The role of women remains the same throughout the history of humanity. Many women prepare for the role of wife and mother from an early age. If one is not married at a certain age they are labeled as a spinster, a prude. Hedda Gabler and Emma Bovary, fearing being nicknamed spinsters, marry men they both despise. In the mid-1800s, the Emma Bovary period: women considered inferior to their male counterparts, could not divorce their husbands, and their husbands essentially owned them. Unfortunately, nothing changes during Hedda Gabler's setting. Due to their society, they are alienated individuals hindered due to their social status, gender, and misguided intentions. Due to their social class, Hedda Gabler and Madame Bovary both become alienated individuals. The latter, however, is part of the bourgeoisie; he believes his rightful place is in the upper class. She married her husband in hopes of traveling and acquiring great wealth along the way. She dreamed of romance, wealth, and fame, but she couldn't have achieved any of these concepts if she had stayed with Charles. Emma wanted to attend balls, host extravagant parties and have a large network of prominent citizens in France, but being part of the bourgeois limitations what could be done. After attending a dance with her husband, she concluded that the environment she found herself in was banal and that “she had been there by chance: out there, the immense territory of ecstasy and passion stretched as far as the eye could see. In her desire she made no difference between the pleasures of luxury and the joys of the heart, between elegant life and sensitive feelings."(66) While Hedda Gabler once belonged to the upper class, she knows the joys of such parties and extravagances. . .. half of the sheet ... her family has immense debts, gender and misguided intentions make Hedda Gabler and Emma Bovary alienated individuals commits suicide to avoid being caged and blackmailed by Judge Brack, while Emma commits suicide to avoid the public shame that will inevitably result from tarnishing her husband's name and acquiring unimaginable debts Hedda refuses to commit adultery because “she has made his bed, and now he has to lie in it” knows that every action or lie has its consequences Emma on the other hand commits adultery with two different men, trying to find her hopes and dreams. They both had a choice when choosing who they wanted to marry. Hedda Gabler wins, because although she is rude, manipulative and vindictive; he accepts the consequences of his actions unlike Emma.