Elevation Isolation and Downfall in Madam Bovary

The novels Crime and Punishment and Madam Bovary, when examined separately seem to be totally unrelated books about completely different subjects. They chronicle the lives of two very different people in quite different circumstances. The novels appear to be in all ways the opposite of one another. Their main characters appear conflicting on all fronts. Though these characters may appear to be quite different their live very similar lives. Both of the troubles and toils …

…extraordinary person. Raskolnikov, just like Emma comes too short of his dreams. But Raskolnikov, unlike Emma is able to escape his conception of himself as a superman and the subsequent isolation that the desire of that position brought upon him. Though it is too late for him to escape the demise and failure that the cycle brought upon him, he is able to escape the death and the destruction of spirit that Emma Bovary encounters.