my thoughts (part 1)

In the early sections of Madame Bovary i was a little confused on why Charles and Emma even got married in the first place. Although, the way that Flaubert used such great detail to describe the wedding really made me feel as if I was right there too, it also distracted me. It did help me to picture the image of this great wedding but in many parts of this novel it seemed like the author went a little overboard. Too much detail in some areas made the book more dull then exciting. There were definitely sections were I felt like I would be totally fine setting the book right down and not caring about what might happen later on. Now back to the book, I felt as if Charles was very excited and in love and Emma was sort of just like ok sure I’ll marry you. Then after they got married this idea just got stronger in my mind. Emma seemed so caught up in her pre-conceded notions of passion and true love from her books that she couldn't just learn to love on her own. Charles is very pleased with the marriage and Emma seems almost as if she is disappointed and wants out. The contrast that Flaubert creates between characters really sets up the book to have characters take on stronger roles. Then to elaborate even more on the fact of Emma’s discontent, later at the ball Emma is even embarrassed by Charles and does not want to represent herself along with him. Throughout the entire section one of Madame Bovary it seemed that it was mainly based on both an emotional and physical struggle within herself (Emma). At this point in the book I still hadn't decided what to think but it was definitely not my favorite book. It really dragged on way more about each event then was necessary.

Realism vs. Romanticism

The connection between this book and say, Jane Erye, doesn't seem too strong, or too apparent. Because the two different types of writing, of course the descriptions, symbolism and foreshadowing isn't similar but Flaubert does address romanticism, even if he is a realist. Emma, with her elaborate & romantic dreams and pictures of how her life will be like, is the spark in this book that represents every realist's worst enemy: the romantic. It seems like Flaubert decides to include a character to stand for more "layered", descriptive writing simply to clearly show readers that he is a realist and writes that way. Emma's eccentric and extravagant nature seems to possibly be the thing that Flaubert could never be.

I think that, because of Charles' stupidity, the depressing & unfortunate ending and the extreme contrast between the two main characters, Madame Bovary may be paralleling Flaubert's life as a writer. I feel that Flaubert envies "Emma" in the sense that he could never be a romantic and can only be a plain old realist. Maybe he wanted to be able to write like Bronte, to layer his writing with deeper language and more significant details. Instead, he stood by stupidly and in the end never could immerse himself in romantic prose, mirroring the end of the book. I may be totally off the mark, but that's one thing I feel Flaubert was trying to convey.

Flaubert and his cynical attitude

I just can't quite figure out what Flaubert is trying to say in his novel. He is obviously cynical. About as cynical as it gets. But what is he targeting this at? Is Flaubert saying that many people throw away the joy in their lives because they are looking for something better? Not everyone in the novel was doing this. In fact, there were quite a few scenes of opposition to this because the apothecary is looking forward to progress and opportunity. Other neighbors are content with their lives, though they are not extraordinary or extravagant. Perhaps he is saying that chasing dreams will always be absolutely ridiculous, because Emma chases frivolous dreams all her life and then kills herself. I realize that he is trying to hold a mirror to the world, but his mirror doesn't quite gleam. Covered in soot, it shows us the world through a black veil of his cynical mind. Besides, who is Flaubert to tell me that the world is just a depressing mess where one cannot achieve true love? Bah-hum-bug!

someone help me.

so i am confused as to weather Emma died from a true illness or pure depression. also i was kind of angry at Charles because he still stayed with Emma even though she had an affair with two different guys. I just thought that he should end it. I realize that he loved her, but i feel like it would just hurt him so much and that he should end it. I just really hated Emma. I thought that she treated those around her like shit.

true lauhgs

emma just wasnt worth reading about. i found little interests in the scampering of a simple minded slut. she wasnt looking for a real man to fall in love with she was looking for a fictional romeo who could make her feel like a princes. but even if she found that guy she wouldnt be able to control her want of an continuous upgrading man. the humor in the book is what makes it bearable but is the humor found in the sadness of life really worth reading about? is a few jokes on suicide and depression worth it? can pointing out the disappointment of a simple minded girl and a scrub of a doctor worth the time and energy? is reading about the sad truths of a life ran buy an imbisole worth the depression?

In this novel, Madame Bovary, the biggest issue I encountered was disloyalty and selflessness. Madame Bovary was very selfish in that her concerns were all derived on her well being and what would make her most happy. She initially thought she was in love when Charles arrived to help the family. He seemed kind of like a hero and mystery to her and that he could open a door to a happier life for her. Soon after marrying him she once again realized, that she was unhappy. Her perception of love and what it should be was not fulfilled in her life. When other guys came along they appeared to her as Charles once did a great guy with the ability to lead her into a better life. She thought she was in love. Truly she wouldn’t have been happy with any of these men if she had left Charles for one of them. She would soon become board of her life and those men would become just as Charles became to her. By not staying loyal to Charles she was always looking after what would make her happy and ignore her devotion to her husband and her child. I felt as though she was always after a fairytale love story that would romantically be depicted in a story. Even when a great love was unfolding this fairytale with Charles was never good enough for her. Her selfishness and disloyalty lead her to her death in the end. She was always looking for what she didn’t have instead of appreciating what she did have. Charles couldn’t have been a better husband to her. He fulfilled her with the biggest house in the town, possessions that would enlighten her and love. Charles was loyal and constantly trying to make her happy but because of her naive attitude she could never be pleased.

Emma's Reading

Emma Bovary is a person who thinks that what she once read as a child in the romance novels actually does exist in the real world. She wants to have this wonderful, romantic life, but does not understand that what people write in books is most likely their way of expressing what they wish to have or their views on issues. If something in her life is not how the novels she read growing up dictated, then she starts to believe that her life is worth nothing and that she needs to find some aristocrat that will sweep her off her feet, or not have such and "oafish" husband.

Emma doens't deserve love

Whree to start....after first reading of Emma and Charles love affair while Charles is still married, you think that they will be this cute little couple who will always live on a farm together and raise a happy little family. Granted it is usually a bad sign when you start a relationship with someone and it involves one or both of you to cheat. We slowly discover Emma's true personalitly as Flaubert writes on. I have much hatred and disgust toward Emma, not only does she hurt poor Charles but she is a disgrace toward women. Not all women tramp around sleeping with almost every guy, it's just not how it is. Emma doesnt' deserve the love that Charles gives her, instead of accepting and giving love back she goes and sleeps with Rodolphe and Leon. What a little slut, poor Charles. Emma tranformed throughout the novel from the crazy in love, down to earth girl to a women that is too similar to Charles' first wife. They both just want the ideal lifestlye with materialistic values and no love. As Emma looses her happiness through the novel she seeks to find it again. However, the way to find happiness is not through sleeping with other men while your married, it's just not a smart idea. Emma needs to mature and learn that love and sex are not the only ways to find happiness in life, granted love presents the ultimate high of love, which she once experienced. I feel that the only happiness Emma did encounter was through sexual relationships, perhaps this is why she continues to sleep around, she is in seach of love and happiness. She shouldn't be granted this happiness just beucase of the way she treats Charles. Overall Flaubert created a character that I would want to fight if I could go back in time to meet her. My hatred for Emma transfered into a hate for the novel, I would just get upset and angry with Emma every time I read about one of her new escapades. Flaubert tried to show the important value of love while adding a humorous twist to the novel.

emma is a dirty whore

This is way cooloer than jane eyre this girl is a slut!!! like seriously is there anybody she hasnt had sex with? i dont think she has the slightest bit of respect for herself. Every guy she has the slightest interest in she drops her pants for, it is actually a bit disturbing. Im not at all complaining though it does make this book interesting. It keeps me reading even though i get sick of thinking aboout all the STD s this girl probably has.......EW

Madams Bovary, Homais' God

After drudging along in Jane Eyre I have found Madame Bovary to be a nice change. Where Charlote Bronte rambled on about unimportant flowers and irrelevent trees in a sleep inducing tone Flaubert's discriptions have mananged to at least keep me semi concious.
In both novles the issues of God and Religion have come to light. For Jane it was a romantic lovely poetic thing, whereas Flaubert precieves Religion in a more realistic and senseable theme. When Monsieur Homais' goes into his tangent about Religion Flaubert's realistic preception of life truly shines through. For this reason I believe that Flaubert's writing is much more beautiful than Bronte's. The preception the M. Homias has on Religion somewhat mirrors mine, Religion is not something you can teach, Religion isn't something that should set boundries for your life. I believe that religion is something that should be used on those days when the light has burned out, the days that you've lost hope and faith in the world. This means that Religion comes from within yourself, "what lies before us and what lies behind us are nothing compared to what lies within us." I believe that if you teach a Religion if someone tells you how to have faith that faith becomes meaningless to you as a person. Flaubert accentuates this belief when M. Homais explains what religion is to him. M. Homais still believes that there is a divine creator, someone, male of female, what gave him a duty to uphold, I personally disagree with this fact but in 1857 when Madam Bovary was first published, the idea that someone didn't believe in going to church was somewhat tabu and unheard of.
"You can honor him just as well in the woods, in a field, or even contemplating the ethereal vault, like the ancients." To me this passage shows more than a realistic view on religion and life. To me this shows progress, it shows a pathway to religious tolerance, it shows a sence of future understanding and this is when Flaubert's realism really shines through. Besides the bluntly stated ideas, and the characters and through all of the discription and plot twist Flaubert is able to show realism through futuristic ideas. A realist looks beyond tomorrow and into the future before making a decision, a realist doesn't do something foolish in the face of love because he's in the face of love, a realist makes a decision based on real things events that are likely to happen. opptimism and pessimism don't come into the equation the only thing that a realist considers is how what he/she says or does is going to effect the here and now, this life.
Through M. Homais Flaubert proves that even things like religion and love can be approached in a realistic way. That while romance and religion are important, equally important is how you live your life not how you view your life. M. Homais doesn't view religion, he doesn't sit around and have someone tell him how to be religious, he doesn't channel his religion through another human, he experiances his own religion and he doesn't let someone live it for him, nor does he live it through someone else. Essentially Homais lives his own life in the here and now he doesn't look to someone else to do it for him and he doesn't experiance religion vicariously through someone else because he knows that, that isn't religion.

Sluts Don't Know What True Love Is

Emma has no conception of love, because she is one that lets sex get in the way of something that's real. Love isn't something that can be based from just one attribute such as sex which is a purely physical connection between two people or an emotional connection. She would know if she was in love if she had both an emotional and physical attraction to either Charles, Leon, or Rodolphe. Unlike Jane who has found "true love" with Rochester, Emma might be a nympho hoe because she may claim that she has special feelings and knows what love is but in reality all she wants is to ride the train, which indeed she does. Charles is all good with his and Emma's relationship but Leon and Radolphe are just straight up players so Emma got 100% what she was looking for and we know what that is...I think she goes by what Lil Wayne says because it seems like all she wants to do is "l-l-l-lick me like a lollipop" and that's the truth!

Emma and the real world

Emma is a pretty average person who lives an unfufilling life. She is not poor, stupid, or ugly, but neither is she rich, very smart, or extremely beautiful. Although she is average, throughout the entire book, she struggles to become elite. I think her desire to become elite arises from the books she reads. During her childhood she idolized "illustrious or ill-fated" women. She always focused on something "better" than her-self, never allowing her to be satisfied with normal life. She had a good life, a beautiful daughter, an ok husband, and a beautiful home, but she couldn't bring herself to accept the wonders of everyday life. The women she envied as a child weren't content with the simple, so why should she? The characters led wild adventures through life of romance and tragedy so Emma wanted to too. It was because of the books she read as a child that focused all her attentions on the elite and high-up, preventing her from being happy with her average life. For example, after the party at the La Vaubyessard, she is never content in Tostes again. For a whole year, she anticipates another party, but when the invitation is "lost in the mail", Emma loses all hope and despairs.
In the end, her struggle to be elitist she leaves her husband in deep debt and her daughter in her daughter in the poor working class. Ironically, Emma's efforts to be elite condem her daughter to a life of poverty.

Emma is a romantic woman stuck in a realist novel.

Flaubert's Views on Women

After reading this novel, I begin to wonder what Flaubert's views on women are. I mean the main character Emma is this promiscuous whore who expects way to much out of men. It almost seems as if she doesnt love Charles, but just uses him. And the sad thing is that Charles is head over heels for Emma. Is Flaubert's novel a warning to men, to watch out for these kind of women, who now days would be called golddiggers. Emma has the idea that "a women is always hampered" and Charles goes way out of his way to try to please Emma. The whole notion of "instant gratification" really comes into play in this novel. Their marriage never reaches Emma's idea of romance, and because of her high expectations, Charles is always doing something for her. I feel no remorse for Emma, after using her husband and accumulating a great debt. Then the fact that she tries to prostitute herself off to her secret hookup, and atleast he is smart enough to tell her no. So to solve her problems she kills herself, which i find pretty appropriate.

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.

Madame Bovary: a lot of nothing

The entirety of this novel leads you away from the idea of Romanticism, from her affairs on her husband to her planned death, the romantic lifestyle that Emma so desperately searches for is counteracted. Within Emma's marriage with Charles the relationship is led astray, while he finds contentment among simply watching her and observing her beauty from day to day, she desires more along the lines of love and romance. Therefore she turns towards Leon, Emma always desired the love of Charles the way she wished to be loved, at the same time however he desired him to go against her so that she could seek revenge and be with Leon, who in the end departs for a new town. Then, she goes for Rodolphe, and upon the time that they are just about to start a life together, Rodolphe develops this idea that leaving all that he had loved and worked for, his comfort zone, was not a good idea. Their life together would not work for the best, therefore he too deserts her. Emma always had love right in front of her, from her daughter to her husband Charles. Although they illustrated different types and satisfactions within their love for one another, there was love nonetheless. In addition to that, Berthe always sought the love of her mother, however, Emma always acted upon the child as if it was an object. "Take it away" she would say. Throughout the book Flaubert made it seem as if she never felt Berthe was something that deserved her loving, she neglected the child. Whereas, Charles always showed affection and care. From the beginning Emma was destined to be unhappy, in a way she had brought the heartache among herself, she always thrust herself upon her lovers, and neglected to appreciate the love that was directly before her, in Charles. Moreover, if she had allowed herself to be loved and give out love in return she would have found herself in a more successful relationship, and a happier life.

Slutty Emma Whips Charles into Submission

Madame Bovary uses Charles like the H2 in water use O. Sleeping from bed to bed, man to man; she leaches everything from Charles, portraying a gold digger in the most accurate way possible. Charles is passive to Bovary's neglectful mannerisms because he forces his happiness to be based on hers meaning when Bovary sluts and struts herself around town Charles forces himself to be happy simply because she is even though she is neglecting Charles to the fullest extent; something no sane man should allow. When Charles finds the letter between Emma and Rodolphe he reacts in a very passive manner, timidly believing himself to be happy simply because Emma was.

Emma carves Charles into a mere fragment of the man he once was. Consistently deceitfully neglecting Charles until he finally accepts Emma's mischievous ways. True love needs a strong sense of equillibrium to succeed. The difference in respect between Bovary and Charles is similar to that of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay and the interrogator questioning him.

The unhealthy relationship displayed between Bovary and Charles epitomizes the opposite of a successful relationship. In doing whatver she cares to, Emma uses and abuses Charles, finally forcing him into submission.

Emma vs. Jane

Having just finished Jane Eyre, i found myself constantly comparing and contrasting Emma's view about and actions in love with those of Jane. I found many extreme differences between the two. Our first encounter with Emma shows us that she is a very traditional French woman, and nothing seems out of the ordinary. Opposingly in Jane Eyre, our first impression is that she is an overly passionate little girl, trying to break free from restraint. As both novels progress there seems to be a switch of character - Jane becomes more rational and almost suppresses her emotions to do whats best for her, when she leaves Mr. Rochester. In Madame Bovary, once Emma marries Charles she seems to come upon her hidden passionate nature, and longs for a more intense passionate love affair. Since she cannot find this with Charles she looks elsewhere to fulfill her need for passion, first with Rodolphe and later with Leon. In the end we see that Jane finds happiness with her one true love, and Emma dies in debt, and eventually Charles joins her at the grave. I think Emma's unfortunate ending is a direct result of her allowing her emotions to completely overtake her character. Jane realizes early that passion is a good thing, but not when it gets out of control (I think she learned this during her time in the red room). In my mind Jane and Emma are polar opposites, and i think the endings not only reflect the conflicting ideas of realism and romanticism, but also those of the conflicting personalities of Emma and Jane.

Romantic realism?

This book is quite obviously written in the realistic style as we studied. It trudges on and states the life of a normal woman and a normal man, who often seems simple. And every day it reminds us of the same boring dullness we live in. However, is there romanticism hiding in this realistic book? Madame Bovary is certainly a dull seeming character. She spends all her day reading and knitting and attempting new habits, which she always gives up. But the idea of romanticism thrives in her dreams, and maybe in this way, that idea is mocked and ridiculed by Flaubert. The whole scene at the ball, takes on the air of a dream-like possibly drugged up setting, where the dull drudgery of the book, takes on for a day, the higher airs of a romantic ball, where every lady is a giggling damsel, waiting for the chivalrous gentleman of the night to come and sweep her off her feet onto the glimmering dance floor. And then, reality crashes back in when the morning comes and Madame Bovary and Charles awaken. The voice of the book is once again brought down to an earthly level, and the floaty airs of the night are washed away. From then on, Madame Bovary only dreams of this romantic life. She spends her days closeted inside reading about it, she spends her nights dreaming of the bright lights of Paris and the wonderful parties held in the magnificent city. Perhaps Flaubert is using her idea of romanticism to represent a far off dream, that though it sounds beautiful on paper and in the clouds of our imagination, it is forever a far off non-reality. A world inhabited by unicorns, ladies, and knights, where the parties never end, and a hangover never comes. Where every husband is a loving man, who is also exciting and fun, and daring. Flaubert ridicules the idea of romanticism, he uses Madame Bovary's dreams in stark contrast with the real life she leads to demonstrate how it only sucks on the soul, draining all the desire to live. While Madame Bovary should be out making the best of the gifts she has received, she instead sits inside, dreaming of this spectral unreality, wasting away.
Her death is in its own way, Flaubert's final stab at the horrid creation of Romanticism. He uses death by arsenic, which, turns into a horrible clawing experience and disgusting examples with great gusto to show that he thinks Romanticism, which is embodied by madame Bovary throughout the book, should die, or at least come to an end. He's bitterness towards romanticism follows us and niggles at the corners of our minds through most of the book, however there are moments where it jumps out, like the death of Madame Bovary.

Unsatisfied Women

While Jane Eyre told a story of a girl who was hard-pressed to find love, or when she did was afraid of pain. Nonetheless she was accepting of the love that she was given....where as Emma Bovary was not. Emma is an incredibly selfish woman who is not satisfied with her loving husband. A lot of woman crave the kind of love from a man, and all she can think about is what greater love is out there. She can't accept how much Charles wants and desires her; all she can think about is what else is there. What? Why isn't Charles enough? I don't understand why when these other men come alone, Leon or Rodolphe, she just becomes enraptured in them. No matter the pain and the bullshit that both of them put her through, she is forever endowed to them. Why? What's wrong with Charles. Is she just unsatisfied because it wasn't her original plan? Is she pissed at the arrangement of it? Is she trying to prove independence? Just inevitably women are way too picky, but I'm not sure of the theme Flaubert is trying to identify, in no way is this a feminist book because she isn't really a product of oppression, besides her own unhappiness with her marvelous life. Eh?

The Bov

Emma's vision of what love should be are overly-romantic and far fetched, seemingly based on fairy tales or something of the sort. See likes to believes that it will just hit her one day, like a storm. Perhaps her tendency to "slut around" is rooted in her fantasy based concept of love. Also effecting her actions is her love of money and all things related. She wants it so bad, money, love ,and sex, that she is willing to get it from almost anyone.

Homais' Beliefs

This may be the worst book I have ever read. It is either boring of just irritating, and most of the time, both. The only part I found remotely interesting was when Homais talked about his religion on page 69. It is somewhat similar to my own feelings about religion. Homais has faith, but not religion. Not organized religion anyway. He says, "Yes, indeed, I do worship God!.......but I don't need to go into a church and kiss silver platters and dig into my pockets to fatten up a lot of humbugs who eat eat better than you or I do. Because he can be worshiped just as well in a wood, or a field.." etc. These seem like very daring statements for the time. I don't think Flaubert would have risked ticking off the church like this if Homais didn't share some of his personal beliefs. This might be bogus, but perhaps Flaubert chose to express his opinion through a fictional character instead if saying it himself.

Realist or Arrogant Elitist?

So I did finish this book, and thought, in a sick and twisted kind of way, the ending where Charles dies was quite funny, but I found a certain passage in the novel, where Léon and Emma discuss which books they enjoy, was quite interesting to me.

Flaubert would pride himself as the kind of author who holds up a mirror to the world, with no fancy descriptions or symbols, and yet in this passage his characters are discussing how they love the Romantic style of writing. They "loathe...the kind of thing you find in real life." In this passage he seems to contradict everything he stands for.

I have talked with a couple people about this passage, and have decide that it could mean two things. Flaubert was either "holding up his mirror" and showing how people tend to enjoy these romantic novels much more than those that he feels are better representations of what literature should do, or he was poking fun at the unreal ideals that Romantic novels, even those such as Jane Eyre where a plain woman was able to find true love on her terms, and how they influence the lives of those who read them.

Emma is a perfect example of this because she is constantly looking for "true love" "true romance" but she can never find it because to Flaubert...it doesn't exist.

In my opinion Flaubert is entertaining, but in his quest to seperate himself from the novel, he inserted an arrogant, elitist tone, and dragged on in descriptions that were very pointless as he was telling you at the same time that these details meant nothing and stood for nothing. In doing so he pushed me away rather engrossing me in what would have been a tragic and amazing story. Maybe this was his goal, maybe it wasn't, either way, the distance did help me find humor in some of the "tragic" scenes, like Charles's death and even Emma's. She thought she was going to acheive some level of "romanticism" in life and kill herself, and instead she dies a horribly painful death.

Slut!!!!!

Jane is a stupid slut! I want to first point out that when Emma married Charles Bovary and that was one of the biggest mistakes of the book. She does not stay loyal when she meets other men and she completely disregards her husband when other men get in the picture. She was basically forced to marry Charlie and she at first liked him but then realized that she could also be with younger men. THIS PISSED ME OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even though she didn't like him you don't hurt him by sneaking away and screwing other guys. She sees him as Uneducated in the elegant arts and this one reason keeps her drifting away from their marriage.

Realistic?

As I read each page of this dreadful, almost too realistic, novel, I noticed Flaubert likes to point out sometimes mundane realities, and even common, yet tragic realities. As I read, I find myself bored with the book because I catch on to these realities and I don't feel the way a novel is supposed to make me feel. I don't like to think or focus my mind on things that could have originated in my own mind, or I could have even witnessed firsthand, but to experience another's mind or even to learn new ideas. If not to learn a new idea, then to expand on a preexisting idea or even create a more stable base for newly emerging ideas to form.

I haven't yet finished Madam Bovary, so I cannot say that what I have read so far holds true throughout the entire book, but I can say that from the moment I read the opening sentence to the moment my eyes shut unwillingly each night, I was not satisfied.

Yep.

Nates thoughts

I have not finished the book yet but as of now, I think that it really is boring. thats just me I have always disliked romantice books. There are times in the book were the speaker will go on and on about one little detail, after reading a page or so of some one rambeling on about there hair or somthing it starts to drive me crazy. mabey it will get better as the book gos on.

Emma Gets Around

Emma Bovary gets around, if you know what i mean. She cannot be satisfied by just one man, she needs Leon in the Beginning because her husband, Charles is to involved in his work. She is really clingy to him and he decides to move to Paris. While he is gone she tries again with Charles but yet again can not find happiness. Emma and Rodolphe met and hit it off, she was all over him and then that she can try even harder to get back with Charles. She has a horrible relationship kind of girl, she has week relationships, her relationship status is as if she was in middle school, except for the sex. She meets up with them and they fool around and then she leaves and goes to another man. When Emma tries to kill herself, she portrays an image of how much of a shitty person she is. If she wanted to find true love she could have, instead she wanted to have quick relationships and move on.
When Charles finds the letters between Emma and Rodolphe, he stays calm and thinks that as long as she was happy it was ok. Any other person would be mad and burn them and everything else that she owned. Charles is to nice of a guy and doesn't realize anything about her until she is dead. If he wasn't so involved in his work he might have time for his lady.
I think it is funny when she dies, because she starts screaming, and talking about a blind man, she is messed up in the head, then she dies and everyone continues life

Madame Bovary!

From what I've read so far I've come to the conclusion that the emotion this author inflicts upon me is RAGE! I'm sure the story line is really great but I just can't get past the writing style... At times and in most circumstances the details are so unnumerable that you feel overwhelmed. But when you come across what you would believe to be a more weighty subject the author writes it so starkly. Like for example when Charles' wife dies the author was like "she coughed up blood and the next day she was dead..." seriously!?! that's it. Nothing more nothing less just the facts. So hopefully as I read further the author will decide on a happy medium.

Madame Bovary

Flaubert is a good writer who puts a lot of thought into his work, everything that he writes about has some significant way to be translated, which is entertaining to read. Homais conception of god is much different that the view that is put out in Jane Eyre. Homais feels that religion and and prayer are useless, much the opposite of which is portrayed in Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre has the look on religion as it is a must in all of our lives and that we need to live by jesus and love him. In Madame Bovary, Homais is the apothecary at Yonville and is very obnoxious and loves himself. He helps Charles become established as a doctor so that was nice of him. I agree with his outlook on religion and prayer, we should be out doing things that we want to do, not living in the shadow of jesus. We need to set our own standard and live life how we want to, people need to respect other's decision on how to carry out their life, whether it includes religion or not.

Who is gustav flaubert?

Gustav Flaubert is one sick, twisted, mothertrucker. I want to start off by talking about Emma's obvious boredom of life. Sure we all get bored, but this girl she seems depressed to be alive. It seems as though nothing conventional is every good enough for her. Evern when her daughter is born, a most joyous moment in a womens life, she seems to be disappointed that she did not bear a boy. Emma takes most things in her life for granted. The only time she appears to be happy is when shes cheating on her husband. Maybe if she and Leon would have just eloped she wouldnt be so depressed. I do like the way Flaubert takes seemingly dull characters, and brings them into full complex life. Every single person has the story to tell, we just have to listen.

Let no one be blamed...

Emma's death is a very interesting one. She breaks into the laboratory and begins to take in some Arsenic. She is tired of her debts and therefore wants to commit suicide. She takes in the poison and begins to feel sick, however the real pain doesn't begin until about 8 pm when the vomit begins. When choosing suicide, poison is an interesting choice. It is extremely painful and takes a long time to go through. While Emma is dying, Charles continues to keep and I on her and try to find out what is wrong. Finally Emma allows him to read the letter which states that she had taken in Arsenic and that no one should be blamed. He calls for help and they try to save her, but in the end it is too late.

Emma's death is in some ways quite funny. She begins eating the Arsenic and then she waits. She thinks it isn't so bad, until the vomiting begins. From there it just gets worse and poor Charles is clung to the side of her bed, hoping that she will be well again. She continues to groan and pull at the sheets, but even while she is in this horrible pain she still lets out a little smile. Emma had gotten into serious debt, but no one was there to help. Rodolphe had refused to help and therefore Emma lost hope. She begins the suicide and finds that the true help was with Charles. He takes care of her and brings in a priest, but just as they think she is being saved things begin to turn again. Emma thinking she has been saved gives the most passionate kiss to the Man-God. She asks for the mirror to see herself and the pain begins again. Deep breaths, lose of air, and continuous pain. Finally it is over and she is Gone. It's a strange death and although she enjoys it and is thinking she is doing the right thing; she still tries so hard to hold onto the last glimpse of a second chance.

Flaubert's Romanticism

I found the most interesting aspect of Flaubert’s novel his sheer bitterness towards romanticism. There are times when he seems to really put his heart into it, like Emma’s longings for story-book-true-love or Charles’ attempt at burring her in a truly royal fashion, but by the end of the book it’s a failed (albeit intentional failure) endeavor. In fact, it’s rather funny. How perfectly Flaubert sets up Emma’s hopeful dreams and puerile desires only to have them come crashing down around her. It’s actually quite comical that in an attempt to pass away peacefully in her sleep, she dies violently and hideously (what with the black bile). Even Charles, who in a last attempt at completing Emma’s romantic desires, buries her in three coffins with a green velvet shroud. Yet, once again, Flaubert’s realism seems to spit upon romanticism in Charles’ comical death when his daughter pushes over his stiff cadaver in the arbor.

After reading Madame Bovary, I find myself almost disgusted with the extravagant tailing of romanticism and proud of the pessimistic styles of realism. I’m still fond of Romanticism, but Realism might be slightly more entertaining.

A Small Conception of Love

After meeting Leon, Emma begins questioning the meaning of love. She believes that love should not be planned or predictable. She thinks that love should come out of no where... it should be a surprise. Emma clearly does not love Charles, she would much rather be with someone like Leon, because unlike Charles, the connection between Emma and Leon came out of no where. This connects to Jane Eyre because when she met Rochester it wasn't planned at all. Also, I doubt that when she saw him riding up on her horse the fact of falling in love with him didn't even cross her mind.

Emma's Distorted Love

It's frusterating when you come to hate the main character of a book. Emma is obnoxious not only because of how into herself she is, but also because she doesn't appreciate any of the love Charles has for her. Charles immediately falls in love with her and the reader definitely sides with him, but as the book goes on, one's heart just falls because of how Emma treats him. She expects so much from him, more than love; material things. She has grown up picturing love as this unbelievable experience, but all of her seeking love leaves her more unhappy than ever. I think if she ever stopped looking for perfection, she'd finally find it. The way she acts througout the book is aggrivating and made me want to stop reading more than anything. Her lack of appreciation towards Charles, as well as her promiscuous ways simply gave a bad name towards women. To be happy you don't have to be in love, nor do you have to sleep around. Emma's head is in the clouds though, and I don't feel that she has any real grasp of reality, no matter how much she thinks she does. It's sad because poor Charles does everything he can to satisfy Emma, from the very start. Never does he succeed. Never does she allow him to succeed. I think if she finally got what she wanted in the end, she would just start wanting something else. She's greedy, even if its for love and affection and an extravagant life.

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. :)

Arsenic yum

This type of death tries to give meaning to the character's life. Suicides make people think that the person's life was awful and ultimately try to make people empathisize with her situation. Engulfing arsenic is a slow painful death. Emma thinks that it is going to be a quick easy death. When we think about this type of death that romantic belief is brought in. For example, in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Juliet supposedly "dies" so out of heartache Romeo drinks poison to kill himself. Love really determines death in both of these stories. With love comes life, and without it comes death. The death scene is supposed to be tragic because suicides are never funny. But in this case the suicide is funny because of how idiotic Emma is. Killing herself by eating arsenic. The tragedy of of Emma dying is not quite as sad as Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet overcome the obstacles making them unable to be together, whereas Emma can't deal with her emotions and caves in. The fact that she can't handle her surroundings and emotions makes it kind of funny and pathetic. I believe Flaubert was going for an empathetical approach in this scene, but kind of failed. Maybe in this time period people would have thought that her ending was sad. In the book no one really seems to care. Her father comes down to the funeral, and all towns people don't really say much about it. The only people that care are Charles and the debt collectors. Flaubert wrote her death as "fundamentally romantic" to add spice to the story. Her death symbolized her freedom from marriage she wanted. The fact that the she committed adultery on so many counts shows her individualism. This individualism could be connected to Jane Eyre in that both of them cannot find love with one person. Jane Eyre goes back to Rochester in the end, but Emma has to force herself to love Charles and fails. Because of this pressure she ends up killing herself. When you compare all stories like Romeo and Juliet, and Jane Eyre it really shows her death as being comedic instead of tragic.

i saw it coming from the beginning

right from the beginning of the novel i saw hints at the fact that Emma was "indeed, finding him(Charles) more and more irritating." (pg. 56) this sentence is just days after they get married. she repeatedly calls him a "pitiful creature" and it is inevitable that she is going to take matters into her own hand and find a real man to please her. there is also symbolism toward lack of excitement when Flaubert writes that "It was a cold winter" (pg. 57) Eventually Emma seems depressed at the fact that Charles is a shitty husband and she starts thinking of ways to entertain herself, "She kept changing the way she arranged her hair" she also "decided to learn Italian" this is all to take her mind off of the lameness of her everyday life. then she goes and fucks a bunch of other dudes. Charles must really suck.

When Emma Died...

I wonder if there will ever come a time in my life when downing a handful of arsenic seems best answer to life's many questions. I do hope that moment never comes for me. Why Emma couldn't just tough it up is beyond me. First of all, she has a handful of men that over the course of her life have become infatuated with her. You would think she would be fairly happy with that. Even when she falls deeper and deeper into debt, and no one will help her out (even with some seducing), she still has a beautiful daughter, a husband that although embarrasses her loves her very much. Emma is a selfish, promiscuous lady who is too lost in the pages of her romance novels to deal with the harsh reality that there is no perfection in the world. Flaubert combats romanticism by showing how Emma, who strives her whole life to find the romantic relationship she reads about in those novels, ends up always being disappointed and never finding her ideal relationship. No matter how her men may love her, they are just never good enough as the men who sweep the fictional characters of her dreams off her feet. She is so caught up in her dream world that she can't handle reality. In her affair with Leon she buys many extravagant things, without a though towards her ever increasing debt. She only wants her relationship with Leon to remain as fantastical and romantic as she can. When she returns home to find the banks demanding her pay her debts, she tries to get more loans rather than working to pay it back. Even when her loans are denied she continues to try and borrow money by seducing other men.
Her fantasy life quickly falls apart and rather than trying to fix it, she chooses to "romantically" call an end to it. Much like in the romantic "Romeo & Juliette" she takes her life, rather dying than living a non romantic life. Emma is a selfish woman, living in world that does not mirror her novels. Emma cannot grasp reality, and thus is constantly disappointed with her less than perfect life. She leaves her husband and child to not only mourn her loss, but also pay back the debt she left them.

My Overall Opinion

Emma SUCKS. I could not have configured a more annoying, whiny, self absorbed character if I tried (really hard, for many many hours). I definitely got more into this book once I got to around pg. 15o the plot becomes bit more intriguing once Emma starts sleeping around and getting herself into financial troubles. Her shallow extravagance is almost humorous.

Poor Charles, he desereves better, I wish he doesn't kill himself at the end but rather, embraces the fact that Emma is gone and he can finally be independent. I want him to get ANGRY not sad. He should have sold all of Emma's crap--then he would be out debt and able to move back to Yonville with Bertha and his mother and father in law, and be surrounded by people who love and respect him.

I am glad Emma Killed herself

I have to say that through out the entire book I was just waiting and waiting for Emma to either be killed, or kill herself. Finally my thoughts became action when she decided that her life was not worth living, YESSS!!! She had been pissing me off since the day that she started to complain. She always had some thing to criticize about either her life or the life’s of the people surrounding her. SHE HAD NOTHING TO B**CH ABOUT. The sad thing is that Charles is a really cool guy and all he wants is for Emma and him to be happy. He treats her right and only expects the same from her. She just decides to use him like a tool. She has to get together with all these dumb guys and she also brings Charles into bankruptsy. Even though Charles is not the best doctor or the most handsome guy, he does care for the people that surround him. He tries his hardest and that is what counts in my book. On the other hand Emma decides to just walk all over him and then ask for his help when she spends all the money. The worst part about all of this is that Charles is so oblivious to every thing that is going on. Any ways I am just really glad that Emma did every one a little good by ending her worthless excuse of a life.

Madame Bovary or just a failure?

The way that Emma just destroys herself along with her family, depresses me. I cannot imagine secretly running your family into debt while pretending that it wasn't happening. I kept wanting her to fess up, and do the right thing. I understand her motives and that Charles was boring, but if she had given him a chance I think that he would have fixed himself. He would have straightened up and been a more loving husband. Emma instead just went off with two other men to satisfy her "needs." In the beginning, their love is true and flirty, but as soon as the marriage is set, they both are cold. In a relationship, they have to be with one another and keep the other one company, but most importantly, you most compromise to satisfy both demands. This is the exact opposite of what Emma and Charles do which leads to the failure of their marriage.
Charles could have what he was talked up to be because he was a promising doctor with steady work and therefore steady pay. Although he is second class, this is not made him a dark and cold man. He has his heart crushed when his mother coaxes him into the arranged marriage to an old widow whom was supposed to have money. After she dies, Charles is upset, but Emma is there to confort him. This additionally goes south after his second marriage because they are not close.
Furthermore, all the work and traveling that Charles does makes it hard to live the happy family life that is a promised dream following wedding. Lastly, the other part that does not help thier relationship, is Emma's drive to be first class. She wants so so badly to always be invited to those balls, and be able to afford fancy gowns, and be courted by young men while still being in rich marriage. The cherry on top, is her suicide. This is what she deserved in my opinion because of how she treated those surrounding her. Almost karma and what goes around comes around.

Suicide!

I thought Emma's death was completly horrible, a bit funny as well though!!!!! So...Emma not only lies and cheats on her family but now commits suicide?!?! I laugh at how utterly dramatic and pathetic Emma is, but at the same time am disgusted with her choices....especially commiting suicide. It's selfish of her to choose her death the was she does....I mean...she still has a family left. If not stay alive for her sake, stay alive for her family's. I don't really know exaclty why she would do this, I suppose it's because she has such a sense of guilt, it is unbearable. Of course, the huge debt that she owes is also a contributing factor, but I would wonder if that would be the determining factor. In the book it says that she is disgusted by Charles good heart and morals, because she lacks such factors. Perhaps this is the reason that allows Emma to feel guilty. To come to Rodolphe for such a sum of money by using her seductive ways, I found was quite desperate of Emma (especially of his wrong doings to her earlier in the book). In other words, coming to him was her final chance at life. Obviously It didn't help situtions at all, and thus she decided to commit suicide.

How to Dig a Hole

There is one thing that the gangster films of the thirties and forties share in common with Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary. In both, the protagonist goes to extreme and terrible ends to dig themselves out of a hole, yet merely end up deeper in it. Like George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Paul Muni or James Cagney, Madame Bovary is simply a moral lacking, yet very human flunk. Wife to a boring doctor, Mistress to a boring clerk, debtor to a sketchy merchant, and mother to an ignored daughter. What is interesting about this is that she, more than almost anyone, wants the glamorous life she has read about in her Parisian magazines.
To achieve these high standards of life and social grace upon which she has set herself she looks to affairs. They leave her nothing but grief and a poor conscience. She seeks an abundance of material luxuries. They leave her hopelessly in debt. She wants a comfortable home life, yet she isolates her good husband and daughter with her web of lies and misplaced loves. She slowly digs her hole so deep that there is but one level remaining. In the final parallel with the Warner Bros. Gangster films, the conflicted protagonist dies and long and dramatic death, the only way that justice could be served. Swimin with the Fishies.

Flaubert is on a quest to embarrass the concept of Romanticism through Emma. When she marries Charles, she is like a teenage girl coming into freshman year; her naïveté leads her blindly into disappointment. Flaubert uses her situation in the beginning of the novel to depict the disappointment of the Romantic ideal, and the juvenile quest to obtain it. She is trying to hack her way into a fairytale, while the barrier between her and her goal is impenetrable. After just one lavish night, she reminisces on her days of “skimming cream with her finger from the earthenware milk pans in the dairy” as an illustration of “her past life”; and then is humbled into reality when she climbs into bed “against a sleeping Charles” (47,49). Poor girl! She has married this incredibly simple and stupid man and cannot look upon her life without the pretense that she should be one of these fancy women in the luxurious homes. She leaves the ball not on a carriage, but on her horse with Charles, who has a cardboard box between his legs. What a bummer reality check. Still when she gets home she barks orders and fires the poor servant girl and packs away her gown and shoes like she is better than the life that she is leading. Any hole through which Emma can see a way into her Romantic façade she has tries to squeeze through. It is depressing.

Destruction of Charles

Emma's destruction of Charles through out the novel disgusts me. Her dreams of being something bigger and better sends her through a whirlwind of life that ends up badly, very badly. The way that Charles loves Emma, no matter what she is doing makes me sick. The amount of evil "sins" she has committed behind his back are not only scandalous for the times, they are awful for the present. She married into this simply for the prospect of an ideal marriage. The thought of wealth, prosperity, popularity were flourishing in her mind. Charles was all willing to give it to her, but his idea of an ideal marriage is different than hers. He knew with his growing study in being a doctor he would only prosper a certain amount. Emma wanted more. She continued to want more than Charles could ever give.
One person who seemed to see this greed from Emma was Madame Bovary Senior. She always looked down on Emma, always scrutinizing her and making her look bad. Charles would side with his mother, until it came to Emma. This shown affection and love was sad. He looked past everything that was true, whether he knew it or not.
People watching knew something was wrong. The clerk who Emma purchased all of her gifts and trunks from knows something is not right. Emma doesn't seem to care what anyone else thinks. I dont think she wanted anyone to find out about the affairs but she was also so lost up in her love for other men I believe that if someone (Charles) had found out it would have made it easier for her, she finally could have broken away from what she hated; her life.

One Hundred Years of Solitude Now Has a Contender

What can I say about Madame Bovary? Easy: IT'S DULL! This book I can compare to my least favorite book of all time, One Hundred Years of Solitude, without any guilt or without batting an eye. The book only brought up more questions then it did answers; mostly along the lines of, "What's the point?", "Is there a point?", etc. One Hundred Years of Solitude jumps rapidly from period to period, starting two decades into the story, then jumping to the beginning, then three years early, five years later, all with characters that have the same name as the last one! All the while the reader feels nothing but pure depression because the characters don't' speak, but the author decibels the depression, the disease, and the melancholy of their home. Now, granted, Madame Bovary does not start at some ridiculous time period and then jump back ten years, nor do all the characters have the exact same name as its previous one, but it does jump. Its jumps are like side-tracks of the mind; Flaubert might be talking about, say, Emma and her husband, before going on a completely random tangent about the countryside, its beauty, what the flowers can be used for...then goes back to a new character hardly introduced. What??!! Hold up there, Flaubert, I need a little bit more information then just some random tangent. If you're going to go off on a tangent, then make it tie into everything else! And no more, "Boo hoo, I hate my life, I'm gonna go die now," crap. We do not read books to become emo suicidal killers. Come on: you're [Emma] sleeping around with gorgeous men who would bring you the moon and who make you feel happy and princess-like. You, with your selfishness and constant need for affection that is not needy or obsessive cannot be that disappointed in life right now! Honestly. Go take you're whining somewhere else.
Yeah, okay, so that might have been a little over the top, but seriously: I read to gain a higher intelligence, a deeper respect for writers, and a new perspective of the world. I do not read to turn my brain into goo.

Madame Bovary

Emma Bovary is a very interesting character who seems to believe that fantasy is reality. When she first gets to know Charles at her farm she finds him interesting and fun to be around. However when she marries him she finds that the romance she has been reading about doesn't apply to her own marriage. She seems to need that fantasy of romance that seems so intriguing throughout her books. What she doesn't realize is that no matter what fiction is fiction. Romances are a very complicated things and are not suppose to be easy. She bitches and moans about not having everything perfect so much that she forgets about the things that are important to others. She needs the romance so much that she decides to sleep around with numerous others in order to achieve what she so desperately wants. Her own happiness must come above all else even if that means braking down a man who truly loves her for who she is. Not many people can say that.

Death Scene

It was rather entertaining how Madame Bovary died by poisoning herself. It was no less than she deserved, considering what a whore she was. Unfortunately, Gustave Flaubert failed to instill any form of sympathy in me towards Madame Bovary, and instead made pages 280-290 the most enjoyable in the book. Nothing can beat watching a scandalous, sex addicted whore dying - "her rolling eyes dimmed like lamp globes as they fade into darkness, so that she might have been dead already, had it not been for the terrifying movements of her ribs... driven by her desperate breathing."
In fact, reading the other 301 pages made me want to join Emma, instead of suffering through page after page.

Liar Liar!

I thought this book quite repetative with it's imagery. Is It just me, or was it hard to follow sometimes? As far as the actually story of the book, I found it a bit boring and dull. Seriously, all it's really about is some women cheating on her husband trying to find love. Apparently, Emma misunderstands love for lust. All she did and looked forward to seeminlgy in the book was to find her lover apart from her husband, and feed her sexual hunger. And here Charles is, alwasy caring and loving on Emma, while behind his back she is having sex with two other men! However, I found it a little funny how Emma is cheating on Charles and really pays him no regard (even though he does not know it) and then Rodolphe does the same to her. Emma, I felt was plainly a whore. That might seem harsh but really now....cheating on your husband with two other men, when all your husband does is love you and make your life as good as he possibly can!
Not to mention how she puts all her family in debt, not giving her child the education she and Charles had wanted for Berthe. She is a selfish women. Perhaps the saddest part of the book (in my opinion) was when Charles was dreaming of Berthe, and how she would grow older and the family would find her a suitor and so on and so forth. However, as Charles lays in bed with his wife, her dreams are of running off with another man! Emma is a prostitute for love. She lies and cheats, not a quality women in my belief.

Is Emma to blame for her misfortunes?

In Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary, women are insignificant. Emma Bovary hopes that her baby will be a man, because women are regarded so lowly. Throughout the novel, male characters have the power to change everything, unlike women, who are insignificant. Her husband Charles, even contributes to her lack of ability to make changes in her life for herself. His inability to advance his career keeps her stuck in the country with little money. When she meets Rodolphe, he has the financial ability to change Emma's life, however he abandons her, and again, she is stuck. Then, Leon comes along, and they are very similar; they both hate the country life and want bigger and better things. However, because he is a man, he can actually fulfill his desires and go through with his plans, unlike Emma, who must stay in the country with her husband and child. However, the man aren't exactly the only people to blame for Emma's misfortune. It was her choice to marry Charles, therefore her life situation is a result of that choice that she made for herself.

Religion vs. Knowledge.

In this book Monseur Homais, The apothecary, Claims to still worship a god, but his god is very different from the god of Jane eyre. Homais says that he believes in a supreme being and a creator yet he says his gods are Socrates, voltaire, and etc. to me this makes absolutely no sense, how can they be the creators of man when they are men living in our world? I believe what Homais is trying to say that knowledge is more reasonable than traditional religion, but who is Homais' creator? It just doesnt make sense.

Emma Sucks

I can't stand Emma. What a bitch. Everything she does is wrong, cruel, and disgusting. She needs to leave her affairs to books. I don't understand how Charles can keep loving her. Probably the most disturbing thing she does is steal money from Charles. She spends all of his income without even letting him know. I realize that she wishes she was rich and dreams of the stories which she has read in books. But she has to realize that she is not these beauties in the stories. She's a stuck-up whore. I mean, she can't even spend any time with her child or help her become a woman. I guess this is a good thing or else her daughter would turn into a slut too. It horrified me and I couldn't have been more happy than when her death scene came up. It made my day.
I found this novel pretty entertaining and funny. I believe my favorite character was the pharmacist. He gets all that he could wish for while Emma and Charles end up in the grave. The whole description of Emma's death is hillarious. Especially when the description of the black liquid dripping from her mouth comes up. Although I found much of this book humorous, a more prevalent feeling for me was anger. I couldn't stand Emma and her actions. I constantly felt bad for Charles, getting two terrible wives and having his life ruined by a complete bitch! Emma sucks.

JZ's blog

Before I begin my analysis of the club foot surgery, I feel that I must impart to you my disposition towards the book. It was alright, but lacked the action that I usually seek when choosing a novel. Anyways, during a time when Emma felt Charles to be a plebe and very incompetant (although she always does), Emma endorses Charles' attempt at this surgery. Homais believes that this surgery will bring Bovary much fortune, success, and celebrity status, and Emma would always appreciate a more competant and eminent status. As Charles fails, and Hippolyte contracts gangreen, Emma believes Charles more incompetant than ever. This ultimately leads Emma back to Rodolphe. Hippolyte needs his leg amputates, and is a constant reminder, throughout the remainder of the book, of Charle's incompetance. The fact that Hippolyte was more agile with his club foot than most men are on two feet, further reinforces the notion that Charles is an incompetant doctor and a fool.

Madame Bovary

Even though Flaubert's style of writing is purely realistic, there is a clever contrast between real life and Emma's fairytale-esque ideal of what love really is. In her marriage to Charles, she soon became bored of him after the initial fire of pre-marital bliss was extinguished. From constantly reading romantic novels all of her life she had built up the ideal love that was only tangible in the fairy tale's she read as a young girl. However once real life kicked in she became bored and disgusted with her once desirable husband, and strayed to fulfill her romanticized ideals. She was constantly in search of a new, more desirable love affair, however once the lust died off and the spark wasn't as strong, and what was left was actual life thats when she took off in search of a new love interest. She it seems as though she doesn't want to accept the realities and hardships of real life, but rather live vicariously through the romantic novels she read as a child. It frustrated me that her husband was so in love with her and wanted to make the marriage work, but as soon as she realized that her marriage wasn't the perfect "novel like" romance, she forced herself to view her once desirable husband as crude and obnoxious. Seeing as though she grew up reading the ideal romantic novel, its hard to say that she in fact knows the true meaning of love, she just knows the empty shell, the lust; not the true feelings that make it real.