The Timeless Truth of Madame Bovary
Written in 1857, Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary has become a literary classic. Emma Bovary is a middle class country girl with a taste for rich things; she marries a doctor and has a little girl. Her husband, Charles, adores her and thinks that she can do no wrong. He overlooks the sign of her adultery, telling himself that her unhappiness is caused from her poor health, and forgives her excessive spending. Madame Bovary's excessive desires seem to come from her excessive reading of novels in which life seemed, to her, perfect. She "tried to find out what one meant exactly in life by the words felicity, passion, rapture, that had seemed to her so beautiful in books" (45). Through Emma, Flaubert illustrates that not being satisfied with what one is given in life leads to a sorrow.
Soon after Emma marries Charles, she finds that she is not satisfied with her new life, due to Charles' lack of romantics. Emma thinks to herself early on in the marriage, "A man, . . . should he not know everything, excel in the manifolds activities, initiate you into the energies of passion, the refinements of life, all mysteries? But this one [Charles] taught nothing, knew nothing, wished nothing. He thought her [Emma] happy; and she resented this calm, this serene heaviness, the very happiness she gave him" (54). Her need for Charles to be more romantic and his ignorance of her feelings lead her to despise him.
After a few years of their marriage, Emma has become so bored with her life that she has made herself sick from want. Her boredom is so great that she wishes she could talk to her servant, "but a sense of shame restrained her" (81). She held herself above everyone, therefore isolat...
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...ath does Emma come to realize that the best things in life is family and the happiness that it can provide. The selfishness that had ruled her life was nothing now all the things that were importune to before are now nothing. The things she had bought and the lovers she had been with are not with her now. Only Charles and her little girl, the ones she had tried to flee from are with her now.
The simple truth portrayed in Madame Bovary still pertains to the present, selfishness will lead to a life of discontentment. The Flaubert illustration of the unhappiness that thinking only of oneself can bring to others can still be seen in the world today. This is why Madame Bovary has lasted through the years as a novel full of timeless truth.
Works Cited
Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovery. Translated by Marx-Aveling, Eleanor. Grolier Incorporated, New York. N.D.
The underlying cause of World War 1 were the alliances within Europe. An alliance meant that if one country goes to war than the country associated will also fight. All the countries were picking sides before the war started. Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor that led the unification of the German states, did not like the fact that Germany was between Russia and France. “Bismarck formed the Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy in the year preceding
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Great War, also known as The First World War, lasted for four year (1914 to 1918). It brought a huge development of war technics and weapons. More number of countries had been involved in the Great War than any previous war. It involved the mobilization of the whole nations, not just an enormous army that turned the war into a “total war”. (Clare 6) However, historians are still arguing about the major cause of the World War I. The major cause will be one of the four long-term causes of WWI, which are Militarism, Alliance, Imperialism, and Nationalism. In my opinion, the two major causes would be Alliance and Nationalism. Alliance is an association between two or more countries for mutual benefits that formed with different treaties, while Nationalism is feeling and principles of patriotic.
After recollecting her memory of the romance novels, Madame Bovary remembers the few precious moments in her life: the waltzes, lovers, etc. Suddenly, while remembering these cherished moments, she decides that she was never happy. Even though sh...
There were many causes of World War 1 and one of the causes was Militarism.Militarism was a leading cause to WWI because the military had control over everything.In document 7 it shows how much money each country invested into their Army and Navy.These lead to the WW1 because with
In conclusion, the causes of World War One included many factors both long term and short term. Some factors go deeper and contributed to the tension and rivalry developing in the nineteenth century among the Great Powers stage. Such as things involving politics, cultures, economics and what I believe to be the most important, the alliance system; lots of other factors tie in with the complex web of alliances. There are many factors that lead on and link in with one another; this just explains a few of the well known factors. Most involve contributing to tension and rivalry. The Great War is considered to be one of the most significant events of the twentieth century.
In conclusion, World War I was a global disaster that disrupted the peace in many different areas. Along with nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and the alliance system, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a cause that sparked the horrific event of World War I. With the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente were two opposing groups, and two specific clashing forces were Germany and Russia. Although an attempt to spread harmony throughout Europe was made, all it did was cause a much greater threat to the peace around the world.
In the world created by Gustave Flaubert, Emma Bovary lives in torment. As a dreamer and idealized hopeless romantic, characters and critics belittle and disgrace her. Characters like Charles’ mother complain that Emma is idealistic because she reads too many romance novels that trifle with her mind. Some critics echo this complaint, while others defend Emma against this charge. I side with the latter and argue that Emma cannot be held responsible for idealistic notions she gets from novels because her entire social context insists that she substitute novel reading for actual experience, whether it be sexual or romantic. Emma is smart and sharp-witted; her idealistic romanticized notions are merely an adaptation to reality given her societal