Perspectives of Setting within Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert, a prominent French author, wrote his first work, Madame Bovary, in 1856. As a native of Rouen, France, Flaubert often incorporates aspects of French society, including the roles of women, into the novel. Because of how Flaubert portrayed Emma Bovary, the main character, in the novel, the French government deemed the literary work immoral brought Flaubert into trial. Flaubert also includes scenery from his hometown and the Normandy vicinity. In fact, Flaubert parallels the setting to mimic the personality of Emma. Flaubert demonstrates Emma’s constraint within her marriage through the openess of windows, foreshadows her failures through water imagery, and defines her fate through style indirect libre or the awareness of the narrator within space.

Flaubert places Emma’s constant opening and closing of windows symbolizes her escape from marriage. Emma often opens windows to release the restraint of her marriage with Charles, who she finds boring and peasant-like. Flaubert writes, “She came to the window to see him [Charles] off and stayed leaning on the sill between two pots of geranium, clad in her dressing-gown hanging loosely about her” (22). Emma’s lack of emotion as Charles prepares for his journey shows her desire for another love. Usually, a happily married wife would mourn the absence of her husband or even have tears and yell a long, sincere good-bye, but Emma does nothing of the sort. Emma approaches the situation with a stern attitude. Because of her lifeless attitude toward Charles, Emma, has hope to fulfill her dreams of life. This opportunity comes at the beginning of the agricultural affair. Flaubert describes Emma “leaning out at the window; she was often there. The window in the provinces replaces...

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...aving affairs and over-spending in Yonville contribute to her death as she performs these tasks to quench her desire for true love.

In conclusion, Flaubert depicts Emma’s personality through the openness of windows, water imagery, and through style indirect libre. Flaubert portrays many of Emma’s flaws, a reason for his trial in the late 1800’s because the French government deemed it immoral. During this time, women followed strict social rules that prohibited them from divorce or handling business affairs. Flaubert exploits these ideals through Emma as she wishes for true love outside of her unhappy marriage and how she obtains this goal. Emma has affairs with Leon and Roldolphe, something that the townspeople frown upon and deem Emma as compromising herself.

Works Cited

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Trans. Eleanor Marx Aveling. Mineola (NY): Dover, 1996.