The Piano written by Jane Campion and Madame Bovary written by Gustave Flaubert both express the joy and sorrow of life through the protagonist. The Piano shows the joy of life through Ada's affair with Baines, the piano, Ada's daughter Flora and the ending. However, Madame Bovary shows joy through Emma's affairs with Rodolphe and Léon and the Viscount who represented a life she could never have. Emma is the tragic heroine in the novel. The sorrow of life can also be seen through the novels as the protagonists pursue their love affairs. Ada also becomes melancholy when Alisdair leaves her piano on the beach, when Flora and she are locked in their house and when Alisdair chops off her finger with an axe. Similarly, Emma becomes depressed because of the actions of her husband, Charles. Emma is also sorrowful and eventually commits suicide as a result of her various money problems and her numerous liaisons. Emma is always discontented and afraid of exposure and humiliation.
Emma and Ada have affairs, which show the joy of life in the texts. Ada carries out an affair with her husband's best friend George Baines, which results in her sexual awakening, but Emma's affairs with Léon and Rodolphe only led to more sorrow and finally to her tragic end. Baines makes a deal with Alisdair that Alisdair can obtain eighty acres of Baines' property if he can have Ada's piano. Baines makes this swap not because he wants to learn how to play the piano but because he wants to seduce Ada. .
At first Ada is reluctant to teach Baines how to play saying, "NO, NO, THE PIANO IS MINE-(page 71) Baines says to Ada that "there's things I'd like to do while you play.""(Page 92) This statement then leads to Ada being able to win back her piano. Ada then further bargains with Baines and after "she had succeeded in reducing her payment to half and felt, even within these compromising circumstances, proud.
