Madame Bovary and Techniques in Fiction

1. Conceptions: The Origin of a Story

Gustave Flaubert in all probability got the idea for Madame Bovary

when he and Louise Colet became lovers, in which the novel was written

at the time of the affair. When Flaubert and his mistress first

started to have the affair, they wrote love letters to each other as

any other lover would. The letters that Flaubert would write were

similar to the journals the authors use to help stimulate ideas for

their novel. (TIF, 10) Flaubert in all wanted to expose the whole

aspect of having affairs and encompassing mistresses.

Putting the setting at his birthplace made him more comfortable with

the area allowing him to have the full coverage of the city such as

knowing all the streets and the back roads that Madame Bovary uses.

(Flaubert, 261) The more familiar the area is the more realistic it

would seem, such as where the houses were located. The whole aspect

of the city is not imaginative but more practical.

The characters in Madame Bovary resemble Flaubert and his family in

many ways, for instance the elder Mrs. Bovary as Flaubert’s mother.

They both have are widows in their future life, and they have the

sense of protectiveness of their children. Since Flaubert’s father is

a doctor, he had to incorporate that characteristic in Charles

Bovary. However, I think the greatest resemblance between the

characters of the novel and Flaubert’s family is Flaubert and Madame

Bovary because they both have nostalgia for Paris. As Flaubert places

himself in a woman’s place you can see his true self coming out. As

they both want the pleasurable sensual feeling of love and to some

extent, becomes a drug, where they are addicted and cannot find the

end. Madame Bovary and Flaubert...

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...way Emma sees Charles as the dorky village

doctor, and how the children say as unromantic, clearly shows the lack

of respect the she has for him, his entire life is devoted to her. To

show that even cared he forgave her lover saying that it was destiny

that choose its path. The way Flaubert embraced Charles and his

affection to his daughter Berthe has included a bit of himself and his

care for his motherless niece.

Madame Bovary is a historicist fallacy because the readers judge the

book because of the time it was written in and what the time and

setting is. Flaubert did not want dell with the lawsuits and the

modernization of France. All he wanted to do was put out in words

what societies doing. His need for perfection really made him strive

for the perfect sound. He would work for hours on days until he could

find that one word that drove him crazy.