Strong Women, Weak men

At the beginning you easily get the impression that the men in the novel are controlled by their wives. This is clearly seen by the way Heloise treats Charles and is always mad at him. Both of the female characters that play important parts of the novel are totally in control of their husbands, but there is a difference. While Heloise treats Charles harshly and yells and scolds with him a lot, Charles’ mother on the other hand seems to use more subtle actions to gain control of the situation. When Charles meets Emma you can clearly see how it seems that the men of the novel are prone to being manipulated, from the moment he meets her Charles already begins to devote to her. He is drawn to her, visiting her father much more often than necessary. There is yet another example that Emma does note marry Charles for love but rather for the illusion of leaving the rural area and having a romance as in the books she read. This is implied by the continuous references the author makes to the romantic books she reads and it is able to hypothesize that she won’t get these things, as her very first wish, which is to have a romantic wedding, is denied. Another example of Emma not having her romantic wishes satisfied is at the honeymoon, she did not want to spend her honeymoon on Tostes, especially on the account that he had to work. It is from this part where it is able to begin to hypothesize what is going to happen to Charles and Emma. She isn’t able to love him, even when she tries, this suggests that she will probably try to find happiness in another way or through another person. When she becomes thrilled by dancing with the Viscount at the ball it is able to draw conclusions of what she desires and how she is going to try and achieve her desires, which are made even more explicit on the next chapters, which describe her dreaming about high society life in Paris and unhappy on the farm.