Madame Bovary Posts 1-3

Madame Bovary Past One.
I want to go back to Meaghan’s first questions at the end of her post which asks about the significance of the ball and I think Flaubert is using this particular scene to foreshadow possibly what’s to come. The thing that really interested me was when Madame Bovary and the viscount danced the waltz. “They began slowly, then quickened their pace. They whirled and everything whirled around them –lamps, furniture, walls and floor – like a disk on a spindle. As they passed near a door, the hem of Emma’s gown caught on her partner’s trousers; their legs interlocked; he looked down at her, she looked up at him; a kind of torpor came over her and she stopped moving. They began to dance again; drawing her along more swiftly, the viscount led her to a remote corner at the end of the gallery, where, out of breath, she almost fell, and for a moment she rested her head on his chest. (pg.45)”
Madame Bovary talks about wanting more and finding love, I think this is the perfect foreshadow of just that. This paragraph is also very symbolic of a sexual nature. Also the imagery that Flaubert creates makes the reader feel as if they are a witness to this very seen and came feel everything. Also I want to point the part out where Charles is not a witness to this waltz can foreshadow how blind he is to his wife’s true desires.

One thing I also noticed was the way Flaubert incorporates the color green through most of his chapters. For example when Charles found the green silk cigar case with the coat of arms of the cover, I thought it was very ironic. I think the color green is a symbol of envy which Madame Bovary feels already towards people who have a better life then hers but also a foreshadow to Charles soon to be envy towards other suitors who captures his wife’s eyes.

Also when Michelle mentioned about the setting I think she has a great idea going. I think that Flaubert uses the setting to somewhat symbolize Charles and Emma’s marriage. On page 60-61 there is a great description of their new homeland which is written so beautifully. There is a specific line that I would like to point out, “The stream running along the edge of the grass forms a white line which separates the color of the meadow from that of the plowed land, thus making the countryside look like and enormous outspread cloak which has green velvet collar edged with silver braid. (pg.60)”

I think in this passage the white line that separates everything would the marriage itself. Because the beautiful meadow could symbolize Emma and her dreams of great things then the plowed lands gives off kind of a boring not so beautiful place such as Charles who does lead a boring life style. Again the green color could symbolize the envy they somewhat share however the silver braid still confuses me. I think this kind of braid would symbolize a tight bond of marriage which would be ironic because it’s not tight what so ever which could mean why the braid is silver and not white. Its not completely pure.

Why do you think Flaubert describes the setting so much? Do you think its symbolic of something also?


Madame Bovary Post Two

Its taken me a while but I have finally reached the end of part 2 in Madame Bovary. Right now I personally am not sure what to think of Emma and her situations she has put herself into. I’m going to start with Meghan’s question as to if Charles knows about the affair she is having with Rodolphe and I think he does. I mean if the town believes that Emma is having an affair why can he not? I think he chose’s to ignore it or I think Flaubert purposely leaves out exactly what Charles thinks because he does not want us to lose focus of Emma and the life she is living.

When Rodolphe offers Emma the horse, Charles is the one who steps in and tells Emma to take the horse. I think it’s ironic because Charles does love Emma but he sets himself up to get hurt without even noticing it. I feel bad for him but at the same time if he really loves her he should show her more affection then he does. Emma is looking for someone who is willing to devote all his time showing her affection and treating her right by providing her with rich things. However the only person I feel she would have the best relationship with would be Leon. I personally loved Leon’s character and couldn’t help but feel the emotion Flaubert would write about how hard it was for Leon to admit that he was in love with Emma.

I feel Leon was the best match because he knew that Emma was not available. Even though he was in love with her and often wanted to show his affection towards her he actually saw her as a human being, as a woman, and was in love with her because of who she was. There’s a passage “As for Emma, she did not ask herself whether she loved him. Love, she thought must come suddenly, with great outbursts and lightnings,—a hurricane of the skies, which sweeps down on life, upsets everything, uproots the will like a leaf and carries away the heart as in an abyss. She did not know that on the terrace of houses the rain makes lakes when the pipes are choked, and she would thus have remained safe in her ignorance when she suddenly discovered a rent in the wall.” Page.87

I think Flaubert is saying that love is not something you can take from a book and apply it in real life. Love is going to “upset everything” which I feel is somewhat foreshadowing a possible upset with Emma since Leon has come back into her life.

I have to go back to Rodolphe and Emma’s affair for a moment actually. I think the only reason Rodolphe was successful in his plan to seduce Emma was because she was on the rebound from Leon. I think because she never did anything about her feelings for Leon she was presented with a straightforward chance to make up for. She let herself get caught up in the moment and then when he left she didn’t know what to do. However at the beginning after Rodolphe confessed his “love” for he, the reason why he left for 6 weeks was because the heart grows founder. I think that the whole affair is a foreshadow of Leon and Emma in part 3, more so I hope that’s what will happen.

I also want to go back to Emma’s daughter Berthe which has been touched on before. I cannot believe how awful Emma is for a mother. She hits her child when shes looking for love from her mother and doesn’t often see her. I think its ironic because when Emma was younger her father gave her all the love in the world and the best of everything. However its terrible how she neglects her child. It makes me question if Emma even knows what love means besides the love she is looking for from a man.

Another thing is when Charles performs the operation for clubfoot which was unsuccessful. I feel that it was symbolic when Emma decided she was going to try to love Charles, it was just as unsuccessful.

What else do you guys have to say about Emma and her affairs?!

Madame Bovary Post 3
So I just finished the book and all I can say is wow that’s not how I thought the story would end. I’m actually kind of upset over the ending I personally think Flaubert could have made it so much more enjoyable, seeing as the story was a good read. I feel he wrote Emma off too easy and then Charles had to die that was sad. Let me start from the beginning of part three.

I was so happy to see Leon come back into Emma’s life. His character is filled with so much passion towards Emma and I was really interested as to see how she would react to her lost love. As they say, absence makes the heart grow founder right? Indeed it did. One part I want to quote is when both lovers take the carriage ride to no where.

“From his seat the driver occasionally cast desperate glances at the taverns he passed. He could not imagine what mania for the movement was keeping these people from ever wanting to stop. He tried now and then, but there was always an immediate outburst of an angry exclamations behind him; he would lash his two sweating nags more vigorously and set off again, paying no attention to bumps in the road and sideswiping things here and there; he was indifferently to everything around him, demoralized and almost weeping from thirst, fatigue and despair.” (pg.211)

I chose this passage because I noticed that it was a little ironic how Leon made the driver just drive wherever and him and Emma not say anything about. This passage gives off a feeling a secret passions rolling around in the back of the carriage. I think symbolically this shows Leon and Emma crossing that line from friends in love to passionate lovers. Flaubert write an amazing chapter with just the descriptions of what they endure in that long carriage ride without actually giving the whole affair away.

However not all good things end in wonderful ways. I think Emma becomes greedy towards her love for Leon. She takes advantage of the way he cares about her just as Rodolphe does to her. It just shows how selfish Emma really is, especially when she becomes indebt she and she asks Leon to take money from his clients to help her out.

“How do you expect me to….”
“You’re acting like a coward!” she cried.
“Things aren’t as bad as you think,” he said stupidly. (pg.257)

How is Leon being a coward? Emma is the one who cannot be honest with her husband about the debt she has put her family into. Her character angers me on how she takes advantage of everyone in her life. She has no respect for her family and especially herself seeing as she has been apart of two different love affairs.
I loved when Emma went to see Monsieur Guillaumin to ask for more money and he basically said the only way she would receive money is if she gave herself to him. I think for Emma it’s a real slap in a face and that pretty much starts the real downfall she suffers leading to her death. It also shows that Emma is not as respected as she once thought, people know she’s involved in all these secret affairs so she is starting to give herself a real low name that she carries until the end.

I also want to point out when Charles finds Rodolphes note in the attics. His reaction, “Maybe they loved each other platonically.” (pg. 296) To the end Charles still refuses to consider the idea of Emma having an affair, even after her death. Either way she loved another man and it doesn’t affect him until he accepts the truth and then dies because of a broken heart. He reminds me of the blind prophet only he saw everything as appose to Charles which is ironic.

Speaking of death at Emma’s funeral I thought it was ironic how there was black coming out of her mouth. She’s in a white wedding dress which is suppose to symbolize the purity of marriage which she lacked most of the time and all of a sudden black emerges from her mouth which represents all the sinful affairs she had throughout the marriage.

I have a few questions I want to point out.
First is why do you think Flaubert ended the story that way he did?
And also what do you think of what happened to Berthe in the end being sent off to work in the cotton mill?