Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my third attempt at writing the review for the work. I tried and tried, but found myself at loss with words each time I sat and thought about the character of Emma. Her character, at the outset, is contemptible. A woman, who engages in an ignoble behavior with other man, someone who is not in control of her emotions, someone who doesn’t live in her present, ignores her child and husband for an illicit relationship, lives for her own gratification and is self-indulgent to the point of being a hedonist. No, one cannot forgive her.

To some extent, I agree. I found myself quite angry with her several times, more specifically towards the end, when her husband died and their only child was left to labor. It evoked a kind of rage, as I felt dearly for the child. But I couldn’t bring about myself to loath Emma. No, I couldn’t do that. Rather I felt pity for her, for I could acutely feel the despair which she might have gone through while living a dull provincial life. And many reasons, in my opinion, contributed to her despair. First one being, that she was a woman of an above average intelligence, who was infatuated with grandeur of a bourgeois society. She was a little educated and had been under the influence of what she might have gathered from her school life. If only, she had been exposed to other opportunities to explore more in life, she might have not felt the despair and earnestness to break away from her family. I have witnessed such a case in real life, where owing to an above average intelligence and for a restriction to explore in more in terms of education and career, a woman turned insane. Emma turned to experience adventure and fallacy of love. It is something not to be detested but to be understood.

Secondly, if she was born in a rich family, the society wouldn’t have affected her so. Thirdly and most importantly, if her husband was less sluggish and more enthusiastic, perhaps it would have helped her in finding other outlets for her frustration. As a woman, I think I can safely say that women do not respect men with less ambition. That said, I am, in no way trying to justify the actions taken by Emma. Rather, trying to analyse her reasons for doing so.

Gustave Flaubert has been such a master of the craft! Though through his work, he has given us a glance into the bourgeois culture which prevailed during his times and an account of the result of despair, on the part of a woman, that could arise from an unhappy married life; I think he has also incited us to question the very basis of a married relationship. Though the times have changed, women now more independent and free to indulge in their vocations and hobbies, but still, when it comes to marriage, the bottom line I guess, remains the same.

5 stars for bringing Emma almost alive!




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