The article is devoted to the problem of choice between feeling and social duty in the Turgenev's story Mumu and Wharton's novella Ethan Frome. The aim of the work is to find out the common and different features in the behavior and way of thinking of Russian serf and American farmer. The comparative analysis allows us to conclude that Ivan Turgenev and Edith Wharton have similar views on the problem of choice between individual desires and social duty.