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Social Classes in "Madam Bovary"
Striving for higher social status has been the downfall of many people just as it was the destruction of Emma Bovary. In Nineteenth Century France, several class existed: peasant or working class, middle class, upper-middle class, bourgeois, and aristocrats. In the story, "Madame Bovary," we see a number of individuals striving to move themselves up to the bourgeois, a status that is higher than the working class but not as high as nobility. The bourgeois are characterized by being educated and wealthy but unlike the aristocracy, they earned their money through hard work and kept it through frugality (Britannica).
Our bourgeois strivers in "Madame Bovary" kept up
appearances but they would never quite make it to the full rank
of bourgeois. Because the level of one's social class status is
determined so much by appearances, an individual can keep up a
good front and be accepted into the circle when they are out of
town where no-one knows the truth. Both Emma and Homais followed
this practice in their pursuits to really belong. "Madame Bovary"
is about a sense of self, a search for personal identity and
reality versus illusion. The symbolism throughout the story is
clearly indicative of this fact (Nadiau 136).
Charles Bovary moves between two classes: working and
middle. He comes from a middle class home but he does not seem to
care what his social status is. Both his mother and his wife, on
the other hand, want to move up in class status. His second wife,
Emma Bovary becomes obsessed with becoming part of the bourgeois
and is sorely disappointed when she finds she has married a man
that might have the potential to do so but lacks the ambition
(Galenet.com).
Charles, at the urging of his mother, an upper-middle class
woman, attends medical school, which will give him the means by
which to move into the bourgeois, but it takes him two attempts
to pass. Undaunted, his mother, the elder Madame Bovary, who
believes she can change her own class status thorough her son's
success, sets up a medical practice for him in the rural town of
Tostes. Since he is the only physician in the town, his success
should be assured. Mother Bovary also arranges a marriage to a
widow she believes is wealthy with an already established social
standing. However, Madame Dubuc is a ...
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Based on the evidence presented in previous pages, it is concluded that Flaubert saw Madame Bovary's world as being in the middle-class. She was never able to move to the bourgeois no matter how hard she tried or what ruses she used to give the appearance of being there. Although there is at least one character representing each of the social classes, most of the characters belong to the middle and upper-middle class society.
Works Cited
Primary source
Flaubert, Gustave. "Madam Bovary." Vol I of The Norton Anthology of
World Masterpieces. Ed. Maynard Mack, et al. 6th ed. 2 vols. New
York, Norton 1985: 1991.
Secondary sources
Brombert, Victor. "Madame Bovary: The Tragedy of Deams." Gustave
Flaubert. Ed. Bloom, Harold. New York: Chelsa House Publishers,
1966. 23-43.
Nadeau, Maurice. The Greatness of Flaubert. New York: The Library
Press, 1972. 134-137.
Unknown. "Overview: Madam Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert."
<http://www.galenet.com>
Unknown. "Social Class." <http://www.britannica.com>
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In the world created by Gustave Flaubert, Emma Bovary lives in torment. As a dreamer and idealized hopeless romantic, characters and critics belittle and disgrace her. Characters like Charles’ mother complain that Emma is idealistic because she reads too many romance novels that trifle with her mind. Some critics echo this complaint, while others defend Emma against this charge. I side with the latter and argue that Emma cannot be held responsible for idealistic notions she gets from novels because her entire social context insists that she substitute novel reading for actual experience, whether it be sexual or romantic. Emma is smart and sharp-witted; her idealistic romanticized notions are merely an adaptation to reality given her societal