Madame Bovary

By Gustave Flaubert

The NovelThe Novel

The Novel

• Written by French author Gustave Flaubert

• Published in 1856

• The tragic story of Emma Bovary, a doctor’s wife, who engages in

adulterous affairs to escape the emptiness of her life

Flaubert’s Madame Bovary

Issues & Contexts

Main issues

• Anti-Romantic novel with underlying Romantic impulses– simultaneous criticism and admiration of Emma Bovary;

Emma as base and materialistic but also unfulfilled dreamer, failed Romantic hero, a sort of female Don Quixote

– Flaubert was tried on charges of immorality stemming from the publication of the novel; successfully defended himself arguing that the novel's ending upholds morality and illustrates the consequences of sin

• Critical portrayal of bourgeois life as driven by petty self-interest and hypocrisy

More Issues

Novel Illustrates:• Belief in possibility of genuine professionalism, craftsmanship,

and scientific knowledge

• Redeeming power of art– victory of art over reality, a passionate search for Beauty,

even though it is an illusion

• Narrative technique blends authorial and characters' perspectives. – "The author, in his work, must be like God in the universe,

present everywhere and visible nowhere" (Flaubert)

• Flaubert's critical attitude toward the bourgeoisie related to the failure of the popular revolutions in France and the growing power, selfishness, and arrogance of the middle classes.– French Revolution: popular uprising against the monarchy of Louis

XVI; ideals of liberty, equality, and brotherhood; storming of the Bastille (July 14); "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen" (August 27)

• Popular and egalitarian character of 1789 French Revolution betrayed in Napoleon Bonaparte's Consulate (1799-1804) and his later crowning as Emperor of France (1804-1815)

• Napoleon as characteristic of the bourgeois adoption of aristocratic values and attitudes; return to monarchic, dictatorial model; denial of the values of freedom and equality embodied in the Revolution of 1789

Main Historical Contexts

• Repeated failures of revolutionary movements in France (1830-1848)– The July Revolution in France, students and workers who wanted a

republic against monarchists.

• Constitutional monarchy, Louis-Philippe, king of France (1830-1848); Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's repetition of his uncle's historical trajectory and favoring of the bourgeoisie at the expense of the popular classes

• French middle classes represented in Madame Bovary by the variety of professionals (doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, notaries, bankers, etc.) and townspeople; middle and professional classes marked by seeming "progressiveness" masking underlying selfishness and hypocritical, self-serving purposes

More Historical Contexts

The Novel

Thesis

Emma’s tragedy is a result of her romantic tendencies

• misery

• bad decisions

• destruction

The Novel

Emma

Emma • The novel’s protagonist: a romanticist who desires wealth, passion and high society

• 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)

• Romantic, superficial, disillusioned, contemptuous, unforgiving, selfish

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• 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

• Her romantic ideals supplanted reason

Destruction

• By her third romance, she became more desperate for love; seen in her capriciousness, self-destructing behaviour

• Achieving romantic passion became a do-or-die decision

Emma • Does not realize the fault in her feelings: instead, she feels entitled to her ideals

“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)”

• Never takes responsibility for her own actions and consequences

The Novel

Do you find Emma a relatable character?

Discussion Question

The NovelThemes

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

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.

• Emma is ruled by the men in her life: her father, her husband, her lovers, her debtors

• She is restricted and unable to escape

The NovelThe Author

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

The NovelLiterary Theory

Realism

• dealt w/ portraying contemporary life and society “as they were” • writers opted to portray everyday life experiences rather than highly stylized or romantic

• Honore de Balzac