Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary

Anna’s second illusion is that happiness is not found in the family that she has formed, but in mundane and unacceptable relationships.  Karenina’s reality is simple; she is the ideal aristocratic Russian wife of the 1870s.  Anna is part of a family that truly loves her; she is cultivated, beautiful, society wife and host with great poise and grace.  Nevertheless, her illusion distances her from the pleasures of true happiness.

Leo Tolstoy takes a pro-family position in the novel.  The author describes the real happiness that is found inside the family, and the character Levin exemplifies this point.  Anna’s life ultimately loses meaning, whereas Levin’s attains it, as the end of the novel announces, “My whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.”  (Part 8, Chapter 19).  Ultimately, Tolstoy leaves the reader with the conclusion that faith, happiness, and family life go hand in hand. 

        Karenina’s illusions contributed to her downfall and eventually her death.  Anna Karenina lives the consequences of her extramarital affair.  Anna lives in disgrace and shame, after deciding to leave her husband, son, and society.  Her illusion of personal satisfaction and egoistic sentiments influenced her to commit suicide, as she wants to “rid of everybody and of herself.”  She did not think about the harm that she will provoke on Vronsky or the people who loved her.  Instead, Anna had the desire to punish Vronsky.

Madame Bovary also experiences the conflict of illusion versus reality. Emma is a sentimental character that believes in a pathetic romance.  The context of the agricultural fair in Part 2, Chapter 9, Flaubert provides a sharp contrast between Emma’s illusion and reality. Flaubert cuts back and forth between the scene of the seduction and the speech on morality delivered by the bureaucratic official at the fair. Rodolphe’s skillful seduction emphasize Emma’s illusion. Madame Bovary feels that Rodolphe is truly in love with her and his seduction is a complement of his feeling.  However, Emma is blind at Rodolphe’s insencire passion and she is drawn by her ideas of romance. As the scene continues, Flaubert heightens the pace by including shorter and shorter segments from two speeches. The cinematic contrast of the scenes, exposes Emma’s reality; immorality.  

Emma is drawn by another illusion that is dominant in almost the entire novel. The scene when Emma is agonizing, demonstrate another conflict between illusion and reality. For about four years, Emma had the illusion that Charles did not love her. At the time of her death, the truth is exposed “In his eyes she read a love such as she had never known before.“Part3, Chapter 8 Emma had not realized that Charles was capable of such feeling. In consequence, she had spent the novel searching for love, only to realize on her deathbed that her husband, for all his faults, always loved her.

Emma’s illusion contributed to her downfall.  As Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary was blind with her definition of love, and both shared a superficial view.  Emma idealistic romance, influence her to clandestine infidelity and immoral actions.  Evidently, Emma’s adulterous relationships were not love, but sexual satisfactions.  The realities of Emma’s relationships were the leading factors that contributed to her tragedy.  Madame Bovary decision of suicide reflects the impact that reality has in her character.    

Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary are characters who did not continue a meaningful life due to their conflict of reality versus illusion.  Since both novels are considered tragedies, the main characters have to be worth saving.  Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary, where worth saving because they had already achieved valuable accomplishments.  However, their illusions made them denied their achievements and positive characteristics.  Their illusions blind them from even becoming greater and using their gifts for helping others.