Both Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and Gustav Flaubert's "A Simple Heart (Soul)" capture the conflict that existed between social classes in the nineteenth century. Please answer the following questions in a two to three paragraph response.

Drawing upon evidence from the texts, compare and contrast the ways in which social class is depicted in these two works.

To what extent are these stories a form of social critique?

To what extent do the authors present these stories as such?