Madame

Bovary
By Gustave Flaubert
The Novel
The Novel
The Novel
• The tragic story of Emma Bovary, a doctor’s wife, who engages in
adulterous affairs to escape the emptiness of her life

• Written by French author Gustave Flaubert

• Published in 1856
 Thesis
Emma’s tragedy is a result of her romantic tendencies

• misery
The Novel
• bad decisions
• destruction
Emma
The Novel
Emma
• The novel’s protagonist: a romanticist who desires wealth, passion
and high society
• Romantic, superficial, disillusioned, contemptuous, unforgiving, selfish

• Sought the passion and adventure that she read about in novels
“[…] love affairs, lovers , mistresses, persecuted
ladies fainting in lonely country houses, post riders
killed at every relay, horses ridden to death on every
page, dark forests, palpitating hearts, vows, sobs,
tears and kisses […] “ (36)
Misery
• Deluded by her ideals: her inability to reconcile reality with ideals leads to:
dissatisfaction and lethargy

• Dissatisfation with husband:

“He did not know how to swim, fence or shoot a pistol […]
But shouldn’t a man know everything, excel at all
sorts of activities, initiate you into the turbulence of
passion, the refinements and mysteries of life? This man
taught nothing, knew nothing, wanted nothing. He believed
her to be happy and she resented his steadfast calm, his
serene dullness, the very happiness she gave him.” (40)
Bad decisions
• Her romantic ideals supplanted reason
• She makes bad decisions in pursuit of her ideals: affairs, debts, neglecting child

• Rodolphe Boulanger: She repeated to herself, “I have a lover! I have a lover!” and the
thought gave her a delicious thrill, as though she were beginning a second puberty. At last
she was going to possess the joys of love, the fever of happiness she has despaired of every
knowing. She was entering a marvellous realm in which everything would be passion,
ecstasy and rapture
Destruction
• Achieving romantic passion became a do-or-die decision

• By her third romance, she became more desperate for love; seen in her
capriciousness, self-destructing behaviour
Emma
• Does not realize the fault in her feelings: instead, she feels entitled to her ideals
• Never takes responsibility for her own actions and consequences

“If only she could lean over the balcony of a Swiss

chalet, or enclose her melancholy in a Scottish
cottage, with a husband wearing a long black velvet
cloak, a sugar loaf hat and fancy gloves! (39)”
Discussion Question

Do you find Emma a

relatable character?
The Novel
Themes
The Novel
The Failings of the Bourgeoisie
• Critique of the ineffectual lives of the bourgeoisie

• Homais is the book’s prominent symbol of the bourgeoise

- he is a champion of science, despite not understanding it
- gives long and irrelevant speeches to make himself sound intelligent
Powerlessness of Women
• Emma is ruled by the men in her life: her father, her husband, her lovers, her debtors
• She is restricted and unable to escape

She hoped for a son; he would be strong and dark; she would call
him George; and this idea of having a male child was like an
expected revenge for all her impotence in the past. A man, at least,
is free; he can explore all passions and all countries, overcome
obstacles, taste of the most distant pleasures. But a woman is
always hampered. Being inert as well as pliable, she has against her
the weakness of the flesh and the inequity of the law. Like the veil
held to her hat by a ribbon, her will flutters in every breeze; she is
always drawn by some desire, restrained by some rule of conduct.
The Author
The Novel
Gustave Flaubert
(1821-1880)

• known for meticulous devotion to his art and style

•Influenced Guy de Maupassant, Edmond de Goncourt, Alphonse Daudet, and Zola,

Kafka, J.M. Coetzee among others
Literary Theory
The Novel
Realism
• Honore de Balzac

• dealt w/ portraying contemporary life and society “as they were”

• writers opted to portray everyday life experiences rather than highly stylized or romantic