Two novels/plays to compare

Hi everyone.... I'm new here.
For my thesis, I have to compare two literary works (novels/plays) from different authors. The two works can be from the same period or not. The stories must share the same issues and from both of the books, we can get one conclusion. The works can be compared from its characterisations or conflicts.
I am completely stuck on what two to choose. I really appreciate any suggestions :)
Thank you!

What have you already read?

Hello, good luck with writing!

I would personally love to see Constance Ring by Amalie Skram and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert compared. Both feature (extreme spoilers, sorry) unfaithful wives in an unhappy marriage, who become disillusioned and eventually commit suicide. There are many similar themes and many parallels.

The problem is whether or not they have the same conclusion. I'm sure if one wishes them to, they can, but everything always has ambiguity.

I am rusty on Madame Bovary, perhaps you've read it and remember, but Constance Ring definitely wants the reader to realize marriage's double standards. For example, an unfaithful wife is condemned while wives are expected to forgive unfaithful husbands. Another major conclusion is that sheltering and lying to young women to keep them innocent is harmful. It gives them unrealistic expectations and makes them unable to cope with life outside of marriage, trapping them in it. Skram may also be disillusioned with marriage and love in general and might want the reader to come to the same conclusions.

I would start with a book that you love and know well. Then go to that work and look at the member recommendations. And specifically those with explanations so you have some idea of why the member put them together. For example, other possibilities with Madame Bovary would be The Awakening, Don Quixote, or The Bad Girl.

I agree with MarthaJeanne. You really should start with at least one book you've already read and hopefully liked. It makes seeing parallels for comparison much easier.

I think Madame Bovary is just an awful book, both in length and interestability (is that a word?). How about Old Yeller and The Yearling The Diary of Anne Frank and From Ashes to Life or writings by Anne Bradstreet compared with a male at the same time Captain John Smith or William Bradford

Ahhh...did not catch novel/play. Then only my first two could be considered! But I have also thought about two women authors: Emily or Charlotte Bronte (sisters, even) or compare one of Jane Austen's works.

I also thought about "The Lost Generation" perhaps Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.

Thesis, I assume, means college, at least. Therefore I would not advise YA books. The OP specifically says novels or plays. The WWII books are nonfiction. Anne Bradstreet seems to have written poetry. Captain John Smith also seems to have written nonfiction.

Madame Bovary would not be my first choice either. I would be more likely to choose 1984 and a novel that takes place in a real life dystopia, or V for Vendetta if I thought the professor would accept a graphic novel. But 1984 is one of the books I have read multiple times, and V for Vendetta is high on the list of books I would like to read if I can get hold of a copy in English without paying for it. That is the kind of combination the OP needs to find for him/herself.

>7 MarthaJeanne: Some American high schools assign a lengthy paper of this type, and call it a thesis, even though it doesn't require the kind of background research that a thesis in college would. I did an assignment like this in high school where I compared Becket, Lion in Winter, Murder in the Cathedral, and Curtmantle. But I was extremely interested in Henry II and his family.

The reader has to be invested in the books in some way. Otherwise, at best, the paper is going to be very dull, and, at worst, the assignment is going to seem impossible.

What periods have you been studying? what sort of issues interest you? Just to be sure, did you mean that both books must lead to the same conclusion (and do you mean 'conclusion' as 'ending of the book' or as 'deduction to be drawn from the book'?) or that each book inevitably leads to only one possible conclusion, not necessarily the same one as the other book does? Don't mean to sound picky--just wondering whether you might say a bit more about it. Personally, I think the project would be more likely to hold my interest if the works were so wildly different in the details that are left open to you that no one else would dream of pairing the two. I'd be more likely to be bored by writing about works that were very much alike, and I'd be less likely to spot the differences between them.

Hi aulsmith.. Ive read many books such as "1984", "Brave New World", "Fahrenheit 451", "A Handmaid's Tale", "Pride and Prejudice", and many more. Actually, I'd like to analyze the characterisation of "1984" and "Brave New World". But I can't use those novels because from this past five years, there was someone who has analyzed it.

Hi. Thank you for your suggestion Anoplophora.
I haven't read those books. I will read them as soon as possible. From your comment, maybe I can analyze the portayal of the main character. Anyway, thanks again :)
It really helps and I appreciate it so much..

The books that I like and know are kind of fiction and series novels. We are not allowed to use that kind of novels. I prefer dystopian or about sexual orientation or murder. Thank you MarthaJeanne.

Hi tess, thanks for your comment. Any books recommendation always help me. I will read them.

Hi again MarthaJeanne. I appreciate your help very much. I do not know if a graphic novel is allowed or not because novella and autobiographical are not allowed.
I have read 1984 for two times and I like it.

Hi bluepiano. We have studied many periods.
Actually, I prefer dystopian, parent-child relationship, and gay problems. Both books must lead to the same conclusion as a deduction can be drawn from the books.
Such as "The Great Gatsby" with "The Sun Also Rises", "1984" and "Brave New World"
Do you have any idea of the books? Thank you for your comment

Extremely hypocritical of me, but I want to take back my suggestion. I agree with the other people, Madame Bovary really is quite boring. I think that actually might be on purpose, Flaubert's attempt to mirror Madame Bovary's boredom with the reader's. I half assumed you had read it already and half didn't consider how enjoyable it was.

I don't know if it would fit in with the parameters of your course, but I'd be tempted to compare The handmaid's tale and Faggots - you could argue that they are both dystopian novels about societies that try to make an artificial split between sexual and emotional relationships. But Faggots is definitely not a book for younger readers - it's almost certainly a bad idea to use it for a high-school assignment. If you can get away with it, it might be an excellent way to test the tolerance of your tutors...

You could also consider comparing Handmaid's Tale to 1984. Or possibly one of the other feminist
dystopias like Gate to Women's Country or Walk to the End of the World

>15 popolili: Don't know whether I ought to reply, as aside from the period I don't see a connection between Gatsby & the Hemingway--in fact, I'd be hard put to think of either, esp. Gatsby, as being the sort of novel one thinks about & draws conclusions from. The first pairing that occurred to me was Genet's Thief's Journal and Rechy's City of Night: unrepentant gay criminals who presented and endorsed lives of transgression. Both are literary, but problem is that I don't know how far they are fiction. What about 2 wildly different Bildungsromans that focus on parents/child or upon sexuality and that overall project a similar attitude/conclusion? Another pairing that occurs to me is 'City of Dreadful Night' by James Thomson and the poems of Georg Heym: death, a horror and a hell beneath the surface, no chance of alleviation, at best fleeting glimpses of beauty in the natural . . . shall think more about it if you like.

Comparing City of Night and Thief's Journal would make one hell of a paper, but, unfortunately, they are (or purport to be) autobiographical.

I agree with bluepiano on Gatsby and The Son Also Rises. I don't see any comparison at all. Gatsby and Line of Beauty, which is glbt, would work.