A large theme in "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert is that women don't have any power. It clearly demonstrates the contrasts between the lives of men and women and who really held the power in society at that time.
The first time I caught onto it was when Madame Bovary gave birth to her daughter Berthe, and when she found out it was a girl, she fainted. "But a woman is always hampered. At once inert and flexible, she has against her the weakness of the flesh and legal dependence. Her will, like the veil of her bonnet, help by a string, flutters in every wind; there is always some desire that draws her, some conventionality that restrains," (Flaubert 86). It talks of the weakness a woman faces in society and how she cares so much for her unborn child, and wants the best for it, and the only way to guarantee that is if she had a son.
Another part that stuck out to me was when Madame Bovary senior came to visit, she instantly began critiquing the way Charles ran his home. "Madame Bovary senior, who, after a fearful scene with her husband, had taken refuge at her son's, was not the least scandalized of women-folk. Many other things displeased her. First, Charles had not attended to her advice about the forbidding of novels; then the 'ways of the house' annoyed her, she allowed herself to make some remarks, and there were quarrels, especially one on account of Felicite," (Flaubert 178). Novels help to broaden the mind and educate people when they read. Madame Bovary senior noticed Emma's changed attitude and ways she acted around the house and thought that it was related to her reading of novels. And by forbidding the novels, Emma would be blind to the world around her and her personal rights. Basically to keep her powerless in society.
What also appeared to symbol Emma's powerlessness in society was her affairs with other men. She ultimately has to acknowledge that the affairs are not her husbands fault or her loves "tempting her" to commit adultery, because at the end of the day, that was her choice to make. It is still her body, and she can still control what goes in it. But then again, if she leaves her husband, she has nothing. She will not get any money, which will be difficult for her after living a luxurious life, she certainly won't get custody of her child, nor will she have a home to go back to. But then that also means the only way she could possibly make any money is by using her body. Which again relates back to how women don't have any power, because she is using her body for the pleasure of men. Which is probably not exactly her profession of choice, because its her allowing men to have power over her, that allows her to make some money.
My reading during this book has changed a lot since I read "Atonement" or "How to Read Literature Like a Professor". What I started doing was noticing intertextuality, like I mentioned in my first blog post. Obviously when I read other books I picked up on things and thought, "Oh! This sounds familiar!" But then with that I was also able to connect different themes and specific quotes that were featured in other books. Which before I was never able to do and I find it so cool now that I can find these different pathways that didn't seem even possible at first. I also started to always have the dictionary app open on my phone whenever I read the book. I definitely was influenced a lot by Nabakov as well because when I first started picking up on intertextuality I went back to "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" to read the chapter on intertextuality. And then in some of the heavily detailed scenes I had to reread it a lot to grapple with all the information that was presented and attempt to arrive at some sort of conclusion from it. Because a lot of these scenes are hard to process all the information and actually understand what the narrator wants you to take from it, so I had to reread a lot.
Honestly, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to expand their vocabulary. Every page there was some word I didn't know. And then I started to write down the definitions in the book itself to try and help understand them better. Also, the main reason why I chose this book is because when I first read the description it reminded me of "The Great Gatsby". So if you liked "The Great Gatsby" but want even more details and even more complicated twists and turns than that book, I would read "Madame Bovary". If you like books that mock the wealthy class, this book is really good at doing that. It truly is a good read though. For me, the details were a lot, because I get distracted really easily so while I read I felt my mind wander, while when I read "The Things They Carried" kept me engaged the whole time. That was my only issue was the amount of detail put in it, which made it a beautiful text to read, it just made me get distracted really easily and quickly too.
I definitely agree with the idea of how Madame Bovary reflects the lack of power and respect women had at the time this novel took place, and I concur with your analysis of the components of female power in this social society and how they all can contribute to this general theme. I especially like your additional component of how if Madame Bovary leaves her husband her only option will be to go into prostitution in order to make money, and how you came up with that out of your own understanding of the time period, which portrays your full understanding of a woman’s position during this time.
ReplyDeleteConcerning your argument on the intertextuality relationship between Madame Bovary and The Great Gatsby, I totally understand the similarities you see, but I think it’s a pretty minor relationship. The lack of power women have is definitely presented in The Great Gatsby, but I think it pertains more to the fact that it takes place in the early 20th century, and does not have much influence on the general theme of the book. I think you agree with me on this, as you did not expand on it very much and mainly focused on how Daisy was disappointed in the fact that she ended up giving birth to a girl rather than a boy, and her love for another man, which Madame Bovary can greatly relate to. If The Great Gatsby was from the point of view of Daisy, then the intertextuality relationship could potentially be much stronger, but it would be a completely different story. Madame Bovary could possibly have a stronger relationship to The Scarlet Letter, as both books take place during the same time period, and The Scarlet Letter centers around a woman who participates in a scandalous affair and must deal with the consequences of her actions after becoming pregnant.
When it comes to how you read Madame Bovary, I completely understand the fact that you got distracted through the use of all the detail, as it has happened to me countless times. For example, the first chapter of East of Eden was dedicated entirely to describing the world of Salinas Valley. The first time I read it, I was bored out of my mind, but then I remembered the idea that everything an author writes, he writes for a reason. I usually determine this to mean that if I was bored by it, then I should pay special attention to it, and even reread it, as it probably wasn’t the most exciting thing for him to write about either, so he must’ve included that passage for a reason.
I didn’t originally want to read Madame Bovary for my quarter project since even Ms. Romano mentioned it was a difficult read, but your analysis was very interesting and it makes me want to read the book all the more so I can fill in the blanks you left open for me to answer. Sounds dramatic!