Comparison between the presentation of women: Tess X Bovary

While comparing Madame Bovary and Tess of D’Urbervilles it is possible to see that in both novels the female character, which happens to be the protagonist in both, seems to be cursed or/and has fate present in most of the story, ultimately a bad end result. In Tess of D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy presents the idea of a cursed woman, who although pure in heart and soul, is made corrupt in the eyes of men and ends up dying. During the novel Tess frequently enquires herself of her fate and is somewhat conscientious that she is doomed from the beginning. Madame Bovary on the other hand, has the female character bring fate upon herself, with all her desires and needs, Emma ends up killing herself and only realizes her doom towards the end of the novel.

Another major difference seen between both novels is how the woman is portrayed. As mentioned before, Tess was an example of purity, she had many virtues and almost no flaws, she devoted herself entirely to Angel and loved him very much. Emma Bovary is somewhat Tess’ foil. She does not love Charles, and is a long way from being pure, she cheats on her husband frequently and is a compulsive buyer, ultimately indebting herself and her husband. Another example of the contrasting character between both of them is that Tess did not care for social status while that was one of Emma’s major concerns, D’Urbervilles was in fact happy of living in the farm while Emma only thought of getting to a higher position in the social ladder. Although both have many differences they have some similar characteristics. The two f them seem to have romantic ideals and both live in a rural area.