Madame Bovary

This post is going to be long. I apologize in advance if it loses your attention.
I must admit, I find noting humorous about this book. Madame Bovary represents every quality a person could poses that irks me. I wasn't even able to laugh when she died, I was just rejoicing.
Emma makes my blood boil. This anger just heightens when Leon and Rodolphe step onto the stage. What bothers me most about this selfish woman is that she truly makes every excuse to be miserable when in actuallity, if she made the slightest bit of an effort, she could find something to be exuberant about! Instead, she dines on the horrible "woe is me" cousine and it poisons her slowly. But because she isn't vomitting blood she doesn't realize that the fault is her own! She could have had a perfectly happy life with Charles, but she didn't even look for the sunshine.
And the way she completely disregards her Berthe...this pisses me off. This child isn't even mentioned for half of the book while she is alive! How can a mother completely just go off and indulge in trite splendor while her BABY is at home with her wet nurse. I understand babysitting and parents who just need a night out, but EVERY FREAKIN' THURSDAY??? That's truly not the worst of it. That one scene where she watches Felicite and Berthe from the window and rushes out to shower her with affection just makes me want to slap that *****!!! She has Berthe every DAY of her life, and she is just now realizing how wonderful of a blessing this is? Actually, she doesn't even realize that! She just dotes upon her to make herself feel loved. It makes me sick to my stomach.
As for her seductive ways, with Leon, that stupid cow. Rodolphe doesn't love her, and she doesn't love Leon. She is incapable of actual love. What is going on here is an abundance of lust that cannot last. Sure, it feels like they have fallen passionately in love because of this fantasy that Emma engages in, but it doesn't last. The part in Rodolphes' letter for Berthe to pray for him makes me want to punch a wall. A brick wall. How can he be so incredibly hideous? How can he ask for the prays from someone who he doesn't give a second thought to? This is selfish and arrogant, and he is just selling himself. Whereas Leon, I feel sorry for the guy. he didn't need to be taken advantage of like that, but then again, Emma was a married woman. What did he think he was getting himself into? The ingorant fool...who I hate just as much as Emma and Rodolphe.
Arsenic? Gimme a break. It's not gonna make me feel bad for her. Suicide? PA-LEASE! Suicide is the most selfish thing Emma has done. Holy Cow, the King was gonna reposses her house and she couldn't deal with losing all of her possesions? How ironic though, that she is so worldly, but in the end, she has nothing in this world. It makes me so angry that she doesn't 'fes up and tell it to Charles straight. SHE DIES WHILE HE IS STILL IN LOVE WITH HER!!!!!!!!!!! It makes me shudder to see how she treated Charles with such an evil heart. He was devouted to her and she let him be decieved until how long? Quite some time after the death, he finally finds the letters.... The fact that the more she cheats on her husband the more she dotes on him with affection, making him fall in love with her more. Why didn't she just kill him and put him out of his misery so she could go frolic around in this life and then suffer her right misery in HELL. She didn't need to make Charles suffer half as much as she did. AND the entire scene of her death is embelished with the Preist and the idea of 'repenting' and blah blah freakity blah!!! SHE FEELS NO REMORSE FOR HER SINS, SHE ISN'T GONNA DIE HAPPY! PLUS! SHE FREAKIN' COMMITTED SUICIDE, WHICH IS HORRIBLE AND GROSS!
She dies, and sure, she is beautiful on the outside, but that black vile that spills from her mouth and stains her wedding dress shows what she really is. Black on the inside.
The one thing I did love about this novel was the fighting between the Preist and the Apothecary. It was pretty funny to watch them go at it and see the true political and religious views of that time period and see how they sort of reflect what can still be found in instances around the world. No, it is not as commonplace, but is still happens. I really love when they are argueing about reading and the apothecary says that the Bible is just as racy as some modern literature and then the Priest says something like: yes, but the Catholics do not advocate reading the Bible. It was pretty funny.
That, all in all, is what I thought of Gustave Flaubert on a pretty first-reaction basis. I can't wait to read your posts and get more into the symbolism, and style, and what Flaubert is actually trying to say. :)