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romanticism with the monotonous
reality of everyday life. In particular,
Flaubert criticizes the foolishness
and dullness of the middle classes,
whom he held in contempt, even
though he was himself middle
class. Emma Bovary, around whom
the novel rotates, symbolizes
unrealistic romanticism. She is
the convent-educated daughter
of a wealthy farmer. Fed by the
romances of Walter Scott and the
“meanderings of Lamartine,” aRomantic poet scorned by Flaubert,
she dreams of living “in some old
manor-house, ... looking out far
across the fields for the white-
plumed rider galloping towards
her on his black horse.”Passion and reality
Seeking a “marvellous passion,”
Emma marries Charles Bovary,
a kindly but boring doctor in the
small rural village of Tostes. Almost
immediately she is disappointed,MADAME BOVARY
Flaubert dissects Madame Bovary
in this 1869 caricature. The novel is
a dissection of Emma’s inner mind,
exploring her private thoughts with
an intense psychological realism.not just by Charles’s dullness and
lack of ambition, but also sexually.
The disparity between her dreams
and the unstimulating reality of
her marriage, so perceptively
described by Flaubert, lies at
the heart of the novel.
Emma and Charles move to
Yonville, a provincial town that
Flaubert portrays in painstaking
and often ironic detail, describing
it as a “bastard region where the
language is without accentuation,
as the landscape is without
character.” Flaubert’s ability
to capture the mundane and
commonplace contributed to
establishing the novel as a key
work in French realism. No detail
is too small to be included: he
describes roof thatch like fur caps,
sickly pear trees, ancient
farmhouses and barns, and small
graveyards typical of the region.
His description of the country fairFlaubert achieves penetrating realism by means of:
his insistence on finding “le mot juste”—exactly the
right word; unrelenting attention to detail;
rigorous objectivity.Emma yearns for:
thrilling adventures
in far-flung places;
love, passion, and
“intoxication”; wealth
and a “luxurious life.”Emma’s life is
characterized by:
the tedium and mediocrity
of a provincial town;
boredom and dissatisfaction
with marriage;
insurmountable debt.Fantasy, reality, and realism
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