"Madame Bovary"

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the novel "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert, focusing on the character of Emma and the plight of women. The paper asserts that the novel created an indomitable male-dominated order by which all characters had to abide -- and most did, with the one notable exception of Emma. The paper demonstrates how, in trying to fulfill her dreams of a world in which women are not subjugated to men, Emma attempts to transform both herself and the world around her. Despite her best efforts, however, the order is too strong and, as the paper shows, Emma is doomed to be at the mercy of men. The paper concludes with Emma's tragic death as a result of realizing this fact.

From the Paper:

"Emma also recognizes that woman's weakness is a two-pronged deficiency, one prong being biological, the other being social. Biologically, she is physically weaker than man. Socially, according to the laws and standards, a married woman is the legal subjugate to her husband--she is in his power. Her hope is to have a male child, and, thus, to live vicariously through him--to experience, or at least taste his freedom. This is a hope, however, that goes unfulfilled. Perhaps Emma is punished for simply daring to hope. She gives birth to a girl, and faints dead away upon learning so. She cannot live vicariously through a daughter, for, in doing so, she would only be re-experiencing the lack of power that she already knows in her own life. She names her baby Berthe--a name, she recalls, by which a dignified man (the marquis) addressed an otherwise unnotable young woman at La Vaubyessard (p. 74). Perhaps, by giving her daughter a name she associates with a man, she hopes to grant her daughter some essence of masculinity. Whatever the case, it is no real surprise that Emma comes to shun her daughter--a constant, living, breathing reminder of her own weakness perpetuated."

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