The routes of adultery : physical and imaginary movement in Ethan Frome and Madame Bovary

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2003
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Bi-College (Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges). Comparative Literature Program
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Thesis
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
My thesis is a study of physical and imaginary movement in novels of adultery, focusing on Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome and Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Both main characters are skillful at movement within a certain physical space, but neither is able to move beyond that space. However, they are capable of imagining other possibilities in their lives, reflecting Gary Saul Morson's concept of sideshadowing. Ethan and Emma are tragic characters as a result of their knowledge of the alternatives that would make their lives more fulfilling, and their self-consciousness evokes reader sympathy. Thus the authors cause readers to view adulterous characters as suffering more than their spouses. Also, the readers, in their sympathy for the asocial, adulterous character, are led to question the values of their own societies.
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