Paralele i antynomie. Emma Bovary i Anna Karenina
Parallels and antinomies: Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina

Author(s): Krzysztof Korwin-Piotrowski
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: bovarism; Karenina; love; morality; fate; ostracism; psychological novel; study of woman
Summary/Abstract: The author reaches for two classic novels of late 19th-century psychological realism: Gustav Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. The article, a result of the author’s fascination with the psychological portraits of the two unhappy women, presents the circumstances of creation of both novels, masterpieces of European literature. It offers a thorough comparative analysis of the two title characters. Several situations from both novels are analyzed to explain the behavior of Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina towards Love and Fate. The article indicates the sources of longing for a great feeling and suffering related to misunderstanding and social ostracism. It exposes various mechanisms that lead to suicide. Emma’s tragicomism is analyzed in reference to the phenomenon of “bovarism”; more-over, it is proven that Anna Karenina has become a cultural myth.

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