Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary tells the sad story of a marriage that ends in tragedy. Charles Bovary, a kind-hearted but dull and unambitious doctor with little practice, marries Emma, a beautiful peasant girl raised in a convent. Although he anticipates marriage as a life of adventure, he soon discovers that his only enthusiasm comes from the flights of fantasy he takes while reading sentimental romance novels. She grows increasingly bored and unhappy with her middle-class existence, and even the birth of her daughter, Berthe, gives Emma little joy.

Holding on to idealized intimacy, Emma begins to enact her romantic fantasies and embarks on a disastrous love affair with Rodolphe, a local landowner. She makes enthusiastic plans for them to run away together, but Rodolphe has grown tired of her and ends the relationship. Amazed, Emma develops brain fever and is bedridden for over a month. Later she meets Léon, an old acquaintance, and her life becomes increasingly chaotic. She embraces abstractions - passion, happiness - and ignores material reality itself, symbolized by money. She is completely unable to distinguish between her romantic ideals and the harsh realities of her life, even when her interest in Léon wanes. Having lost control of her debts, she begs for money, but is rejected by everyone, including Léon and Rodolphe. With seemingly nowhere to turn and on the brink of financial ruin and public disclosure of her private life, Emma swallows arsenic and dies a painful death.

Grief-stricken Charles, who has blindly ignored Emma's affairs, remains devoted to his late wife even as he struggles to pay off his debts. After discovering love letters from Rodolphe and Léon, he grows increasingly despondent, but blames fate for Emma's affairs. Shortly after he dies and Berthe finally ends up working in a cotton factory.