Madame Bovary

I’ve found that there are three topics that repeat throughout this novel:

1. illness

2. the impact of novels and religion

3. the physical and emotional dynamics of both sexes.

4. reoccurring mention of pride

 

 

At the end of part two, after Rodolphe leaves Emma, she becomes very ill. A theme I’ve analyzed in a past Victorian literature class discussed the inclusion and use of illness with woman characters. In this time period, a woman of leisure like Emma didn’t do much. Therefore they had little to fret or worry about. They used their health as a device to bring about attention or as a barrier to politely divert attention.  I;ve taken note in this novel how many times the color of Emma’s complexion gave away her emotions. (148, 182, 217,243: all of these pages refer to the color of Emma as pale or white.) Each paleness is a result of some sort of emotional overwhelming. As readers, we are constantly told of Emma’s current emotion through her physical description and mannerisms. I believe that illness is used in these types of novels to delay the plot but keep the reader interested in the main character. However I’m not saying that the illnesses are not believable. Many people have fallen physical ill from emotional heartbreak, but in this time period, it is usually only women who use it to their advantage.

      -> Going off of the structure of females and male’s in this novel, and I can’t help but notice how many times Chalres ‘weeps’.  “Charles sank into his chair, crushed, wondering what her trouble was, fearing some nervous illness, weeping, and vaguely aware that the air about him was heavy with something baleful and incomprehensible” (218). I quote this line to point out that the fact of his weeping is usually short, almost non-chalant. He weeps when she eats her first piece of bread and jam too. He’s always letting out a quick set of tears to the point where it almost becomes expected. This ‘feminine’ quality (if I can be so bold to call it that) is what Emma hates. Although she does not realize, Charles’s actions towards her reflect the way she acts towards all her other men. Charles is eager to please; he is constantly worrying over her every need; he consistently professes his love for her, yet she is repulsed by this unwavering admiration. Hello Irony.  Charles is the male/female character and Emma is more female than she can handle, so in her mind, the two just don’t mix. Poor, poor, Charles.

It is the elder Madame Bovary that declares novels to be anti-religious (148). And, when Emma has thoughts of her past life after she reads her father’s letter, she admits that she was full of illusions during that time. I don’t want to come off as a atheist, but I can’t help but sniff out the irony. Books are full of illusions but religion isn’t? When Hippolyte’s gangrenous foot reaches a life-threatening point he is visited by a priest who condemns him to death but consoles not Hippolyte but himself with his religion. “declaring, however, that he should rejoice in it, since it was the Lord’s will, and lose no time taking advantage of this occasion to become reconciled with heaven” (211). Everyone in town convinced this poor wretch to have the surgery, but once it went wrong, no one was willing to share blame. Instead they used the illusion of God to give reason for such a horrible event.

    -> When Emma has a religious experience it is obvious there is a clear connection to her feelings and her past feelings created by novels. She found the same extreme love represented in Christianity that she had been obsessed with that was inspired by her novels. On page 250, she talks about her pride being soothed by Christian humility. I found this sentiment extremely fascinating, and I almost gave her credit for such insight. By directly on the next page, Emma becomes bored with religious literature, expecting to find some self-confirmation but failing from lack of patience. Moreover, the christian ideal only plays into her conviction of martyrdom.

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