Madame Bovary And The Awakening: Literary Analysis

The novels Madame Bovary written in 1986 by Gustave Flaubert and The Awakening written in 1899 by Kate Chopin are strikingly similar. The similarities are so stark that many question if Madame Bovary served as a template for Kate Chopin when she wrote The Awakening. A large majority of the similarities in the novels revolves around the two main characters in the respective novels, Edna Pontellier in The Awakening and Emma Bovary in Madame Bovary. These women both experience unique lives that differ greatly from the typical life of a woman in their society. They struggle greatly in their lives, largely due to the fact that they fail to oblige to what society expects of them. They often stray away from the idea of life for a typical woman in
Not only was this the case in both of these novels, but in general, women in the 19th century were restricted to lives that consisted of devoting themselves to a life focused on marriage and motherhood. A symbol in The Awakening that represent the struggle for women in society is the parrot. The parrot is viewed as being a pretty creature, but once the parrot starts making noise and talking, it is viewed as an annoyance to others. This parallels how women are viewed in The Awakening. Women are nothing more than just symbols of beauty and their opinions are not valued in any way. Edna’s husband illustrates this idea that women are purely symbols in the quote “looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property…” They are expected to carry tasks such as doing household duties, taking care of the children, and doing whatever they can to please their husbands. This role of women in The Awakening is nearly identical to that in Madame Bovary. Women are defined by their husbands and the family in which they live in. They don’t have the ability to go out and make a name for them self. The typical woman in both novels does not have control of their own life. This dominance of man in Madame Bovary can be represented by the fact that Emma, the main character in the novel, is not introduced until after the
Edna’s husband, Leonce, was seen as being the perfect husband in fact some of the ladies in the novel “declared that Mr. Pontellier was the greatest husband in the world.” Society sees him as being the perfect husband because he was wealthy and could therefore fulfill all the roles that a husband was supposed to. However when Edna met Robert Lebrun she realizes what she has been missing in her marriage. Robert provides her with attention and passionate love that Leonce simply did not. Edna also seeks her physical desires to be filled. She's fulfills them with the seductive man Alcee Arobin. Edna is always in control of this relationship and Robert is always the one that Edna actually cares for on a deeper level. Edna and Robert eventually fall in love, but Robert greatly struggles with the fear of how society would view his relationship with Edna. In the society in which they live in women are the possessions of their husband and it isn’t even viewed as a possibility for a women to go against her husband. Eventually, Robert’s fears win out over his love for Edna and he flees to avoid this forbidden love. He leaves a note that says “I love you. Good-by—because I love you.” Emma has an incredibly similar experience to this. Emma lived a somewhat routine and monotonous life with her husband Charles which leads her to wanting more out of her life. This is explained in the quote