Fantasy of Book(Madame Bovary)

A detailed Summary of Fantasy of Book(Madame Bovary)

In the novel, Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert uses a very descriptive style of writing in order to mock bourgeois life in nineteenth century France, to portray the dangers of fantasy, and to reveal the effects of self-delusion. Continually, the author uses the heroine, Emma, and the other elements in the novel in a way that forces the reader to realize the emptiness of modern life and to eventually identify with the heroine\'s search for ecstasy. Throughout the course of Madame Bovary, Flaubert uses books as a means of escape from the boredom of reality. Constantly, Emma attempts to make her life into a novel, fashioning herself a life not based in reality but fantasy. By examining this observation, one is able to come to a greater understanding of the thematics of the novel. Ultimately, Emma\'s active decisions are based more and more on her fantasies, preventing her from making rational decisions. It is these decisions, fed by the novels that she reads, to which she falls victim.

Books play a major role in how Emma thinks, acts, and perceives reality. In the convent, her first form of confinement, Emma surrounds herself in books and stories as a means of escape from reality. In order to prevent her boredom, she

Trying to become like a character in one of her novels, Emma did everything in her power to fulfill her fantasies. The purchases she made, the rooms that she decorated, and the affairs that she undertook were all partially to continue the fantasy that the novels she so passionately read described. In the passage above, the word "devoured" portrays how intensely she consumes every word of her readings until it is almost becomes part of her, utterly and totally consumed by her. Moreover, her knowledge of the latest fashions, the addresses of the best tailors, and the days of the opera allowed her to in some way infiltrate into that world which she fancied. Reading enabled her to "gratify in fantasy her secret cravings" for that romantic world depicted in her novels.

reads novels filled with "martyred maidens swooning in secluded lodges" and identifies herself with the fictitious characters, having dreams of living in "some old manor-house, like those chatelaines in their long corsages" (28). However, as she will do throughout the novel, Emma soon becomes bored with her fantasy and starts to revolt against the convent until "no one was sorry to see her go" (30). It is this voyage from boredom in reality to self-destruction in fantasy that plays itself over and over throughout the novel. Once married to Charles, Emma becomes dissatisfied with her life and again yearns to escape from the pain of everyday life: "she could not stand it any more in that little room with its smoking stove, its creaking door, its sweating walls, its damp flagstones; it seemed as though all the bitterness of life was being served up on to her plate" (51). Unhappy and discontented, "everything in her immediate surroundings, the boring countryside, the imbecile bourgeois, the general mediocrity of life, seemed to be a unique accident that had befallen her alone, while beyond... there unfurled the immense kingdom of pleasure and passion" (46). Seeing herself deprived of the life that she had r

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Approximate Word count = 1338
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels