Madame Bovary

A detailed Summary of Madame Bovary

In Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, we see that Emma's escape into fantasy, through her reading is what brings her life to an end. The observation on life that Flaubert makes in relation to Madame Bovary's life, is that one should not live one's life in an imaginary world. One should try to focus on the reality of what surrounds them because if the do not, the end result will only lead to self-destruction. Emma's eventual downfall starts with her relationship to her husband. Her lack of love for her husband leads her to commit adultery with two different men, one named Leon and the other named Rodolphe. In the end, she finds herself disappointed, which leads to her suicidal death by poison. Her yearn for a more superficial lifestyle is nothing more or less than that of the human condition in the modern world. To fill that emptiness, she begins to lose herself in the fantasies of literature.

Emma's process to her eventual downfall starts with her relationship

with her husband. Charles Bovary is a bourgeois, country, doctor, who is deeply in love with his wife. He would do anything for her happiness. At first Emma thinks that she loves him, but as time passes she realizes that her feelings for him are not pure.

smiling, to hear repeated to her at all hours that

pg. 252) The reason why Emma takes the arsenic is because she discovers that neither of her lovers will save her. Also, she resorts to the arsenic because her life is no longer a mirror image of those in her novels. Therefore, she commits suicide.

of her heart, as at the shaking of a falling

and yet all the time she was conscious of

In a town called Yonville, Emma encounters a man by the name of Leon. Leon is a lawyer. From the moment she lays her eyes on him, she is attracted to him. She idolizes him like she idolizes the love she reads about in her novels. Thoughts go through her head that make her want to run away with him to start a new life. "She was seized with temptation to flee somewhere with Leon to try a new life." (Flaubert, pg. 83) As she spends more and more time with Leon, she begins to fall in love with him. This marks the beginning of Emma's novels come to life. Also, this is the beginning of her confusion between reality and fantasy. As time passes Leon has to go away for study. Emma and Leon begin to grow apart and her love for him starts to subside. While Leon is away studying, she meets another man named Rodolphe whom she falls head over heels for. Rodolphe is the one who eventually dominates her and he is in fact, the cold and conniving seducer. Emma lies to Charles about leaving town to go do shopping, but really she goes to visit Rodolphe. When they see each other he kisses her like crazy and she throws herself at him, begging him to tell her that he loves her. "Rodolphe interrupted her kisses; and she, looked at him through half-closed eyes, asked him to call her by her name to say that he loved her." (Flaubert, pg. 125) However, Emma is still not satisfied with her life. At times she finds herself thinking of Leon when she is with Rodolphe. Emma finds herself wanting to further her relationship with Leon.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1762
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English