Ambiguity In Madame Bovary

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The book Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is a story about a woman named Emma Bovary who has multiple affairs in order to escape the predictabilities and emptiness of small-town life. Emma is married to a doctor named Charles and together they have a girl named Berthe. Throughout the novel, Emma looks to find passion and pleasure, therefore leading her to such affairs. Emma can be seen as morally ambiguous through her affairs, dedication to her family, and sudden mood swings. In the novel, Emma has two affairs; one with a landowner named Rodolphe Boulanger and another with a law clerk named Leon. When Emma first meets Leon, she is attracted to him because they share an appreciation for music and literature, but she doesn’t cheat with him because she wants to keep her image of a good mother and wife. Here the reader sees Emma as a morally ambiguous character because she stays faithful to her family, but later in the book when Leon returns, Emma falls for his newfound urban experience and ends up having an affair with him. At first readers are happy that Emma stays loyal to herself and her family, but then she ends up falling for him and readers see that she does whatever to please herself. This affair reveals Emma’s moral ambiguity and plays a …show more content…

Emma’s moral ambiguity is significant to the novel as a whole because it shows how cheating on someone who has lovingly given everything to you can come back to haunt you. Emma ultimately killed herself because she always put herself first and did anything to satisfy her needs while putting her devoted family behind and going back to them when it was convenient. Emma can be seen as morally ambiguous through her affairs, dedication to her family, and sudden mood

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