Chopin in The Awakening has portrayed at least three kinds