Wednesday, October 22, 2008
When reading a book most would hope for the main character to be one you can relate to or one who's views on life are uplifting and optimistic. This isnt the case for this book. The main charcater, Emma is not only annoying but she has no self respect and puts out a bad name for all women. Its very upsetting to see Charles fall in love and then just get shut down by Emma expecially after all he has been through, she has no respect for him or anything around her. She is extremely promiscuous and lacks appreciation for everything in her life which makes me wonder what type of message Flaubert is trying to send out. She is an unhappy person in general and I dont even think that if she where to find "perfection" that she would be at ease. Emma's expectations about love and happiness are skewed and she is never going to find satisfaction. The fact that motherhood disappoints her because she wanted a boy and got a girl is just ridiculous, this in itself makes a reader disinterested. I dont like emma at all and I hate how she degades those around her.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Yes, one of the biggest risks that Flaubert, the 'realist', seems to run here is that his main character is so thoroughly detestable (though, in the end, perhaps no better than any of the other characters in the novel). Worse, she's never really called on her behavior. We don't have any narrative or authorial voice offering us the condemnation of her actions that we would normally expect. (Sure, we may chuckle a bit as she dies a horrible death--but doesn't this really make us feel worse about ourselves than better). What is Flaubert's point with this book? More to the point, how has it managed to become a classic?
Post a Comment