Comparing Felicite of Flauberts A Simple Heart and Nelly Dean of Brontes Wuthering Heights :: comparison compare contrast essays

Comparing Felicite of Flaubert's A Simple Heart and Nelly Dean of Bronte's Wuthering Heights Nelly Dean and Felicite are both characters that are in stark contrast to the characters that surround them. They are both good Christian women in there own way who are serving those who have no real interest in godliness and place no real emphasis on it. Nelly Dean is a realistic character in a romantic novel, while Felicite is a romanticized character in a realistic story. Nelly Dean is a servant in a household that is filled with people that are difficult to get along with. They are in constant turmoil with each other, and they almost seem to enjoy the conflict they cause. Nelly Dean is the one character that does not usually allow herself to be pulled into the conflicts that the rest of the characters embroil themselves in. She is able to stand back from the situation and give sound advice. Felicite does not seem as able to distance herself from the problems around her until she gets older and is physically unable to participate. Both women are passed from master to master because of no true faults of their own, and neither woman seems to have much control over her own destiny. While Nelly Dean stays with the same family, she has to move and get accustomed to new bosses every time some one dies. Felicite just seems to have plain bad luck in her choice of employers at the beginning of her career. In spite of this, both women seem quite satisfied with their lives, while the people who are in charge of them seem a lot less happy with their own lives. The characters in ‚"Wuthering Heights‚" frequently have severe fits of negative emotion, while Nelly quietly looks on. The only time that we see Felicite completely overcome with grief is when she thought she was going to have control, and she lost it. This happens when Felicite is still relatively young. She falls in love with a boy, and when he decides to marry some one else, ‚ÄÃ ºshe threw herself on the ground, screamed, called to the God of mercy, and moaned‚ÄÃ ¹ (1021). After this first display of emotion, she picked herself up and moved on with her life.