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Tue Datekin Catherine Macmillan Comparative Literature December 15, 2013

SIMILITARIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MADAME BOVARY AND ANNA KARANINE Madame Bovary is one of the most successful examples of 19th century novel. It was written by Gustave Flaubert in 1853. The story seems that the tragic life of Emma and her unrequited love in fact it shows the restricted life of French woman, marriage and moral extent. Madame Bovary tells the fall of bourgeoisie. It is first modern realistic novel. It is not only about a woman who is bored with her rural life but also it is such a story that it affects people very much and it creates a disease called Bovarism. It means restlessness and dissatisfaction. Similarly Anna Karenina is also a realist novel. It was written by Leo Tolstoy in 1873-1877. In Anna Karenina Tolstoy approaches spiritually to characters and this brings a psychological aspect to his novel. Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina have some similarities and differences. Madame Bovary is calmer pragmatic, passionate but not destructive similarly Emma is idealistic, unchecked, Romantic and stubborn. Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina are about married woman who commit adultery. They did because they think that it will make them happier. Emma Bovary enjoys reading romantic novels. She finds happiness and excitement of life by cheating on her husband. She never like her husband and she never find him romantic and exciting so she seeks this romance elsewhere. She does not see her husbands love which is pure and true. Similarly Anna does not like her husband but her story is different. Before she meets with Vronsky she does not fell any lack of in her marriage but

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after she comes across him, She begins to find her husbands faults. But actually they are faults but they are not too serious. Because she starts to see Vronsky as better example of lover, so her husband does not satisfy her anymore. In terms of position, Anna is one of the member of upper society and she has never had financial troubles. She is cultured and educated to the very highest degree that Russian society will allow woman. On the contrary Emma is the member od middle class family, so she has some financial troubles that leads to her ruin. She is primarily educated in the convent and she may be admirable in the bourgeois society but it is probably incomparable to Annas knowledge in language and other subjects. Moreover n the Anna Karenina Anna has an expanse of family and friends. Anna reach much wider people than Emmas because Emma is the member of middle class family and she lives in a small village but however Anna has a high status in the society but it leads Anna to a much more morally questionable than Emma. After Emma and Anna has a child but their relationships are different from each other. Annas relationship with her son is loving and direct. it is filled with an affection and love of mother. However Emma never truly cared for her daughters. Later n the Anna Karenina Anna marry a man called Alexis Alexandrovich Karenin and Emma marry a called Charles Bovary. l think that they have the same destiny. They are cheated on by their wifes but their way of behave and their personality is different from each other. Alexis Karenina has a wealth and excellent social and professional

connections. But none of them touches Anna she has no emotional discussions with her wife. He learns that her wife is cheating on him and he forces Anna to make decisions and actually he tries to come back her. and he feels more sympathy for Karenina. On the other hand Charles is a doctor and he is the member of middle class. He is also really just a normal guy. He is neither good nor bad. He is loyal an supremely forgiving. But he never suspect about Emma. He always thinks that everything is good and Emma is happy with him. If he learns Emmas infidelity, He cannot bear it and it creates a big heartbroken, so f he learns it earlier,

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he probably commit suicide before. Later when we look at the way of setting in 2 books, we see that they are totally different Anna Karenina generally takes place in major cities in Russia and some sort parts of country. But however Emmas setting is only in three places; Rouen, Yonville, and Tostes. After that, their way of death is same. Both of them commit suicide but their aims are different from each other. Annas reason is to spite Vronsky. Moreover their way of death is same. Both of them committed a suicide but their reason of their suicide is completely different. In Madam Bovary Emma wants to looked wealthy. l think that she is depend on money and wealth so it ruined his psyche because she did not see the coming danger. She always looked for survive in her life and never satisfied with her quiet love. Moreover she exaggerate that she buys an expensive gifts to her lovers. She is in such a dream world that she could not think that she cannot afford to pay them. Her husband is doctor, so their money is only enough for their basic needs so they did not have money to extra things especially for luxury things. But she could not thing this and she continue to get in debt and in the end she did not pay this debts and she commits a suicide but on the other hand l think that maybe she has guilty a little bit and Maybe her conscience is one of the reason of her death but in fact l cannot notice any clear clue for this in the book. On the other hand n the Anna Karenina Anna only focus on her love. She looked for passionate love in her love as Emma. But she is only focused on love because she has money and she does everything. Her love means more than Emmas love. In the end Anna and her lover broke up, so she cannot feel good and she lost her all hopes because her all hopes belongs to her love, so she chose to die without living him. All in all, Both the book is the most important example of Realistic fiction. Gustave Flaubert and Leo Tolstoy shows the realistic portrayal of 19th century.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Articles Priscilla Meyer. "Anna Karenina: Tolstoy's Polemic with Madame Bovary" Russian Review 54.2 (1995): 243-259

Web sites
http://www.123helpme.com/tolstoys-anna-karenina-view.asp?id=160913 http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=16268 http://www.shmoop.com/madame-bovary/ http://www.shmoop.com/anna-karenina/ http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/What-Was-on-Leo-Tolstoys-Bookshelf/12 http://www.litoseizani.com/content/anna-karenina-madame-bovary