Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

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Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

When Gustave Flaubert wrote Madame Bovary, the Romantic Movement was in full swing. This enabled writers to be more concerned with feelings and emotions rather than form and artistic qualities. Flaubert considered some of the novels written to be good, but others (e.g., romance novels) he viewed to be poor. Flaubert's satirical view towards romantic novels is shown throughout this work of fiction. The title character cannot distinguish reality from fantasy. The relationships that Emma partakes in are doomed because of her desire to live in a fantasy world. The reader sees her inability to behave in a decent manner between her relationships with Charles, Leon, Rodolphe, and even her daughter, Berthe.

When Emma plans her wedding to Charles, the readers learn: "Emma would have preferred to be married at midnight by torchlight" (p. 22). Instead, she settles for a traditional wedding. Charles adores Emma: "He was happy, without a care in the world…" (p. 28). Charles realized that he "possessed, for life, this pretty wife whom he adored" (p. 29). Emma, on the other hand, feels differently. Through the narrator, the readers learn her inner thoughts:

Before her marriage she had believed herself to be in love; but since the happiness which should have resulted from this love had not come to her, she felt that she must have been mistaken. And she tried to find out exactly what was meant in life by the words 'bliss', 'passion,' and 'rapture,' which had seemed so beautiful to her in books (pp. 29, 30).

Charles will never be able to live up to Emma's high expectations or the dashing, charming, intellectual characteristics the men possesses in her novels.

Emma's relationship w...

... middle of paper ...

... to her mother: " 'Leave me alone!' Emma repeated angrily. The look on her face frightened the child and she began to shriek. 'I told you to leave me alone!' said Emma, shoving her away with her elbow" (p. 100). The fantasy world in which Emma constantly lives in prevents her from loving her daughter the way that a mother should.

Emma goes through life being selfish, obsessive, and unloving. In her search for passion, love and sensuality, she destroys the lives of her husband, Charles, and her daughter, Berthe. Sadly, Emma honestly believes she would find passion, bliss, and the love spoken about in the romantic novels she read. If she stopped searching for her fantasy life, and accepted her reality life with Charles and Berthe then she could have found happiness within those two relationships.

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Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

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