Emma describes the problem with her life in a scene at mealtime. The meals, in fact, symbolize her complete distain, as all the "bitterness of existence" seems to be heaped on her plate. The smell of the boiled beef mixes with the odors of sickliness that arise from her soul. The image of the plate is her flat, boring, unchanging life.
To escape this mundane life, Emma opens the window of life to see what could await her. When she has one of her anxiety attacks, she closes herself up in her room, but then, "stifling," throws open the windows. Frustrated by a mixed feeling of guilt at what she did and contempt for her husband, "She went to open the window... And breathed in the fresh air to calm herself." This same symbol of the window is expressed when Rodolphe abandons her: the shutter of the window the looks over the garden remains forever closed. The desire to stop living -- "She would have liked not to be alive, or to be always asleep" (PAGE?)
In the Death of Ivan Ilych both Ivan and his wife, Praskovya, see the problems with their societal demands. Praskovya is relegated to a household to be a wife and mother when her husband is rarely at home. When he does come home, the two have no relationship and have grown to dislike one another. Meanwhile Ilych believes that he is striving in the right direction has the desires and values that society accepts and appreciates. He pushes to climb the ladder and grow in his field. The narrator describes him as "a capable, cheerful, good-natured, and sociable man, though...
He bases his behavior and his appearance not to his own tastes and interests but to those of his superiors, who define propriety for him. Personal conscience is suppressed for the sake of public image, for he learns to accept his own "horrid" behavior if it imitates "people of good position" (PAGE). Arming himself for his first position as a government official, he is a model of decorum:
Ivan Ilych ordered himself clothes at Scharmer's, the fashionable tailor, hung a medallion inscribed respice finem on his watch-chain, took leave of his professor and the prince who was patron of the school, had a farewell dinner with his comrades at Donon's first-class restaurant. (PAGE)
Unfortunately, Ivan discovers too late what the most prized items are in life: family and good health. At the end, he is going into the black sack with neither of them. These three works of literature are as pertinent today as they were over a century ago. People are just as constrained by and obligated to society today. It is ironic, because the freedom that males, and especially females, have is so much greater than it was then. Yet, many men and women, like Ivan, set false goals for themselves based on status and position in society and do not realize what is most important in life. They continue to stumble along searching for answers but do not find them, because they are looking out the wrong window.
