The portrayal of desire in the novels Madame Bovary and the Kiss of the Spiderwoman
The Portrayal of Desire Clashing with Reality in the Novels 'Madame Bovary' and 'the Kiss of the Spiderwoman'
In the novels 'Madame Bovary' and the 'Kiss of the Spiderwoman', the main characters Emma and Molina are both romantic idealists and share common desires of passion, love and materialism that are unrealistic in reality. Throughout both novels, they try to fulfill their desires but because their desires are in conflict with the real world around them, it ultimately leads to their misfortune and the consequences of their actions are a result of their longing to satisfy a dream that is not real.
In 'Madame Bovary', Emma Bovary is a woman who longs to experience love, romance, sensual pleasures and extravagance. She longs for a better life, a life of riches and luxury, a life that she does not experience in reality. Emma "wanted equally to die and to live in Paris" so that she can enjoy the life of the upper class society, indulging in fashion, the theatres and soaking in the hustle and bustle of city life. Besides indulging in an extravagant life, Emma also yearns to be involved in a passionate and romance filled relationship, one that is often found in classic romantic novels. "Love, she believed, had to come, suddenly, with a great clap of thunder and lightning flash, a tempest from heaven that falls upon your life, like a devastation, scatters your ideals like leaves and hurls your very soul into the abyss". Emma is drawn by the exaggerated and unrealistic ideals of love that is portrayed in the romantic novels she reads and as a result, she longs to experience that same kind of passionate romance. Emma "summoned the heroines from the books she read...she merged into her own imaginations, playing a real part, realizing the long dream of her youth, seeing herself as one of those great lovers she had so long envied." She does this because it is her desire to experience that same kind of love those 'great lovers' have.
In the 'Kiss of the Spiderwoman', Molina is a man who longs to be the exact opposite of what he is, he thinks and acts like a woman, and like Emma, he desires to be involved in a romantic relationship. In chapter 3 of the novel when Molina tells Valentin about how he met his crush, a waiter by the name of Gabriel, he keeps referring to himself as a woman because "I (Molina) can't talk about myself like a man, because I don't feel like one". Therefore this shows the extent to which Molina sees himself as ...
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In the 'Kiss of the Spiderwoman', Molina is a man who longs to be the exact opposite of what he is, he thinks and acts like a woman, and like Emma, he desires to be involved in a romantic relationship. In chapter 3 of the novel when Molina tells Valentin about how he met his crush, a waiter by the name of Gabriel, he keeps referring to himself as a woman because "I (Molina) can't talk about myself like a man, because I don't feel like one". Therefore this shows the extent to which Molina sees himself as a woman and it also shows his inner desires of wanting to experience a romantic relationship with another man. Also in chapter 3 of the novel, when Molina continues to introduce Gabriel, he describes Gabriel in great detail and uses phrases and words like "the husky voice", "kind of tender", "he caressed the lettuce", "powerful movements", "elegant", "soft", and "masculine", words that are very sensual and contain sexual connotations. This therefore suggests that Molina desires to be a woman because he wants to experience not only a romantic relationship, but also a sexual relationship with another man. Molina yearns to experience the same kind of unrealistic love that Emma yearns because of the influence of romantic films that he watches. The exaggerated love that is portrayed in films has influenced Molina into believing that such love can exist. Molina, like Emma believes in passionate romance and therefore seeks escape in fantasies of such romance through films and novels.
In 'Madame Bovary', Emma's desires are expressed through her indulgence in materialistic possessions, art, her views on city life in comparison with the urban life that she is living in and also the 'romantic affairs' that she gets herself involved in with Leon and Rudolphe. Emma only married Charles because she had hoped that by marrying a doctor, he would be able to provide for her, and ultimately realizing her dreams of living a lavish life. "Oh, why, dear God, did I marry him?" shows Emma's regret towards her marriage. In the beginning of chapter 9 of the novel, Emma expresses her disgust towards Charles by calling him a 'pathetic man' and starts to find him increasingly irritating. She rants on in great detail about how he seems to be getting coarser in his ways, sucking his teeth after meals, making gurgling noises when drinking soup and putting on weight. This discontent that Emma feels contributes to her desire in wanting to experience exaggerated love and as a result she ends up giving in to temptation and having affairs with other men.
Emma indulges in materialistic possessions because that is what women from the upper class do, and therefore in order to fulfill her desire of living a life of extravagance, she has to indulge in art, and materialism. Emma "knew the latest fashions...the days for the Bois or the Opera. She studied descriptions of furniture...seeking to gratify in fantasy her secret cravings." All this to her, is a way of satisfying her desire because by doing so, it helps her to forget the empty feeling that she feels inside. It makes her happy and contented and this is the 'ecstasy' that Emma craves in order to feel satisfied with her life. In the beginning of chapter 9, Emma describes Paris as being a place where diplomats walk on polished floors, a world of trailing gowns where people extravagant as kings, full of idealistic ambitions and wild enthusiasms live. She then goes on to describe the "boring countryside that she lives in, the imbecile petits bourgeois and the general mediocrity of life." From this comparison, we can see the great difference between city and country life, and why Emma longs to live in the city. It is the mediocrity of country life that Emma despises and therefore seeks escape by reading magazines like the La Corbeille and Le Sylphe des Salons to fulfill her desire.
Molina on the other hand expresses his inner desires by being straightforward and behaving like a woman, and also expressing a great interest in romantic films. The language he uses in describing the films to Valentin are often full of emotion and very sensual. In chapter 14 of the novel when Molina tells Valentin the ending of the film of a reporter who fell in love with a magnate's woman, the tone in which Molina describes the film is full of desire and sadness. The emotive use of language brings out the soft, gentle nature of Molina's voice and this shows his passionate belief in the love that is portrayed in the film, thus expressing his desires of wanting to feel that same kind of love. Molina also behaves like a woman in a way that he falls in love with a man and although Gabriel is not gay, Molina hopes that someday his feelings will be reciprocated. Molina cares for Gabriel because to him, it is satisfying seeing his loved one being happy. The romantic films that portray fantasies of high romance influences Molina to be very emotional, and being the 'woman' that he is, the films have strong influences on him and results in him desiring for that exact kind of love.
Emma and Molina both have very similar desires and try to fulfill them, but their desires are ephemeral pleasures that clashes with reality. It is fleeting with them overtime because it clashes with reality. In Emma's case, she has become so involved in her romantic novels that she is not able to tell apart fantasy from reality and realize that the love she so longs for is impossible. Rudolphe treats Emma like a lady. He pays her lip service with words like "In my soul you are like a Madonna on a pedestal..." He gives her attention, and he is also a gentleman with good look. He is rich and knows how to work his charms around Emma, and this is the 'true love' that Emma seeks. Her desires have caused her to become unrealistic that she wishes to live in a world that is no longer real, but an imagination of the influences she has from the novels, magazines and seeing the upper class society live their grandiose lives. Molina's biggest desire is to become a woman, but that is also the desire that is most impossible because in reality he is a man. He yearns to experience 'true love' with Gabriel but that is not possible because in reality, Gabriel only treats him as a friend and it is physically impossible for Molina to love Gabriel.
Ultimately, because of the severity of Emma's actions, she ends up in heavy debts and has no one to turn to. Everything that is valuable is taken away and even Rudolphe, the man she thought she could count on let her down. Because of Emma's longing to fulfill her desires, she succumbs to temptation, not thinking about the outcome of her decisions. "She had no memory of the cause of her terrible condition, that is to say the problem of money. She was suffering purely for love..." shows how caught up Emma has become in her romantic ideals. Her desires ultimately cause her to lose everything and even having to take her own life because she has reached a point where reality finally sinks in. Similarly in Molina's case, he ends up falling in love with Valentin and will 'do whatever you (Valentin) tell me". As a result of Molina's sacrificial love for Valentin, he loses his life by being a messenger for Valentin. Molina did not mind losing his life because to him, that was a heroic act and it was worth dying for his loved one.
The portrayal of the desires of Emma and Molina have both resulted in mishaps because their desires clash with the reality of the world and circumstances that they live in. Although both characters end up loosing their lives, they still pursued their desires and to a certain extent, lived up to their expectations.
Samantha Aloysius
2 CHu
Word count: 1663
