Madame Bovary Personal Response. It is very interesting from a literary perspective, as it is very realistic in nature, but is filled with people with romantic delusions. The main character for which this applies is Madame Bovary,

International Baccalaureate World Literature

MADAME BOVARY PART 1: PERSONAL RESPONSE

Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, is a French novel set in a post-revolution France. It is very interesting from a literary perspective, as it is very realistic in nature, but is filled with people with romantic delusions. The main character for which this applies is Madame Bovary, who serves as the heroine of this novel. One of the interesting things about Emma Bovary is that she is actually set up to be a disliked character, particularly to a modern audience.

Although she develops into a rather unpleasant character, I did not feel negatively towards her in the earlier parts of the novel. This is likely due to the fact that Flaubert does not imbue her with her negative traits until later on, and all that is exposed is her light, romantic side. This is shown in the early parts of the text during Charles’ visits to Les Bertaux, where Emma is described only in terms of her beauty, grace, and education. This was likely done by Flaubert in order to create a “romantic” atmosphere in this section, so he could later tear it down as a return to realism.

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My perception of Emma started to change shortly after Charles’ wedding. Emma becomes one of Flaubert’s narrating “voices”, and we start getting a sense of her thoughts and history. It is in this section (beginning with chapter 5) where we begin to see her delusional, romantic expectations, and her unattractive personality. Her romantic delusions are exposed by the description of her convent education: she is described as loving all the romantic elements of religion: the praying for forgiveness, the epic stories, the art, and the lyrics to the hymns. She is not, however, actually religious in any real way. It was here that she was exposed to the romantic novels that were popular during the time the novel is set. This gave Emma unrealistic expectations as to what love is, and to how men are supposed to act. It is after this section that her disappointment with the married life begins, as she yearns for the frivolities illustrated in her many romantic readings, and finds none of them in Charles.

It is at this point that I will note that Flaubert’s characterization of Charles and Emma’s thoughts on him were crucial to my perception of Emma. During this section of the novel, I was kept sympathetic towards Charles, for although he was unintelligent and uninteresting, he was “good at heart”. This is shown by his final acceptance of his first wife’s love, after her death, and his complete, devoted love for Emma. It is this sympathy for Charles that fueled my feelings of disgust when Emma shows her disappointment with Charles and his simple life.

Although she dislikes Charles, up to this point she has never really exposed it, playing out the “happy marriage” she read about in romance novels. However, this all changes when Charles, and consequently Emma, is invited to a ball by the Marquis d’Andervilliers. Here, she is exposed to the Aristocratic lifestyle she dreams of. It is here where she really starts to feel contempt towards Charles, which proportionally increases my contempt for her. She begins to set ridiculous standards for living and for people, especially in terms of material wealth and property. She then proceeds to dance sensually with the Viscount, with total disregard for Charles and their marriage.

After this point she starts causing trouble with her ridiculous fantasies. When she returns home, she gets in a fit of anger towards the maid, and fires her for not having dinner ready. She then hires a new maid, and places many high class expectations on her. After a while, she gets more and more difficult to deal with, as she becomes more reclusive and unpleasant. All of these developments increased my contempt for Emma, to the point where she almost seems villainous.