The Awakening and Madame Bovary

             Gustave Flaubet's novel, Madame Bovary, is very similar to Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening. Both books are about compelling heroines and their lives as unhappy married women that revolts against the monotony of their lives and society. The books flow on a certain cycle that mirrors each other through affairs, and society conflicts. And yet, even though Emma and Edna live in different worlds, they still take their lives because of a final "awakening". The deaths are still very much like their life style, each like a back-up plan if their illusions didn't work out.
             The deaths of these two women were both very intriguing. Emma has emotionally left Charles all together by the end of the book. Her mood switches constantly from despising him to showing some regret for what she has done. Edna also has given up on her husband Leonce. She has gone against his will, morals, and ethics. By the end of the novels there is nothing left for them. Leon going to Paris has left Emma and there isn't anything she can do about that. Robert has returned from Mexico to New Orleans, and tells Edna that things can't be, the affair is going to have to end. Emma comes to her senses and sees that Rudolph doesn't care about her, he was just using her. Yet in the same sense Emma was using him too, she needed to get back money that she had carelessly spent, and to parade her life like she is high society. She knows that he never loved her. Upon the return of Robert, Edna finds the truth in what all men want in her society, and just like her husband, he wants a life of marriage and peace with her looking after the house, servants, and children while attending his needs. Both women know it will never get better, that the cycle will always go on. "She had said over and over to herself: Today it is Arobin tomorrow it will be someone else. It makes no difference to me; it doesn't matter about Leon...

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The Awakening and Madame Bovary. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 03:51, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/82009.html