More handpicked essays just for you.
Literature as the reflection of the society
Literature as the reflection of the society
Literature as the reflection of the society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is the detailed tale of the upbringing of a common French farm girl and her experiences as a member of the Bourgeoisie social party. At the end of the novel, Emma, the main character, decides to commit suicide through the use of arsenic because of the large amount of debt she acquired through purchases of gifts for her infidelity partners. Occurring in chapter eight of the last section, the novel continues with descriptions of the funeral, her father’s reaction, and her family’s continuing life. However, the book is centered on the life of the grand Madame Bovary, and is not titled Madame and Sir Bovary. To this, Flaubert uses the death of the main character to purposefully showcase the overall impact her actions have over those who experienced her presence.
Dying a rather painful and laborious death rather than the peaceful and easy one she once imagined, she leaves large quantities of debt to her dutiful and benevolent husband, Charles. Being a Romantic character, Emma succumbs believing that those in the city will mourn her death and completely be unable to regain solid ground in mental and emotional solitude. Although they are extremely forlorn, the characters are able to regain emotional stability, unlike what Emma imagines. Homais requests that the foreign doctor, Doctor Larivière, join him to a finely prepared breakfast whilst Emma vomits blood and has bodily contractions and Charles cries profusely for his wife’s health to be restored. Her death ultimately conveys the affect her life has on those around her. For Homais, she is representative of a simplistic cover-up and article in the “Fanal”. And for her dear husband, her death is symbolic of the collapse of the Earth’s core, to the poin...
... middle of paper ...
...sage to his audience that death is the inevitable part of life and although one may seem to be unforgettable, this shall never truly be the case. For each character closely tied to Emma, especially Charles, she left difficult ramifications. Leaving debt, unrequited love, and emotions, she exceled in leaving an impression of grand proportions; however after due mourning time was given, the once unforgettable soul is now forgotten. Flaubert uses the concept to convey his perception that life is finite and the world shall forever be infinite, meaning that one may presume that existence revolves around their sole life. However, once the narcissistic personality disappears, so does the earthly impact and importance. In short, Emma may have after-life effects, nonetheless, she is not thought of as a cherished person, but rather is not thought of frequently or positively.
Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary are both tales of women indignant with their domestic situations; the distinct differences between the two books can be found in the authors' unique tones. Both authors weave similar themes into their writings such as, the escape from the monotony of domestic life, dissatisfaction with marital expectations and suicide. References to "fate" abound throughout both works. In The Awakening, Chopin uses fate to represent the expectations of Edna Pontellier's aristocratic society. Flaubert uses "fate" to portray his characters' compulsive methods of dealing with their guilt and rejecting of personal accountability. Both authors, however seem to believe that it is fate that oppresses these women; their creators view them subjectively, as if they were products of their respective environments.
Louise, the unfortunate spouse of Brently Mallard dies of a supposed “heart disease.” Upon the doctor’s diagnosis, it is the death of a “joy that kills.” This is a paradox of happiness resulting into a dreadful ending. Nevertheless, in reality it is actually the other way around. Of which, is the irony of Louise dying due to her suffering from a massive amount of depression knowing her husband is not dead, but alive. This is the prime example to show how women are unfairly treated. If it is logical enough for a wife to be this jovial about her husband’s mournful state of life then she must be in a marriage of never-ending nightmares. This shows how terribly the wife is being exploited due her gender in the relationship. As a result of a female being treated or perceived in such a manner, she will often times lose herself like the “girl
Both novels are focused at a time, the nineteenth century, when the woman was unquestionably submissive to the man, otherwise, known as the era of the domestic woman. The settings for both novels give the audience insight as to why the protagonists wanted to liberate themselves from the traditional aspect of the woman. The authors also employ a healthy amount of symbolism in their work. For example, the caged birds who understand each other represent Edna and mademoiselle Reisz who are imprisoned by their communal beliefs. The actions of Edna are only understood by mademoiselle Reisz. In “Madam Bovary”, Emma’s appearance has great symbolic significance in the novel. It shows how her soul deteriorates as her focus on physical things increases. Her disgust on the blind man’s image emphasizes how she has lost herself to the
The theme death has always played a crucial role in literature. Death surrounds us and our everyday life, something that we must adapt and accept. Whether it's on television or newspaper, you'll probably hear about the death of an individual or even a group. Most people have their own ideas and attitude towards it, but many consider this to be a tragic event due to many reasons. For those who suffered greatly from despair, living their life miserably and hopelessly, it could actually be a relief to them. Death affects not only you, but also those around you, while some people may stay unaffected depending on how they perceive it.
Oppression of characters is usually fuelled by external causes. In the case of Madame Bovary and Middlemarch, external causes like gender norms result in the oppression of women. In Madame Bovary, society's expectations of a wifely figure restricts Emma's desire to climb the social ladder. In Middlemarch, the dogmas about female intellectual abilities propagated by characters like Lydgate and Casaubon hinder Dorothea's ability to become an intellectual within society. Critic Howard Kushner writes that “ideology... emphasized women as mothers and guardians of the family” (Kushner 1). This quote draws the parameters of what a woman was expected to be in the Victorian era, clearly emphasizing the limitations put in place for womenkind. Exploring the characters in Madame Bovary and Middlemarch offers insight into female oppression in Victorian society.
The films of Minnelli and Chabrol represent two radically different approaches to Flaubert's novel. In general, Minnelli tends to romanticize the story, even sentimentalize it, making Emma much more of a sympathetic heroine than seems to be the case in Flaubert's text. Much of the ironic tone of the novel is lost. Minnelli also omits from his film all scenes which are not directly connected with Emma. The harsh realism and ironic social commentary which underlie Flaubert's novel are ignored for the most part. Chabrol, on the other hand, attempts to be scrupulously faithful to the text and spirit of the novel. The director claims that virtually every word of dialogue in the film was taken directly from Flaubert...
Gustave Flaubert incorporates and composes a realistic piece of literature using realistic literary techniques in his short story, “A Simple Heart.” Flaubert accomplishes this through telling a story that mimics the real life of Félicité, and writing fiction that deliberately cuts across different class hierarchies; through this method, Flaubert is able to give the reader a clear understanding of the whole society. Flaubert makes the unvarnished truth about simple hearts clear by exposing a clear replica of a realistic story, therefore, allowing the reader to clearly understand the society and the different classes of characters. The story, “A Simple Heart” focuses on the life of a naive, simple-minded underclass maid, Félicité, and her encounters with those around her.
smuggled in to the convent or the sound of a far away cab rolling along
Emma Bovary has every characteristic of a person living only to fulfill her own wishes and desires. Like a child, she seeks out pleasure, and when she is not actively being stimulated by something she wants to do she is plagued by boredom. As she searches for these stimuli she pays no attention to the consequences her actions will have on others. This attitude pervades her every action, to point that she does not even take the needs of her only child, Berthe, into ...
to abide by it. In the novel, Emma meets a pitiful doctor named Charles Bovary.
...els. When Mrs. Mallard sees her husband, the chains of bondage are thrown back onto her. The reviving and refreshing experience she has just had in her room is put out, and she dies. The doctors say that Mrs. Mallard dies "of joy that kills." Actually, her soul cannot handle the oppression after it has felt such freedom. Josephine's and Mrs. Mallard's differences are reflected in their reactions to Mr. Mallard's coming home.
In the audacious nineteenth-century novel Madame Bovary, author Gustave Flaubert shamelessly challenges the social expectations of 1800’s France through the experiences of the fiery protagonist Emma Bovary and her acquaintances. Emma’s actions and thoughts, viewed as immoral and unbecoming for a woman in her time, express Flaubert’s opinions concerning wealth, love, social class, morality, and the role of women in society. Additionally, Flaubert’s intricate writing style, consisting of painstaking detail and well-developed themes and symbols, places Madame Bovary in a class of its own in the world of classic literature. Flaubert’s character the blind beggar develops as one of the most complex symbols in the novel, as he represents most prominently
Madame Bovary, a novel by Gustave Flaubert, describes life in the provinces. While depicting the provincial manners, customs, codes and norms, the novel puts great emphasis on its protagonist, Emma Bovary who is a representative of a provincial woman. Concerning the fundamental typicality in Emma Bovary’s story, Flaubert points out: “My poor Bovary is no doubt suffering and weeping at this very moment in twenty French villages at once.” (Heath, 54). Yet, Emma Bovary’s story emerges as a result of her difference from the rest of the society she lives in. She is in conflict with her mediocre and tedious surroundings in respect of the responses she makes to the world she lives in. Among the three basic responses made by human beings, Emma’s response is “dreaming of an impossible absolute” while others around her “unquestionably accept things as they are” or “coldly and practically profiteer from whatever circumstances they meet.” (Fairlie, 33). However, Emma’s pursuit of ideals which leads to the imagining of passion, luxury and ecstasy prevents her from seeing the world in a realistic perspective or causes her to confuse reality and imagination with each other.
Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert’s first novel and is considered his masterpiece. It has been studied from various angles by the critics. Some study it as a realistic novel of the nineteenth century rooted in its social milieu. There are other critics who have studied it as a satire of romantic sensibility. It is simply assumed that Emma Bovary, the protagonist, embodied naive dreams and empty cliché that author wishes to ridicule, as excesses and mannerisms of romanticism. She is seen as a romantic idealist trapped in a mundane mercantile world. Innumerable theorists have discovered and analysed extensively a variety of questions raised by its style, themes, and aesthetic innovations. In this research paper an attempt has been made to analyse life of Emma Bovary as a paradigm of Lacanian desire.
Thus without ever realizing the actual joys of motherhood, marriage, or life, Madame Bovary, convulsing, gurgles her last life’s breath; a most ignoble, and unromantic, end.