Madame Bovary

A detailed Summary of Madame Bovary

A theme throughout Flaubert's Madame Bovary is escape versus

confinement. In the novel Emma Bovary attempts again and again to

escape the ordinariness of her life by reading novels, having affairs,

day dreaming, moving from town to town, and buying luxury items. It

is Emma's early education described for an entire chapter by Flaubert

that awakens in Emma a struggle against what she perceives as

confinement. Emma's education at the convent is perhaps the most

significant development of the relationship in the novel between

confinement and escape. The convent is Emma's earliest confinement,

and it is the few solicitations from the outside world that intrigue

Emma, the books smuggled in to the convent or the sound of a far

The chapter mirrors the structure of the book it starts as we

see a satisfied women content with her confinement and conformity at

"At first far from being bored in the convent, she enjoyed the

company of the nuns, who, to amuse her, would take her into the chapel

by way of a long corridor leading from the dining hall. She played

very little during the recreation period and knew her catechism well".

prevented her boredom. In her early education it was the novels she read,

those chatelaines in low wasted gowns who spent their days with their

"And there were sultans with long pipes swooning on the arbors

Emma changes from a women content with her marriage, to a women who

dying swans, and singing into funeral music. But Emma although bored

boredom in reality to self-destruction in fantasy.

Approximate Word count = 804
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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