In the story A Simple Heart and The Death of Ivan Ilyich the authors show the differences among social class during that time. In A Simple Heart, Felicite is seen as poor and from the lower class who goes and works for Madame Aubaine who is in the middle class and has more power over her. One also sees how Felicite’s first lover Theodore goes off and marries someone rich just to get out of having to go to the military and how Madame Aubaine son Paul (who is wealthy) shows little sympathy and no care in the world to Felicite after his mothers death. However, in the story The Death of Ivan Ilyich one sees how most of the characters fit into the middle class and how the author portrays them as being very greedy, selfish and petty. The author
