"Madame Bovary" and the Seven Deadly Sins

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the novel "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert in detail, examining in particular the way in which Flaubert presents the seven deadly sins and the people committing them. The writer draws parallels between "Madame Bovary" and Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina," both novels about women who fail in their relationships and are bored with their society and their limited possibilities. In Emma's social group, the seven sins are committed daily, and Flaubert's depiction shows that neither these sins nor their consequences are what they used to be. Other themes in the novel, such as the themes of illusion, delusion and alienation, are also discussed.

Outline:
Introduction
The Novel
Setting
The Role of Women
Emma as Different
The Road to Death
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The idea held by society about the Seven Deadly Sins was that committing one of these actions imperiled the soul. In truth, there is no scriptural support for this idea, but popularly these sins are held out as the cardinal sins that one must not commit. For Flaubert, though, this idea was largely for show as he saw the middle class committing them all. Flaubert approached his subject in a very realistic fashion and so countered the prevailing romanticism of the day, and this approach included a more realistic depiction of sex for the day, probably the main reason the novel encountered legal problems. Emma is a woman who seems devoted to the accepted code of conduct of the day but who also flouts those conventions in her private life."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bersani, Leo. "Flaubert and Emma Bovary: The Hazards of Literary Fusion." Novel: A Forum on Fiction (Fall 1974), 16-28.
• Bourdieu, Pierre. The Field of Cultural Production. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
• Bowie, Malcolm. "Introduction to Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Russel Whitaker and Kathy D. Darrow. Vol. 185. Detroit: Gale, 2007.
• Brombert, Victor. The Novels of Flaubert: A Study of Theme and Technique. Princeton: University Press, 1966..
• Burchell, Eileen. "Emma Rouault Bovary: Gendered Reflections in Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1857)." In Women in Literature: Reading through the Lens of Gender, Jerilyn Fisher and Ellen S. Silber (eds), 181-184. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2003.

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• Book Review # 91379 : "Madame Bovary" and "The Scarlet Letter"

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