Women at that time period didn't have much power. Kings only wanted to have boys as children, because then they could keep up in the throne. This is the same thing that happens to Emma. She wishes that her child is a boy because women are always put aside, and at that time in disadvantage for anything in life. Emma is the only woman which is truly analyzed in the book, and we can notice that only men can change her life perspective. She is married to Charles, which is lazy and doesn't want so many work, therefore doesn't seek to be a member of higher class (which is Emma's wish). One fact that bothers me towards this portrayal of women in the book is that Emma only married Charles because she thought that he fulfilled her dream of a love story, and didn't think about the future. This demonstrates that Emma was naive and also stupid because she relied in love stories to find her husband instead of looking for someone who could provide what she wanted to be.
Emma's lovers are also an example of how women didn't have too much power at that time. Her lovers were the only ones who could cause her to change, and if they wanted to leave her they could, but she had always to stick to her marriage. All of her lovers end up leaving her; one went to Paris, the other one stopped liking her, and all she wanted was to have the power to leave with each one of them, but on the other side she lacked this power. Her lovers (men) in that time had much more power towards women, and these only had to obey, or stick to what they had in that moment for the rest of their lives because they still lacked power. Another example that women lacked power is that in the end of the book the only thing that Emma could offer was her body, nothing more nothing less. She offered her body to Justin, the lawyer asked her sexual favors for his money, and this in my opinion must be a horrible experience.
Monday, May 24, 2010
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.
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.
End of the Bovarys
In this last section of Madame Bovary it is possible to see that the novel has quite an iterative plot. As in other parts of the book Emma follows what can be described as an repetitive set of actions. Emma keeps borrowing money from Lhereux in order to fulfill her extravagant desires. Another of Emma´s auction that has also been seen previously in the novel is her attitude towards Leon. At every part of Madame Bovary, Emma has a lover and even though at the beginning of the romance both feel quite satisfied, eventually Emma and Leon become tired of each other, Leon becomes tired of her extravagant desires and Emma thinks he doesn’t love her once he is held up by Homais while going to see her. Emma does not see her actual situation until the very end of the novel, at which point the demise of the Bovarys is clear. Emma, greatly in debt tries to raise the money at any costs, but upon failure to do so kills herself. Charles on the other hand suffers greatly with his wife’s death and never acknowledges her unfaithfulness and the fact that she was the one that brought him in to his current situation. At the end Charles is unable to come up with the money to pay off his debts and finds letters from Rodolphe and Leon to Emma, finally accepting the fact that she was unfaithful and holds his fate as a consequence to Emma´s behavior. Consequently he dies and Berthe is eventually sent to work at a cotton mill.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Final
Emma, who always had her love stories in her mind, and was always iluded to it, now only takes her down. All of her affairs stop loving her because of this persistent need of having a love like these one in the books. They usually start having a strong passion, but as time passes all of her lovers get annoyed with her romantic idealism.
Flaubert introduces some characters in the end of the book to show that Emma's place is really bourgeios middle class. Always seeking to have a higher class standard Emma was never able to acquire this. Always wanting to attend parties, and being materialistic, Emma was not able to achieve this class. Flaubert introduces in the end of the novel characters what will be either poor peasants or very wealthy. The first character is the nurse that Emma looks for when she is desperate. She was a very simple person who was not able to have a watch in her home and knew the time by holding her fingers. The high class character introduced in the end is Guillaumin, a lawyer. When she arrives to his home asking for help, she sees his mansion, and the good furniture he had. Flaubert did this to prove that her soical status was bourgeios middle class, and any other. Flaubert also introduces a beggar that Emma passed all the time when she was heading to the other town to stay with Leon. He was very simple, and this foreshadows the condition that Emma will end in the final part of the novel.
Emma's financial situation was side by side with her moral standards. As Emma is convinced to borrow money all the time and is always in debt, she has to sell herself more and more. As she gets more in debt, she sells herself more trying to raise money. Charles one the other side, continues to be naive and gives her money for the piano classes and for her to travel. He doesn't suspect anything. Emma brings someone to her house saying that he was her piano teacher, but he doesn't know her name. Charles will only be aware that his wife cheated on him in the end when he opens her drawer and reads all of her notes to lovers. But Charles still loves her after all she did and all her infidelities.
Flaubert introduces some characters in the end of the book to show that Emma's place is really bourgeios middle class. Always seeking to have a higher class standard Emma was never able to acquire this. Always wanting to attend parties, and being materialistic, Emma was not able to achieve this class. Flaubert introduces in the end of the novel characters what will be either poor peasants or very wealthy. The first character is the nurse that Emma looks for when she is desperate. She was a very simple person who was not able to have a watch in her home and knew the time by holding her fingers. The high class character introduced in the end is Guillaumin, a lawyer. When she arrives to his home asking for help, she sees his mansion, and the good furniture he had. Flaubert did this to prove that her soical status was bourgeios middle class, and any other. Flaubert also introduces a beggar that Emma passed all the time when she was heading to the other town to stay with Leon. He was very simple, and this foreshadows the condition that Emma will end in the final part of the novel.
Emma's financial situation was side by side with her moral standards. As Emma is convinced to borrow money all the time and is always in debt, she has to sell herself more and more. As she gets more in debt, she sells herself more trying to raise money. Charles one the other side, continues to be naive and gives her money for the piano classes and for her to travel. He doesn't suspect anything. Emma brings someone to her house saying that he was her piano teacher, but he doesn't know her name. Charles will only be aware that his wife cheated on him in the end when he opens her drawer and reads all of her notes to lovers. But Charles still loves her after all she did and all her infidelities.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Last Thoughts on Emma...
All the adjectives that come to mind…
Now, upon finishing the book, I have a lot of adjectives to describe Emma Bovary. Selfish, cruel, conceited, reckless, driven by emotions, irresponsible, unrealistic, inane, spoiled, and the list continues. These self-centered aspects of Emma are not just seen at the end, but are seen throughout the story as the novel progresses, it is only ultimately seen at the end when she takes arsenic, poisoning herself, leading to her death.
Emma may be looked upon as someone who is independent and a break-away from society, seeing that women were not supposed to have such freedom over their accounts (as well as their husbands) but her character is truly flawed. She invested her life into the unsuccessful pursuits of a higher social status and passionate lovers, regarding her husband as something flawed and defective. Cruel to him so many times, she would carelessly go off to lovers, leaving him. In addition to that she’d continue to sign notes, sold property without informing him, all for the desire to get herself more materialistic things. And in the end, instead of her death affecting those who she cared about the most, it affected those she hardly paid attention to unless she wanted something.
Everyone moved on in life as if Emma was never alive, but Charles and Berthe remained affected forever. This proves her selfishness. Emma didn’t want to face the debt that she had caused her family, and she didn’t want to face life without a lover that “would go to all limits” for her, so her lack of responsibility drove her to poison herself. And of course this solves the issues in her life, she no longer has a debt and she no longer has to worry about being loved to the extreme. But this just transfers over the weight of her recklessness. Now, Charles is stuck with all the unpaid bills and is left without a wife, Berthe without a mother. And they suffer from her selfishness in ending her life simply because she didn’t want to take responsibility for it. Charles loses his mind, adopting her habits in signing notes for things that he can’t afford, and locks himself up in her memory. So miserable is he that it leads to his death. And then Berthe---innocent in the whole manner suffers the most, ending up with nothing and having to work in a cotton mill.
Everyone else in the novel gets along fine with the death of Emma, unaffected---actually prospering. Its those that she cared about the least that ironically are affected the most.
Now, upon finishing the book, I have a lot of adjectives to describe Emma Bovary. Selfish, cruel, conceited, reckless, driven by emotions, irresponsible, unrealistic, inane, spoiled, and the list continues. These self-centered aspects of Emma are not just seen at the end, but are seen throughout the story as the novel progresses, it is only ultimately seen at the end when she takes arsenic, poisoning herself, leading to her death.
Emma may be looked upon as someone who is independent and a break-away from society, seeing that women were not supposed to have such freedom over their accounts (as well as their husbands) but her character is truly flawed. She invested her life into the unsuccessful pursuits of a higher social status and passionate lovers, regarding her husband as something flawed and defective. Cruel to him so many times, she would carelessly go off to lovers, leaving him. In addition to that she’d continue to sign notes, sold property without informing him, all for the desire to get herself more materialistic things. And in the end, instead of her death affecting those who she cared about the most, it affected those she hardly paid attention to unless she wanted something.
Everyone moved on in life as if Emma was never alive, but Charles and Berthe remained affected forever. This proves her selfishness. Emma didn’t want to face the debt that she had caused her family, and she didn’t want to face life without a lover that “would go to all limits” for her, so her lack of responsibility drove her to poison herself. And of course this solves the issues in her life, she no longer has a debt and she no longer has to worry about being loved to the extreme. But this just transfers over the weight of her recklessness. Now, Charles is stuck with all the unpaid bills and is left without a wife, Berthe without a mother. And they suffer from her selfishness in ending her life simply because she didn’t want to take responsibility for it. Charles loses his mind, adopting her habits in signing notes for things that he can’t afford, and locks himself up in her memory. So miserable is he that it leads to his death. And then Berthe---innocent in the whole manner suffers the most, ending up with nothing and having to work in a cotton mill.
Everyone else in the novel gets along fine with the death of Emma, unaffected---actually prospering. Its those that she cared about the least that ironically are affected the most.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Emma Bovary & Her Extremes
And so the love Emma had for Rodolphe “increased each day in proportion to the revulsion she felt for her husband” (p. 184) and she begins to put all her time and energy into the affair. We see her hate Charles with each coming day, especially after the incident with the failed surgery of Hippolyte’s leg. When Emma finds out her husband has only made things worse she begins to throw “her soul into her longing [of her lover once again], surging toward it with a new enthusiasm” (p. 183). And once again, no longer does she hold her husband in high esteem.
After investing so much into the affair with Rodolphe and revolving her happiness around it, she loses him because of her extremity of feelings. He, only wanting a mistress from the end, must leave her because she begins to put pressure on him to run away with her, become her one and only. And so, he puts a end to the affair which appears to nearly put an end to Emma’s life. She becomes sickly to the point where she can’t even get out of bed. With her recovery, she becomes a pious wife, devoted to religion. However her extremity of her devotion soon wears out, like her other extremities, not fortified enough to last. But, alas, she is reunited with a love that was never kindled and now our Leon, seeming to be more upfront about his emotions, doesn’t let her escape without showing her how he feels. By doing so, he rekindles the passion she once had for him. Upon her arrival back home, she learns that her Charles’ father has passed away, he grieves for the loss of him, she grieves for the absence of the love of Leon. Being reminded of Leon, she begins to long for him and feels as though she must see him. Conjuring up the excuse of needing to get fabric to once again bask in his presence, she sets out once again to Hirondelle.
The faulty trait of our heroine, is the extent to which she embraces things, whether its an affair, motherhood (at first), or religion. She focuses her attention on that solely and her world beings to revolve around it. Her happiness, as well, depends on it. And then when it fails to keep her happy (as in the case with Leon leaving the first time and Rodolphe leaving), she sinks down into a grave depression as if she is going to die, her extremes prove to be a weakness. It is already apparent that Leon is now taking the place of religion and her previous lover. Now, readers can only sit and ponder whether or not the same will occur with Leon.
After investing so much into the affair with Rodolphe and revolving her happiness around it, she loses him because of her extremity of feelings. He, only wanting a mistress from the end, must leave her because she begins to put pressure on him to run away with her, become her one and only. And so, he puts a end to the affair which appears to nearly put an end to Emma’s life. She becomes sickly to the point where she can’t even get out of bed. With her recovery, she becomes a pious wife, devoted to religion. However her extremity of her devotion soon wears out, like her other extremities, not fortified enough to last. But, alas, she is reunited with a love that was never kindled and now our Leon, seeming to be more upfront about his emotions, doesn’t let her escape without showing her how he feels. By doing so, he rekindles the passion she once had for him. Upon her arrival back home, she learns that her Charles’ father has passed away, he grieves for the loss of him, she grieves for the absence of the love of Leon. Being reminded of Leon, she begins to long for him and feels as though she must see him. Conjuring up the excuse of needing to get fabric to once again bask in his presence, she sets out once again to Hirondelle.
The faulty trait of our heroine, is the extent to which she embraces things, whether its an affair, motherhood (at first), or religion. She focuses her attention on that solely and her world beings to revolve around it. Her happiness, as well, depends on it. And then when it fails to keep her happy (as in the case with Leon leaving the first time and Rodolphe leaving), she sinks down into a grave depression as if she is going to die, her extremes prove to be a weakness. It is already apparent that Leon is now taking the place of religion and her previous lover. Now, readers can only sit and ponder whether or not the same will occur with Leon.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
3rd entry
One interesting part in this third reading is that the case of Hippolyte can be an allusion to Emma's life. Hyppolyte has a problem with one of his legs, and in order to try to save Charles' carrer, she convinces both Charles and Hyppolite to make a surgeon. However, this process fails and Hyppolite needs to amputate one leg. This situation alludes to her life because Hyppolite had already accepted that condition in his life, however they tried to change it. Emma, on the other side, is increasing her debt with Lheureux and her financial situation goes deep down. This means that she is trying to change her life style, the conditions of her family and that she is not a person from high society, to something that she is not.
Another interesting part is that her thought of having a suicide foreshadows the end of book. When Rodolphe sends her the letter that he is not going to run away, she wants to die, and this give the impression that the same situation will happen with her other lovers, and the she will end up alone and dead. This situation also shows how Charles is naive. He finds the letter written from Rodolphe, but he thinks its a platonic love, even with the whole town suspecting it and his mother fighting with Emma.
Another interesting part is that her thought of having a suicide foreshadows the end of book. When Rodolphe sends her the letter that he is not going to run away, she wants to die, and this give the impression that the same situation will happen with her other lovers, and the she will end up alone and dead. This situation also shows how Charles is naive. He finds the letter written from Rodolphe, but he thinks its a platonic love, even with the whole town suspecting it and his mother fighting with Emma.
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