Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary revolve around the lives of their central characters, Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary, respectively. Both authors present these characters as women with strong personalities.
This strength is well highlighted as Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary are surrounded by other characters whose vulnerabilities are quite pronounced as the narratives develop. The women in both stories, aside from Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary, exhibit the usual frailties of women during those particular times in history. They were submissive to their husbands and to men, in general, playing the traditional roles expected of them by society. The men, on the other hand, were portrayed as insensitive and fixated only with matters outside domestic affairs. This insensitivity and aloofness towards affairs of the home were presented as weaknesses by both Tolstoy and Flaubert. In the midst of these aforementioned weaknesses of the men and women that surround the lead characters in each story, Anna Karenina’s and Emma Bovary’s uniqueness is underscored through their outlook on life, particularly on their womanhood.
Despite their weaknesses, the strengths of these characters are emphasized. However, in both stories, they ultimately prove to be weak when confronted by the social norms of their times. The rejection they face for asserting their unconventional ideas about relationships overwhelms them to the point where they both commit suicide.
Anna Karenina was born into the Russian nobility and married a bureaucrat, solidifying her place in the upper class. Tolstoy emphasized this point because as the story progresses, it becomes clear that a woman’s social class does not guarantee freedom from the issues that plague women during this time. Anna is particularly affected by the lack of emotional freedom she experiences. In a society where women are expected to focus on child-rearing and being a wife, Anna struggles to reconcile her own desires for happiness with traditional concepts of femininity.
However, this notion is created as she witnesses the suffering of other women due to gender disparities. Tolstoy presented this in a dialogue between Anna and Dolly in which the latter expressed that everything is at an end, and that’s all… And the worst of it is, you understand, that I can’t leave him: there are children, and I am bound. Yet I can’t live with him; it is torture for me to see him” (Anna Karenina 2004 p.67).
These dialogues with women who express their discontent towards marriage and men’s treatment are significant factors in the creation of Anna’s viewpoint on how she should deal with her own desires and her marriage.
The affair with Vronsky was the result of Anna’s desire to free herself from a dull marriage with Karenin. Her strength is evident in her decision to enter into an adulterous relationship despite the likelihood of rejection from a society that upholds traditional concepts of women’s roles and marriage. Although Karenin did not pursue her seriously, her relationship with Vronsky became the cause for her condemnation by society.
Tolstoy narrates that she felt that, insignificant as it had appeared that morning, the position she held in Society was dear to her, and that she would not have the strength to change it for the degraded position of a woman who had forsaken husband and child and formed a union with her lover; that, however much she tried, she could not become stronger than herself” (Anna Karenina 2004 p.293). This made Anna a pariah for asserting her beliefs on freedom to choose whom to love in a society that restricts women to traditional roles. It is primarily why Anna apparently falls into despondence.
Despite this, Anna never bowed down to social pressures.
Despite nearly everyone important to her, including Vronsky, turning their backs on her, she continues to hold onto her beliefs. In the end of the story, Anna Karenina takes her own life. Tolstoy wrote: And death, as the sole means of reviving love for herself in his heart, of punishing him, and of gaining the victory in that contest which an evil spirit in her heart was waging against him, presented itself clearly and vividly to her” (Anna Karenina 2004 p.744). Some may see this as a demonstration of Anna’s obstinacy in holding onto different concepts of femininity. However, Anna is clearly a victim of a society that oppresses women’s emotions while tolerating men’s misconduct.
For the most simplistic description of Emma Bovary, she may seem to be either a hopeless romantic or someone who simply cannot differentiate between reality and fantasy. However, a more profound analysis of her character reveals that she is, in fact, a woman who dares to assert her desires despite the prevailing traditional concepts in society. It is this characteristic of Emma that defines her strength as a woman.
Unfortunately, her marriage was not one she willingly entered into according to what she wished for. Her father encouraged her wedding with Charles as a matter of convenience since he was indebted to the Bovary family and deemed it better for Emma to get married since she was not an asset on the farm. In the first few chapters, Flaubert described Charles as someone who conforms to norms and does not raise any interest from others.
Flaubert wrote that Charles was of even temperament, who played during playtime, worked during school hours, was attentive in class, slept well in the dormitory, and ate well in the refectory” (Madame Bovary 1960 p.7). This character is very different from Emma’s dreamy disposition. She fantasizes beyond what is real, especially when it comes to satisfying her sentimental wants.
Marriage to Charles is unsatisfying for Emma. In fact, she immediately notices the absence of satisfaction during their first night as a couple. Later, she realizes that Charles is the reason why she remains unhappy. She considers him and their marriage as the main obstacles towards realizing her dreams.
She also considered her life in the countryside as bereft of any source of happiness. In her eyes, all her immediate surroundings – the wearisome country, the middle-class imbeciles, and the mediocrity of existence – seemed exceptional and a peculiar chance that had caught hold of her. Beyond this lay an immense land of joys and passions that stretched as far as eye could see (Madame Bovary 1960 p.53). This resulted in Emma idealizing urban life because cities have become bastions of cultural liberalism where individuals, including women, can do anything to realize their dreams without restrictive norms that still envelop the countryside. Emma’s discontentment with Charles in their marriage and continuous search for romantic bliss defined by books led to adulterous relationships with Rodolphe and Leon where she found her fantasies realized. During her first sexual encounter with Rodolphe, she recalled heroines from books she had read; the lyric legion of these adulterous women began singing in her memory with voices like sisters who charmed her (Madame Bovary 1960 p.156).
Both Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina may be considered women whose concepts of womanhood, marriage, and sexuality were too advanced for their times. The first wave of feminism occurred only in the late 1800s, and even then, it did not delve into a comprehensive understanding of gender equality. It focused only on suffrage (Magarey 2001 p.16). Women began to assert their equality in all spheres, including sexual and romantic relationships through second-wave feminism starting in the 1960s (Mead 2004 p.107).
The difference between Anna and Emma is based on their dissimilar social and cultural backgrounds. Anna was conscious of the restrictive norms society imposed on her behavior because she was upper-class and educated. On the other hand, Emma was simply in love with being happily in love with a man of her choice.
Their reasons for suicide also differ; Anna committed suicide out of desperation with how society treated her while Emma did so due to the loss of her lover.
References
- Flaubert, G. (1960). Madame Bovary. Sohlman: Stockholm, Sweden.
- Magarey, S. (2001). Passions of the First Wave Feminists. UNSW Press: Sydney, Australia.
- Meade, T., & Wiesner, M. (2004). A Companion to Gender History. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA.
- Tolstoy, L. (2004). Anna Karenina. Oxford University: Oxford, UK.
