Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Madame Bovary

In Madame Bovary, Bovary is a young girl looking for love and the cure for her everlasting boredom. The story begins with her relationship with charles, whom she marries, and shortly follows with them moving to Yonville. There, she meets Leon, a strapping young man with whome she begins having an affair. The story ends with Emma Bovary falling deeply into debt and tragically poisoning herself with Arsenic.

I did my close reading on the second part of the book. Flaubert uses clothing to characterize the characters he introduces in the second part of the book, namely Binet and Leon. Binet is described as wearing "a blue frock coat that hung straight down all around his thin body... a black wool vest, a horse hair collar, gray trousers, and, in all seasons, highly polished boots with two parallel bulges." I also noted that he respectfully puts his hat on the rack before entering the room.

For me, his neat clothes and gray trousers make him particularly boring, which is how he is described in the book. On the other hand, Leon comes in and leaves his hat on, putting himself in a position of power. There is also a short monologue by the pharmacist about his belief in God after being accused of having no religion. I particularly enjoyed it because of his mention of Socrates, my favorite philosopher, and Voltaire, whom I have studied (though not necessarily enjoyed).

I also noted the Freudian symbol, "Gazing from her bed at the bright fire that was burning, she once again saw Leon standing, as she had seen him out there, flexing his cane with one hand and with the other holding Athalie, who was sucking peacefully on a bit of ice." This is the scene where Leon is discovered being in love with Emma, and I could read that as nothing other than being sexual.

There is also another instance with a singing homeless man, who sings songs that spell out prophecy, and inevitably, Bovary's demise. Prophets have been used in storytelling since the invention of theater in ancient Greece. Tireseas is the original seer, soothsayer and fortune teller of the literary world. Here, the homeless, toothless man with his eyes gauged out reminds me of Oedipus the king. It is even possible that Flaubert wrote this with the intent to make that allusion.

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