Madame Bovary Essay, Research Paper
Madame Bovary
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 with Leon has two stages. During the first stage, there is no adulterous affair. This is due to her misguided feelings of love: “Love, she felt ought to come all at once, with great thunderclaps and flashes of lightning; it was like a storm bursting upon life from the sky, uprooting it, overwhelming the will and sweeping the heart into the abyss (p. 87). This passage illustrates Flaubert’s opinion that romance novels have clouded her mind and shaped her expectations of how love must enter her life. If love does not occur in this manner, then it cannot be called love.
Shortly after Leon departs for Paris, Emma meets Rodolphe. When he sees her for the first time he thinks to himself: “And she’s bored! She wishes she could live in town and dance the polka every night. Poor woman! She’s gasping for love like a carp gasping for water on a kitchen table. A few sweet words and she’d adore me, I’m sure of it! She’d be affectionate, charming…. Yes, but how could I get rid of her later?” (p. 113). Emma has dreamed of hearing these words her entire life. After they have started their affair, Flaubert illustrates the humor of romance novels by Emma saying: ‘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, that fever of happiness she had despaired of ever knowing. She was entering a marvelous realm in which everything would be passion, ecstasy and rapture…” (p. 140). Rodolphe begins to “treat her coarsely, without consideration” (p. 165). Ironically, this is the same way that Emma treats Charles. Eventually, Emma begs Rodolphe to take her away. He agrees because “he lost his head” (p. 167). On the day they were to leave, Emma receives a letter explaining why he was not running away with her. This letter causes her to become ill. “Sometime her heart would pain her, then it would be her chest…” (p. 182). Only after she forces Rodolphe from her mind, does she finally regain her health.
Emma attends a theatre performance with Charles and re-encounters Leon. Emma and Leon’s love rekindles itself, and they begin the second stage of their affair. Despite their love affair and declarations of love for one another, these two were happier in a fantasy world instead of reality. They both had unrealistic expectations about how love should be. Eventually, this leads them searching for a way out of their relationship. “She was satiated with him as he was tired of her” (p. 251).
As a final point, Emma relationship with Berthe’s, her daughter, was doomed simply because Berthe was born a girl. “A man, at least, is free; he can explore the whole range of the passions…” (p. 76). Throughout the novel, Berthe’s existence is rarely mentioned, except when she is portrayed as a nuisance 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.
Bibliography
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Другие работы по теме:
Love Vs Society In Madame Bovary Essay
, Research Paper Jennifer Bigsby November 27, 2000 In an ideal world, like the one Emma Bovary yearns for in Flaubert?s book Madame Bovary, romantic relationships are based on the principle that the two participants are madly in love with each other. But in the world Gustave Flaubert paints in his book, as in the real world, passion and personal gain are the only reasons people enter into a relationship.
Madame Bovary Windows Essay Research Paper Windows
Madame Bovary: Windows Essay, Research Paper Windows frequently appear in the novel Madame Bovary. Emma is constantly peering out of windows. Windows are a symbol of hope and dreams, and also escape.
Madame Bovary Essay Research Paper 2
Madame Bovary Essay, Research Paper Emma Bovary, scorned, pitiful, and unsatisfied searches for happiness though wealth and sundry lovers, as the main character in Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary. Emma is not the first character to be presented, but Charles Bovary, Emma’s husband opens the piece.
Madame Bovary And Truth Essay Research Paper
2/22/97 Madame Bovary – Timed Writing question: Select a moment or scene in a novel that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.
The Use Of A Narrative Voice In
Conjunction With Sympathy And Rejection Essay, Research Paper Brian King July 5, 2000 Eng. 122 The Use of a Narrative Voice in Conjunction with Sympathy and Rejection
Symbolic Bovine Essay Research Paper Although often
Symbolic Bovine Essay, Research Paper Although often considered a realistic novel, Gustave Flaubert sprinkles Madame Bovary with symbolism essential to his message. While doing so he also depicts the desperate situation of many 19th century women and the various reasons for their predicament. The main character, Madame Emma Bovary, is a hopeless romantic continually in search of a love she will never find.
The Self Destruction Of Characters In Madame
Bovar Essay, Research Paper Madame Bovary, as well as Crime and Punishment, can both be seen asexcellent novels. They can also be compared in many ways. Both in MadameBovary and Crime and Punishment there are characters that self-destruct dueto selfish ambitions. A few comparisons between the characters I have chosen,Emma and Marmeladov, include the worshipping of material things; carelessactions; and the harming of those they love.
Character Relations In The Awakening Essay Research
Paper It would be easy to say that Edna Pontellier emulates both Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, however, throughout the novel, it is evident that Edna steps out beyond this assumption and asserts herself as another person altogether. This is obvious in the defining features of each of the women.
Gustave FlaubertS Madame Bovary Essay Research Paper
Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is almost cynical. Emma is flighty; she is unable to face the prospect of not being completely, happy, and rich. She turns her back on a loving husband who would give her anything it was in his power to give, and quests after a life out of a storybook. This book is satirical; Flaubert is almost poking fun at Madame Bovary’s silly reasoning.
Madame Bovary Essay Research Paper In Gustave
Madame Bovary Essay, Research Paper In Gustave Flaubert?s Madame Bovary, the characters Leon Dupuis and Rodolphe Boulanger share similar attributes as well as contrasting ones. The similarity and contrasting characteristics of their personalities are illustrated through their actions, words, as well as by the remarks made by the other characters in the novel concerning them.
Music And Pop Culture Essay Research Paper
One theme involves revenge. One’s bad side is brought out by the evil effects of revenge. Madame Defarge is the main subject of this implicit theme. She turns into a killing machine because she must get
Cherry Orchard Not Good Not Bad Just
Fair Essay, Research Paper Not Good, Not Bad, Just Fair There are no heroes and no villains. In Anton Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard,” Chekhov does not favor or disfavor any character. He merely presents the characters fairly. His presentation of the characters may cause confusion if the reader tries to blame the outcome of the story on a character, but maybe there is no one at fault or the blame is to be shared.
For Lack Of A Better Man Essay
, Research Paper Madame Bovary-Symbolism For Lack of a Better Man Gustave Flaubert presents one extreme side of human life many would very much rather think does not exist. He presents a tale of sensual symbolism within the life of Charles Bovary. Madame Bovary is the story of Emma Bovary, but within the scope of symbolic meaning, the make-up of Charles is addressed.
Madame Liang Essay Essay Research Paper Madame
Madame Liang Essay Essay, Research Paper Madame Liang essay In the book Three Daughters of Madame Liang there is a big emphasis on art. Art played a big role in the liver of the four main women in the novel. Joy, Madame Liang, Mercy, and Grace without art these four women’s lives would have been drastically changed.
Madame Bovary Essay Research Paper Striving for
Madame Bovary Essay, Research Paper Striving for higher social status has been the downfall of many people just as it was the destruction of Emma Bovary. In Nineteenth Century France, several class existed: peasant or working class, middle class, upper-middle class, bourgeois, and aristocrats. In the story, “Madame Bovary,” we see a number of individuals striving to move themselves up to the bourgeois, a status that is higher than the working class but not as high as nobility.
Madame Bovary By Flaubert Essay Research Paper
Gustave Flaubert?s Madame Bovary tells the story of a woman?s quest to make her life into a novel. Emma Bovary attempts again and again to escape the ordinariness of her life by reading novels, daydreaming, moving from town to
Madame Bovary-Compare And Contrast Between Rodolphe And
Leon Essay, Research Paper In Gustave Flaubert?s Madame Bovary, the characters Leon Dupuis and Rodolphe Boulanger share similar attributes as well as contrasting ones. The similarity and contrasting characteristics of their personalities are illustrated through their actions, words, as well as by the remarks made by the other characters in the novel concerning them.
Gustave Flaubert And Madame Bovary Comparisons Essay
, Research Paper Gustave Flaubert and Madame Bovary: Comparisons We would like to think that everything in life is capable, or beyond the brink of reaching perfection. It would be an absolute dream to look upon each
Madame Bovary The Tragic Love Triangle Of
Yonville Essay, Research Paper Gustave Flubert’s masterpiece, Madame Bovary, was first published in 1857. The novel shocked many of its readers and caused a chain reaction that spread through all of France and ultimately called for the prosecution of the author. Since that time however, Madame Bovary, has been recognized by literature critics as being the model for the present literary period, being the realistic novel period.
The Prioress Madame Eglantine Essay Research Paper
The Prioress, Madame Eglantine In the “General Prologue” of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduces the readers to pilgrims he meets in the town of Southwerk as he begins his pilgrimage to Canterbury. The pilgrim I found to be most interesting was the Prioress. Chaucer tells the reader that she is a nun and her name is Madame Eglantine.
The Awakening 5 Essay Research Paper The
The Awakening 5 Essay, Research Paper The Awakening In the novella The Awakening by Kate Chopin, two supporting characters, Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, represent two distinctively different females of the Victorian Age. Madame Ratignolle serves as society s idea of the ideal woman. There [is] nothing subtle or hidden about her charms; her beauty [is] all there, flaming and apparent: the spun-gold hair that [neither] comb nor confining pen could restrain; the blue eyes that [are] like nothing but sapphires; two lips that pout, that [are] so red one could think of cherries or some other delicious crimson fruit in looking at them.
Madame Bovary Essay Research Paper It can
Madame Bovary Essay, Research Paper It can be inferred that many women in today s society read romance novels in order to obtain a sense of fulfillment. Furthermore, the ideas and plots that are acquired from these role models are most often carried over into everyday life. While there is a good intention, most do not realize that their new lives are fake.
Madame Bovary Essay Research Paper In Madame
Madame Bovary Essay, Research Paper In Madame Bovary by gustave Flaubert, the theme of fantasy not always being reality is carried throughout the novel. Emma prefered the fantasy world to the real world. She spent most of her time yearning for a life with passion, exitement, and bliss. She was blind to the world around her, she longed for the romantic fantasy life she had dreamed about since she was a child.
An Education In Escape Madame Bovary And
Reading Essay, Research Paper An Education in Escape: Madame Bovary and Reading A theme throughout Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is escape versus confinement. In the novel Emma Bovary attempts again and again to escape the
Madame Bovary Essay Research Paper Madame BovaryThe
Madame Bovary Essay, Research Paper Madame Bovary The Victorian era was a time of both beauty and elegance. Many wonderful novels were written during the period including Jane Erye by Charlotte Bronte and her sister Emily s famous work, Wuthering Heights. But in contrast there are novels that express Anti-Victorian sentiments as well.
Comparison Between Madame Bovary And The Awakening
Essay, Research Paper A Comparison between Madame Bovary and The Awakening Centuries ago, in France, Gustave Flaubert wrote Madame Bovary. In 1899, Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening. The years can not separate the books, and the definite similarities that the two show. Madame Bovary is the story of a woman who is not content with her life, and searches for ways to get away from the torture she lives everyday.
Madame Bovary Essay Research Paper The novel
Madame Bovary Essay, Research Paper The novel Madame Bovary was written by Gustave Flaubert in 1856. Flaubert was born in 1821, in Rouen, France. His father, being a doctor, caused him to be very familiar with the horrible sights of the hospital, which he in turn uses in his writings. In this novel, Charles Bovary, an undereducated doctor of medicine has two wives in his life.
Madame Bovary Essay Research Paper A central
Madame Bovary Essay, Research Paper A central theme in Flaubert’s novel, Madame Bovary, is that of reality versus illusion. In this story, Emma Bovary attempts to escape the mundane of normal life to fulfill her fantasies. By enjoying romantic novels, traveling from place to place, indulging in luxuries, and having affairs, she attempts to live the life that she imagines while studying in the convent.
A Tale Of Two Cities Reversal Of
Characters Essay, Research Paper A Tale of Two Cities: Reversal of Characters When writing a book, most authors are writing about an issue they have. However, other themes become apparent through the course of the piece, either
Essay On Themes Of Tale Of Two
Cities Essay, Research Paper A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens contained many themes that are practiced throughout the book. Two of these themes are altruism and resurrection. The characters Madame Defarge and Sydney Carton are used to exemplify these themes.
Tale Of 2 Citys Comp Essay Research
Paper Patrick Landis (30) Analysis of embedded detailsEnglish 10 (30) At least three quotes used correctlyDr. Myers , p.6 (30) Zero sentence structure errorsDecember 13, 1998 (30) Effective concluding paragraph Comparison of Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge are two important characters in Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities .
Madame Bovary Destiny Essay Research Paper Madame
Madame Bovary: Destiny Essay, Research Paper Madame Bovary: Destiny Destiny: the seemingly inevitable succession of events.1 Is this definition true, or do we, as people in real life or characters
A Tale Of Two Cities The
Haneious Deeds Of Madame Defarge Essay, Research Paper In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, the characters created contribute to the plot revolving around the French Revolution. Each character portrays a role that ultimately intertwines with the plot. Dickens does a very good job in creating a habit, trait or turn of phrase for the characters.