How Flaubert Criticizes the Society with Madam Bovary - Essay Example

How Flaubert Criticizes the Society with Madam Bovary Gustave Flaubert criticizes the society using plot and character development in the novel “Madame Bovary”. The plot revolves around the life of a doctor’s wife called Emma Rouault who engages in extramarital affairs, is extravagant, and has undesirable desire for luxury. She leads a deceitful life that ruins her marriage and hence family life before she commits suicide. Charles Bovary, a doctor and husband to Emma is depicted as being ignorant about Emma’s relationships with other men, which results in failure of their marriage and eventual death of the two. The author, Gustave uses the experiences of Charles to show the blemish in the social fabric of the society. This paper illustrates how Gustave uses plot and character development to show that strict adherence to social norms without rational thinking is of no use, romantic fantasy cannot help one to face reality in life, spendthrift attitude ruins happiness in marriage, and leading adulterousness life ruins individual and family lives. The story commences with Charles’ admission in a boarding school where he is ridiculed and mocked by the new classmates. After his tenth grade, he pursues a medical career course before his mother arranges his marriage to Heloise Dubuc, an elderly but supposed rich widowed woman (Flaubert 16). Heloise dies after a short while leaving Charles free to remarry a wife of his choice (Flaubert 24). The author uses the newly married wife, Emma Rouault to show how romantic fantasy, desire for luxury, and extravagancy can undesirably ruin marriage and hence family relationships. Although Charles means well, Emma feels disillusioned with life in marriage making her to be listless and dull. Concerned that a change of scenery would help change his wife’s attitude, Charles moves to a new residence, Yonville. Here, Emma meets and engages in premarital affairs with Léon Dupuis before later engaging in a similar relationship with Rodolphe Boulanger (Flaubert 78). These relationships and her extravagancy eventually ruin her life making her to commit suicide. Charles Bovary, although facing various challenges in life shows strict adherence to social norms. He expected that all people were adherents of social norms like him, which was a misconception. Gustave depicts Charles as a character who would never question anything even when ridiculed. For instance, he remains cool when his new classmates mock him. After marrying Emma, he moves from Tostes where he has a well-established medical center for the sake of her wife’s comfort. Charles never suspected any foul play and gives into a plan where Emma would horse ride with Rodolphe Boulanger (Flaubert 156). He does not even see any problem in the Emma-Leon relationship although town gossips have it that the two are in a love affair. Clearly, Charles thought all people adhered to social norms, which made him to trust his wife with other men and hence the consequences befell him. Charles would have saved his marriage if he did not adhere to social norms blindly. She should have reasons rationally whenever Emma presented any proposal that she wanted to engage other men for whatever programs, whether horse riding or piano classes. He should have known that the society was not a utopia and not all people observed social norms. It was inappropriate to allow his wife to have frequent encounters with other men yet he knew that she was dissatisfied with their marriage. If he reasoned rationally, he would have conceived that his wife would easily fall for other men in pursuit for satisfaction and happy relationship. Here, Gustave depicts Charles as a man who failed to care for his wife, which resulted in the collapse of their marriage and death of the two. Emma, being an educated woman read popular novels that made her to acquire latent and powerful desire for luxury and romance before marrying Charles. She went into marriage with unrealistic expectations. This made her to feel disillusioned with her marriage, a condition that made her to engage in premarital affairs. She even felt disappointed that she conceived giving birth to Berthe (Flaubert 89). In pursuit for what she fantasizes as good marriage, Emma engages in love affairs with Léon Dupuis and Rodolphe Boulanger. Surprisingly, Emma develops hatred towards her husband while becoming affectionate towards Rodolphe. To her dismay, Rodolphe expressed his desire to terminate their relationship a day before their planned great elopement, which shocks her that she develops health complications (Flaubert 51). Notably, Emma’s dissatisfaction and unhappiness in marriage is a consequence of her interest and affection for men other than her own husband. Romantic fantasy lands Emma into premarital relationship and extravagance lifestyle that ruins her marriage and family. Gustave depicts Emma as strongly affectionate for Leon. Emma is infatuated with Léon, a law student they meet in Yonville who is in return admiring her. Emma retreats and concentrates on her family although she inwardly admires and yearns for Leon. Seeing that he may never win Emma’s heart, Leon leaves for Paris. The two later meet and start a love affair in Rouen. Masquerading as going for piano classes, Emma makes several visits to Leon every week (Flaubert 194). She is forced to spend extravagantly in buying Leon presents. Leon’s interests in their love affair declines while Emma continues to incur intense expenses in lavish presents on credit from Lheureux, a crafty merchant. Emma becomes extravagant to the extent that she lives beyond her means without the consent of her husband. She enters into conflict with Charles’ mother, Madame Bovary, who is concerned that she (Emma) is being a spendthrift. She does not live happily or peacefully because Lheureux soon starts asking for payment. The Bailiff visits her house to assess the value of her belongings in preparation for a legal consequences should she fail to pay Lheureux his money. She is expected to settle an already increasing debt of eight thousand francs yet she does not have the money (Flaubert 294). With nothing more left to sell and Lheureux demanding that he be paid, Emma is forced to solicit for money from Rodolphe, Léon, and Guillaumin among others all who do not offer any help. Disillusioned, she commits suicide after Charles realizes that she messed their financial status. Emma would have led a happy and comfortable life if she avoided fantasizing and unrealistic expectations in marriage. Her husband was an understanding person who believed in observance of social norms. Charles loved her and wanted the best for her. Unfortunately, though, she took his kindness for weakness and cheated on him. The men, Léon Dupuis and Rodolphe Boulanger a rich man (Flaubert 127), whom she cheated on Charles with, did not love her as she thought. This is evident because they both run away from her when she was in financial problems. Other than during the time when Emma sought for financial aid, Rodolphe had already shown his disregard for their relationship. He had earlier written to her calling for the termination of their love affair just before the day of their planned elopement. Often, Emma would be fantasizing about other men instead of concentrating on her family. Her marriage was weakly and unstable despite having a committed husband. She would cheat on him because he was not suspicious. Her premarital affairs deceived her into extravagancy probably because she thought the men would be of help during hard times. Clearly, Emma is possessed with premarital relationships that she fantasizes about a perfect man when her relationship with Leon turns sour (Flaubert 278). This implies that Emma would never settle for her husband hence had ruined her marriage. Complemented by extravagance, she finally commits suicide as she despairs. Worse still, her husband dies later after realizing how his wife cheated on him. This was after he discovered his wife’s love letters received from Léon and Rodolphe. In conclusion, Gustave Flaubert uses plot and character development in his novel to criticize social decay at the family level. He uses a couple, Emma and Charles, to achieve his intended authorship objectives. In the novel, Charles seems to adhere to social norms and hence expects other people to observe the same. That makes him ignorant about what his wife indulges in. This is the reason he only realizes that Emma cheated on him after beans are spilled. Emma, on her side fantasizes about life particularly once in marriage, which makes it difficult for her to face reality. In pursuit for satisfaction and happiness, Emma is deceived to engage in adulterousness that ruins her personal and family life as well. She develops extravagance attitudes forcing her to live beyond her means. She lives miserable life until she eventually resolves to commit suicide. Works Cited Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2000.Print Read More