Madame Bovary

 



    
     Author                          Gustave Flaubert

     Country                        France

     Genre                           Fiction: Classic

     Publication Date         1857

     Pages                            384

This is the story of Emma, who is unhappily married to a devoted but clumsy doctor and hence revolts against the ordinariness of her life in order to find love and excitement. She pursues voluptuous dreams not realizing that her adultery will soon lead to her downfall.

Gustave has done an excellent job with building the character of Emma. She is, by far, one of the most compelling heroines of modern literature. Gustave's story telling style is unique and refreshing. While he uses the voice of a third person narrator throughout the book; the thoughts of one character or the other seamlessly merge into the narration.

The core of the book is Emma's unhappiness and disappointment with her lot and her contant search for something which will help her rise as a Phoenix above this all. These emotions effortlessly built by Gustave into the narration are both depressing and real.

I have found it hard to form a point of view on Emma's character.

While on one hand, I would have expected her to find happiness in what she has, on the other hand, I am reasonably impressed with her genuine efforts to improve her lot; even at the cost of "societal norms and morality". It indubitably is a bold, feminist and a praiseworthy move in an 1857 patriachal society.

While it would be difficult to condone Emma's behavior, her character leads me to the belief that our first and the only true duty is to ourselves and our happiness. Concern for societal norms can never and shall never outshine the former.