""(Page 93) It is the joy of life that the reader begins to see emerge through Ada and her new connection with Baines. .
On the other hand, Emma has two affairs during her marriage to Charles. Emma pursues these men to find romantic happiness and bring joy into her life. However, both affairs end with Emma being more depressed and unhappy with life. Emma's affair with Léon takes place twice during the novel and the first time it ends Emma comments "He was gone, the only light of her life, her only hope of happiness."" (Page 99) These words show the joy that Emma had when she was with Léon. Her second affair, which also gave her happiness, was with Rodolphe. Rodolphe not only had Emma's "eyes full of admiration-(Page103) but he also believed Emma to be "much prettier and somewhat fresher.""(Page 103) than other women. Rodolphe was using' Emma and sadly, yet again Emma's heart is broken when Rodolphe sends her a letter that states that they can no longer be together and their plans to run away no longer exist. In one part of the letter Rodolphe comments "I was living in the bliss of this ideal happiness as under the shade of a poisonous tree, without seeing the consequences.""(Page 146) The letter is too much for Emma and she falls ill. Emma also had an infatuation with the Viscount because he represented a life Emma could never have. "Her heart was just like that: contact with the rich had left it smeared with something that would never fade away.""(Page44) The affairs that Emma and Ada engaged in both brought them happiness. However, this happiness only lasted for Emma a short time before she became discontented again.
Both women had a daughter, Ada's child Flora was from a previous encounter with her piano teacher Delwar Haussler. The father of Emma's child, Berthe, was her husband Charles Bovary. The relationship between mother and daughter is very different in both novels.