"MADAME BOVARY" AND "LA REGENTA": A COMPARATIVE STUDY

ELIZABETH DOREMUS SANCHEZ, Purdue University

Abstract

This thesis offers a comprehensive comparison of Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Leopoldo Alas' La Regenta, combining a close reading of the texts with a general presentation of the authors and their works within their respective cultural and historical contexts. The relationship between the novels is viewed as part of a larger dynamic reality, the ultimate goal being a dialectical awareness of that relationship, wherein understanding of each of the works increases in proportion as one sees their implication in temporal and material circumstances. Intensity is retained in the focusing on specific textual parallels. The study begins with a critical survey of previous research into the relationship between the novels. The general comparison includes an investigation of the familial and societal backgrounds of the novelists as well as an exposition of their aesthetic theories. A fundamental difference emerges, in which Alas' belief in progress and his qualified optimism regarding the efficacy of his own social activities are contrasted with Flaubert's aversion to bourgeois institutions and his retreat from society in search of fulfillment through art. This attitudinal contrast is shown to be grounded in divergent socioeconomic realities, at the same time that it is reflected in the artistic forms. Alas' progressive views translate as an organicist conception of art, reinforced by naturalist theory, in which the realist novel is considered a valid instrument for exploring social possibilities. Flaubert's social pessimism is expressed in his novel as a preoccupation with form that leads away from realism (in Georg Lukacs' sense) in the direction of abstract art: away from concern with sociological significance and with reproducing the lost or invisible organic connections between public and private domains and toward a self-conscious art whose meanings derive from manipulation of elements--stylization. The subsequent sections of the study approach the textual parallels through the broad categories of novelistic space, heroines, and male characters. The common subject is described as provincialism. As similarities are examined in each of the categories, the essential contrast reappears in different guises. While in Madame Bovary space seems passive though hostile in relation to the heroine, in La Regenta space is presented metaphorically as an organism actively engaged in engulfing its prey. The metaphor of animated space reinforces the philosophy of vitalism and sense of interrelatedness which are central to the novel. In Madame Bovary the focus is limited to the conflict between inner and outer space as it is experienced by a single individual. Likewise, the significance of the defeat of the heroines' idealism points to Alas' more thorough realism, inasmuch as the humiliation of Ana Ozores could stand as a tacit criticism of the romantic elitism and myth of isolation associated with Flaubert's artistic credo. Finally, a consideration of the male characters further corroborates the discovery that Alas' belief in the powers of life makes for a very different form of realism than Flaubert's, despite similar structures. The open-ended system that comes of Alas' critical hopefulness is manifest in the relative autonomy of the characters as well as in their partial though convincing embodiments of complementary versions of the ideal. The ideal is shown to exist, but not in isolation or as fully present in any single individual. The failure of the quest may be read here not as a sign of the dead-end of realism, as in Madame Bovary, but as a possible opening up to the collectivity.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Comparative literature|Romance literature

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