Gustave Flaubert and His "Madame Bovary"
We would like to think that everything in life is capable, or beyond the brink of
reaching perfection. It would be an absolute dream to look upon each day with a positive
outlook. We try to establish our lives to the point where this perfection may come true
at times, although, it most likely never lasts. There's no real perfect life by
definition, but instead, the desire and uncontrollable longing to reach this dream.
In the novel Madame Bovary, it's easy to relate to the characters as well as the author
of this book. One can notice that they both share a fairly similar view on life, and
that their experiences actually tie in with each other.
Emma Bovary dreamed of a life beyond that of perfection as well. She realizes that she
leads an ordinary and average life, but simply does not want to abide by it. In the
novel, Emma meets a pitiful doctor named Charles Bovary. The first time they meet,
Charles falls instantly in love with her. They begin to see more and more of each other
until Charles asks Emma's father for her hand in marriage. They end up getting married
and everything goes fine, just like a normal couple, for awhile. They did things with
each other, went out, and were extremely happy. Although, this love and passion for life
shortly ended when Emma's true feelings began to come about. We soon come to realize
that "the story is of a
woman whose dreams of romantic love, largely nourished by novels, find no fulfillment
when she is married to a boorish country doctor" (Thorlby 272).
This is completely true because Emma really does get caught up in her reading. She
wonders why she can't have a flawless love as well as a flawless life, just as the
characters do in the novels she reads.
Once Emma becomes fed up and realizes that he is "a sad creature" (Flaubert 78), she
begins her little quest to find the right man through a binge of affairs and broken
hearts.
The author of Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, was born in Rouen France (Kunitz 280).
He grew up in a rather wealthy and prosperous family as a result of his father being a
successful doctor (Kunitz 280). This could easily relate to the fact that Charles Bovary
was a doctor too.
During Flaubert's younger years, he was alone most of the time. He didn't have any
friends and normally spent his days in solitude. This gave him time to focus on his
literature (Flaubert i). Since Flaubert's academics and knowledge of literature were
released at such an early age, it is explainable to see how his profound talent was
released (Flaubert i). He began to write plays at around the age of ten. These were
in-depth, romantic plays that adults would learn to appreciate (Kunitz 280). At that
time Flaubert focused his attention on the study of History and the
writings of numerous romantics as well (Kunitz 280).
Flaubert was later sent to an intermediate school in Paris to further strengthen his
academic standings (Kunitz 280). Upon completion of that, he enrolled into law school
but found no interest in it (Thorlby 250). This allowed him to do some drifting, while
taking the time to realize that literature would be his destiny (Kunitz 281).
Although all of this schooling and work helped Flaubert become an extremely talented
writer, he thought writing to be one of the most difficult things (De Man xi). He wrote
very slowly in fact, while reflecting on his painful life experiences. It took over five
years to perfect his most famous novel, Madame Bovary (Thorlby 272).
Although some people, as well as I, believe that Flaubert based the character of Emma
Bovary on himself, he was very unhappy with the subject of the book upon finishing
(Thorlby 272). Maybe Flaubert figured her character to be too provocative and heartless.
Otherwise, he might have simply reflected upon the theme, and thought it to be
uninteresting.
In 1856, the novel Madame Bovary was actually condemned as being pornographic. This was
a result of Flaubert's eminently honest and descriptive themes. He, along his publisher
were charged with offending public morality and went to trial, but were soon acquitted
(Magill 616). This publicity obviously helped bring the book out into the public while
establishing popularity and praise.
Sure, Flaubert was probably disappointed when this negative publicity about Madame
Bovary. But, he realized that criticism could be ignored and his objective is "to
understand humanity, not to explain or reform it" (Magill 616).
By reading Madame Bovary, it's easy to notice that Flaubert is a perfectionist. In
fact, he sometimes rewrites his books 3-4 times to establish perfection. When he
finished Madame Bovary, he said, "C'est Moi," meaning in French, "that's me" (Kunitz
281). This could symbolize the incredible comparison between Flaubert and the character
Emma Bovary.
Although Flaubert detested the thought of being famous, his work titled him France's
most renowned writer (Magill 617). According to Sainte-Beuve, Flaubert's scenes were
"pictures which, if they were painted with a brush as they are written, would be worthy
of hanging in a gallery beside the best genre painting" (Kunitz 281).
In 1846 Flaubert met the poet Louis Colet, who became his mistress. Although he admired
her, he couldn't "find the ideal love" (Kunitz 280). This could symbolize the comparison
between Flaubert and Emma as well. Along with Louis Colet, Flaubert had a few more
adulterous relationships too. But, when his work became too important, Flaubert gave up
everything to devote himself to his writing. He even broke off his affair with Mme.
Colet because got in the way (Thorlby 272).
Flaubert soon became a pessimist and basically had a cheerless view of life (Magill
617). He became the victim of nervous apprehension and depression (Kunitz 282).
Flaubert frequently felt with drawled from society and longed to commit suicide (Kunitz
282). It's plain to observe that Flaubert was an idealist that dreamed, just as the
characters in his novel did. "These perpetual conflicts," writes Troyat, who has been
listing some of the paradoxes in Flaubert's life, "made him a profoundly unhappy man"
(Kunitz 282).
Emma would sit on the grass into which she would dig the tip of her parasol with brief
thrusts and would ask herself, "My God, why did I get married" (Flaubert 108)? Flaubert
was the same way, deliberating whether marriage was one of the biggest mistakes to have
been made or not. "Madame Bovary," writes A de Pontmartin in the correspond and, "is the
pathological glorification of the senses and of the imagination in a disappointed
democracy." "It proves once and for all that realism means literary democracy" (De Man
ix). Emma and Flaubert are very ordinary middle-class people, with banal expectations of
life and an urge to dominate their surroundings. Their personalities are remarkable only
for an unusual defiance of natural feelings (Flaubert 152). People even say
that the myth surrounding the figure of Emma Bovary is so powerful, that one has to
remind oneself that she is fiction and not an actual person (De Man vii).
By reading this book, and accurately analyzing the author's significant events, one can
plainly conclude that Flaubert actually did tie in those events with the theme of Madame
Bovary. Madame Bovary is a creation of one's conscience which can only be explained
through the eyes of another. It's about love, hate, and destiny, while holding every
true emotion in the context as well. "Something in the destiny of the heroine and of the
main supporting characters, as well as in the destiny of the book itself, surrounds it
with the aura of immortality that belongs only to truly major creations" (De Man vii).
And it is fair to say that Madame Bovary is a true creation, at least one in the eyes of
Gustave Flaubert.
WORKS CITED
De Man, Paul, ed. Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary:
Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticisms. New
York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1965
Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. New York, New
York, 1964
Kunitz, Stanley J., Vineta Colby, eds. European Literature
(Authors) 1800-1900: A Biographical Dictionary
of European Literature. New York: The H.W. Wilson
Co., 1967
Magill, Frank N., ed. Critical Survey of Long Fiction: Foreign
Language Series. vol. 2; New Jersey: Salem Press
Inc., 1984
Magill, Frank N., ed. Cyclopedia of World Authors. New
Jersey: Salem Press Inc., 1958
Thorlby, Anthony, ed. The Penguin Companion to European
Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1969
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