Compare the role of historical progress in the ideas of two of the following: Marx and Flaubert.

For Hegel historical progress was that The present contains the past. Marx applied this to his ideas using Hegels dialectic approach of; the thesis giving rise to the antithesis, which combine to provide a synthesis, which constitutes a linear cause (past), effect (present) and result (future). Thus, his ideas relate to three moments; That which was, that which is and that which will be, The opening of the Communist Manifesto, The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles, (Marx & Engels, 1888), demonstrates the strength with which the idea of historical progress influenced the ideas of Marx meaning they considered progress today has occured through the past struggle between classes. They go onto give evidence for this prior statement with moments in history which have experienced class struggles, hightlighting the that which was,
In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle-Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations (Marx & Engels, 1888)

Going on to construct progress as historical that which is as a result of that which was,
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms....It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.......splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.......the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange. (Marx & Engels, 1888)

The below quote shows further construction of the that which is this time applied to the Proletariat as a result of these new conditions of oppression,
The alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his labor becomes an object, an external existence, but that it exists outside him, independently, as something alien to him, and that it becomes a power on its own confronting him. It means that the life which he has conferred on the object confronts him as something and alien. and So much does the labors realization appear as loss of realization that the worker loses realization to the point of starving to death. (Marx, 1844)

These abstracts demonstrate all three dialectic moments; the alienation of the worker from the product, which is an external object, which becomes a power that confronts him and in the second quote; labours realisation, the loss of realisation and the point of starvation. This use of three moments suggests the role of historical progress as a moral warning and instruction. This use of historical progress as a moral warning is further evident in the conclusion of part 1 with the description of revolution dialectically spiralling to the demise of society. Part two,

highlights the aims of the communist party to equal society beginning with the abolition of bourgeois property. (Marx & Engels, 1888) In contrast, historical progress has no role in the ideas of Flaubert. Flaubert in prose constructs only one moment that which is as realistically as possible in the novel Madame Bovary (1857) His writing is autotelic and uses the perfection of art as art based in reality that because of their perfect form, reality is understood. However, the form doesn't constitute a moral message or instruction. Set in the same era of the bourgeois culture as Marx text. Flaubert constructs realistic characters that embodied the reality of the time. This descriptive passage constructs Emma as a romantic living life in a book, before marriage during it and in the pursuit of love.
Before marriage she thought herself in love; but the happiness that should have followed this love not having come, she must, she thought, have been mistaken. And Emma tried to find out what one meant exactly in life by the words felicity, passion, rapture, that had seemed to her so beautiful in books. (Flaubert, 1857)

This passage is a construction of the distinction between the bourgeois environments Emma was in and her Proletariat roots constructing her progress not historically but all in the single moment of the party.
Madame Bovary turned her head and saw in the garden the faces of peasants pressed against the window looking in at them. Then the memory of the Bertaux came back to her. She saw the farm again, the muddy pond, her father in a blouse under the apple trees, and she saw herself again as formerly, skimming with her finger the cream off the milk-pans in the dairy. But in the refulgence of the present hour her past life, so distinct until then, faded away completely, and she almost doubted having lived it. (Flaubert, 1857)

In conclusion, for Marx moral warning and instruction is the role of historical progress through the highlighting of three moments; cause (past), effect (present) and result (future). In contrast, however, Flauberts idea was to construct a single moment of reality through art for the sake of art meaning historical progress has no role. Bibliography
Flaubert, G. (1857). Madame Bovary. Retrieved from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2413 Marx, K. (1844). Estranged Labour. Retrieved from Marxist Internet Archives: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1888). The Communist Manifesto. Retrieved from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61