Theme Of Suicide In Madame Bovary

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The choices a person makes before resulting to the decision of suicide are usually the ultimate cause of his or her demise. The poor choices that people make almost always have inescapable consequences. It can be argued that resulting to suicide is caused by the fault of ones own choices, bad choices that build up and drive him or her insane. In literature, there are many bad choices that characters make. This can include things like committing murder or adultery. Bad decisions that the characters make in novels almost always come with negative consequences. In Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, Emma is the cause of her demise because of her lack of affection for her husband, Charles, her affairs with Leon and Rudolph, and her excessive spending. …show more content…

Emma desires freedom and cannot gain it due to the fact that she cannot leave Charles. Emma is scared that her husband will discover her financial spending issues. She is also paranoid that Charles will find out about her various love affairs with Leon and Rudolph. Emma does not get the satisfaction she needs from Charles. The spark of their romance together has died and Emma gets bored of him and feels as if she is stuck in the relationship, for Emma and Charles contrast. Emma is dissatisfied with Charles: “He seemed so feeble, a nullity, a creature pathetic in every way. How could she get rid of him? What an interminable evening! Something altogether deadening, like opium fumes, was taking hold of her” (Flaubert 234). Emma feels numb and wonders how she can get rid of the man she married, the overbearing man that loves her, yet cannot seem to satisfy her. Charles is oblivious to the fact that Emma is having doubts about the relationship which causes Emma to become even more unhappy with him. Charles is certain in what he wants and cares for Emma dearly, as a husband should, but this only makes life harder for Emma. Emma is selfish while Charles is not. The unhappiness Emma gains from her marriage causes her …show more content…

Emma has a problem with obsessive shopping and she thinks spending money will make her happy. From the help of Lheureux, Emma buying clothes and furnishings. Emma continues to buy things for Rudolph in order to make him happy. Emma “confused, in her desire, sensual luxury with true joy, elegance of manners with delicacy of sentiment” (Flaubert 55). According to Emma, spending money is necessary for gaining the romantic, fantasy love she desires most. Emma is inconsiderate as she drives Charles further into debt for her own selfish needs. As Charles is faced with all of the bills from Emma’s spending, he is stressed as Lheureux and others pester him about the money. Emma lives in the fantasy of her lavish spending and believes that it is what she needs to fill the holes she has in her life. She soon finds that this is not the case as she can not pay off her debts. She soon faces legal charges as the merchant evicts Emma from her house. They also take all the fancy things she bought that she never paid for. Emma panics and seeks help from Leon and Rudolph, but both refuse to help her. Emma’s obsession with spending money ultimately causes the destruction of her life, leading to her

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