Treatment of Class

Madame Bovary, Emma, the protagonist of the novel, belongs to a middle class bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie at the time that the book was written is the similar to the middle-class now-a-days: they don't have any rich family that left something behind to them, however they have a job that doesn't require that much laboring. Emma always wishes to change her status in the social class, however her attempts always fails. Her lover Rodolphe is an example of this; he is a wealthy landowner, and took Emma to the parties where all wealthy people were, and she was always astonished by everything, however she tried to act as if she belonged to that class but most of the times did shameful actions. The social class of people that Emma visits in the end of the book is also compromising with the fact of her social class. She visits a nurse who is poor and is from the lower class, and afterwards the rich and wealthy lawyer, that had a big house and had everthing that she dreamed of. These change in scenarios proves that Emma belongs to her middle class. Emma is consistently judging her husband because of not being wealthy, and not having the conditions that she dreamed, and seeks in her lover this opportunity to jump to another social class.

The downfall of Emma was also interesting considering the fact that Flaubert criticized the bourgeoisie. Emma practically get over because of loaning money, and having expensive materials to feel as a higher class person. She is always attending theatres and having piano lessons, and wating money with her lovers. Emma is totally dependent on money and her downfall in the book is mostly because of her trying to be someone she couldn't.

Flaubert obviously criticized this class, and he introduces Homais, who led Charles into being a doctor so the reader is able to see his flaws, and he belonged to this middle class. Homais also have long speeches, trying to prove something about being a doctor that he himself did not no. Homais leads people to believe what he says as a result of his long speeches, and this is the characteristic that Flaubert criticizes. When Emma is dying because of the poison, Homais tries to show some knowledge about what to do and says that the smart thing to do was to find the antidote for the poison, and when they go to a real the doctor the guy only says that he should've had stuck his finger inside her mouth. In the end of this book, however, Homais gets rewarded with a medal, while Charles that was a very sincere person and the one that deserved it was dead. This shows that sometimes these people with pretentious display of knowledge win the ones who understands more and are more capable of doing better work.