Theme of Lies in Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Who Says it Has To Be A Lie

The novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert has numerous lessons hidden in seemingly ordinary dialogue. One of the most memorable and powerful passages contains what is a veritable moral of the novel. In the last third of the book, Emma Bovary's life goes on a rapid downward spiral, and in one significant scene, she reflects on her life, past, and what she has learned from her affairs. On page 200, one line strikes the reader: "everything was a lie!" This avowal can be applied to many different situations in the novel, and can be said to be the chief lesson Flaubert wishes to exploit.

Throughout this passage, Emma remembers her past, a time when she was more innocent and perhaps less preoccupied with her troubles. She remembers her time in the convent as a young girl (a time when she was happy and passionate about life). As time perished, she grew bored of the ordinary life of a student in a convent. At this point, stories of love and passion called to her more than ever.

She remembers how she fantasized about the love affairs that she secretly read about in her romance novels, envisioning her life to comprise of similar satisfactions. She recalls how her vivid imagination had engrossed her into the depths of the story. One may say that this sudden change could be due to her imagination implanting false information into her head. Life certainly has not turned out the way she dreamed.

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...

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...r debts were based on deception, and she is too scared to tell her husband anything, adding another lie to the web she has entangled herself into. A tragic character to the end, she even has to lie to get the arsenic, saying she has to kill rats but in all reality she wanted to kill herself.

In the end, Emma has proven beyond a doubt, that everything in her life was a lie. From her childhood, she created fantasies that she could not act out, and to her marriage, where treachery and betrayal were the foundation of the marriage. Furthermore, her love affairs all ended in lies, and her business transactions were utterly fraudulent. Even her suicide was based on a lie- she lies to get the poison and lies to her husband when he asks what she ate. Thus, the line "everything was a lie!? has enhanced significance when examined in the context of the entire novel.