Category: Madame Bovary

In the novel ‘Madame Bovary’ by Gustave Flaubert, I’ve noticed some stylistic features that he had used in the novel, those stylistic features are symbolism, imagery, allegory, and imaginary. With Emma’s appearance, it uses the stylistic features of symbolism, imagery, and allegory by how she transgresses, becoming more beautiful when she grows up. Another stylistic feature used in the novel is imagery, to tell of the blind beggar that occurs several times in the novel towards the end of the novel. Flaubert also used both Imaginary and Imagery to describe mainly butterflies, but in the novel, Flaubert just uses Imagery to describe birds and the Blind Beggar throughout the text. With the structure of the novel, there are 5 different stages throughout the novel, they are exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement, which means the un-knotting of the story or characters at the very last minute.

Symbolism, imagery, and allegory are used to describe Emma’s appearance and the blind man. With Emma’s appearance, the more time she transgresses, the more beautiful she grows, even though her body responds to the corruption of her soul. “ Emma was like all his mistresses; and the charm of novelty, gradually falling away like a garment, laid bare the eternal monotony of passion”. As Emma inquires deeper and deeper into her desires, indulging in sensuality, her body became far more present, to both the reader and Emma herself. “The wish took possession of her to run after and rejoin him”. With the blind man, when he has appeared throughout the novel, repeatedly. He represents the intensifying corruption of Emma’s soul, which made the situation worse every time, he’s been showing up more frequently throughout the novel.

With Imaginary, there are butterflies, which are represented by how Madame Bovary has been lost in a romantic illusion; metamorphosis. “Everything, even herself, was now unbearable to her. She wished that taking wing like a bird, she could fly somewhere, far away to regions of purity, and there grow young again.” With imagery, Butterflies (again) are represented by ugly grob to beautiful butterflies-which they live for a short amount of time. Birds are represented by lost in the ‘real’ world, more like they’re caged birds. ‘Emma was leaning out at the window; she was often there. The window in the provinces replaces the theatre and the promenade, and she assumed herself watching the crowd of boors’. Also, there’s also a blind beggar, which is represented by her sins, who first challenged Emma during her travel from Rouen to Yonville.

Flaubert used Symbolism to describe the blind beggar, the blind beggar is a picture of decay, how follows Emma around in a carriage, which Emma rides to meet up with Leon, also symbolizes Emma’s corruption. He sing-songs about ‘birds and sunshine and green leaves’ in a voice that’s like an inarticulate lament of some vague despair. This pairing of innocence with a disease that relates to the combination of beauty and corruption that Emma has to herself. On the outside, with Emma’s words, her appearance and fantasies are of an innocent wife, but deep down, her spirit becomes foul and corrupt. Later on, when Emma dies, the blind beggar gets to the end of his song about a young woman dreaming, then, later on, we discovered that what we thought was a song, the song was about an innocent woman is actually a rude and sexual song.

With the structure of the novel, there are 5 stages, they are ‘Exposition’, ‘Rising Action’, ‘Climax’, ‘Falling Action’ and ‘Denouement’. With exposition in the novel, talks about how everything is moving up to Yonville and it’s in First Person narrative; a detailed description of the provincial bourgeois life. Rising Action during the novel is Leon’s attraction and Rodolph’s seduction to Madame Bovary (wife) who’s Emma (femme fatale). “She was in love with Leon and sought solitude the she might with the more ease delight in his image.” pg 82 The climax of the story is L’heureux wants to collect the debt and Emma is running out of options, which really bites. Falling Action that happens in the novel is all of the illusion dies throughout the novel; Justin gives Arsenic. Denouement means the un-knotting of the story or characters, throughout the novel, Emma goes through slow pain, Charles depression comes and Bertha became orphaned; people stated the last of her nice clothing at the age of 9-10 years old.

In summary, Gustave Flaubert used stylistic features such as symbolism, imagery, allegory, and imagery throughout the novel of Madame Bovary. Flaubert also used symbolism, imagery, and allegory to describe Emma’s appearance and just used Imagery to describe the Blind Beggar throughout the novel, on how he came up throughout the novel, which he represented Emma’s soul, which was becoming intensifying corrupted throughout, which became appearing more and more towards the end of the novel. The novel also used both Imaginary and Imagery to mainly describe butterflies and birds. Int the novel, there are 5 different stages, the stages are Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Denouement, which means the un-knotting of the story or characters at the very last minute.

In Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, he illustrates the realistic struggle of a woman’s life in the mid-eighteen hundreds when Bourgeois women lived restricted lives. The heroine Emma Bovary rebels against the traditional behaviour of a woman, by portraying herself as the opposite. Through various masculine modes, specifically, her display of male fashion, Flaubert develops this concept. Her contrasting views of women and men aid in further understanding why she renders herself in such a manner. Flaubert describes Emma continuously with masculine traits despite her feminine way of thinking. Emma believes she will genuinely find happiness by obtaining the love of a man. Although Emma is female, she has a harsh judgement of women as she attempts to acquire freedom. Flaubert’s use of phallic symbols addresses the complexity of gender stereotypes and develops our understanding of Emma’s character. The use of symbolism and masculine modes presents not only Flaubert’s critique of the traditional gender stereotypes but the perception of masculinity, where it is vulnerable to perversion and fluid in how easily it can be lost or acquired.

Throughout the novel, Flaubert describes Emma’s clothing with strong masculine connotations. In Emma’s first description, “She had, like a man, tucked into the front of her bodice, a tortoiseshell lorgnon”. The tortoiseshell eyeglass is suggestive of masculine fashion from the beginning Flaubert instills the idea of man in association with Emma. This trend continues, when she was reminiscing of Tostes in chapter seven “often she changed her coiffure: she did her hair à la chinoise, in loose curls: she plaited her at the side and rolled it under, like a man.” Subsequently, arriving in Yonville, in a man’s hat and riding costume for the ride with Rodolphe, she stepped out of the carriage “squeezed into a tight waistcoat, looking like a man,” she dressed in masculine attire for the masked ball also. Flaubert is demonstrating the defiance of traditional gender roles in society, displaying how apathetic Emma is towards her expected role as a woman.

Furthermore, to emphasize the representation of gender stereotyping, the main male characters all carry knives that relate to appropriate male fashion but also serve as a phallic symbol. “[Léon] kept…a special pocket knife” and “Rodolphe, a cigar between his teeth, was mending one of the two broken reins with his little knife.” However, Emma, to has a knife, “leaning on one elbow, spent time sketching lines the oilcloth with the tip of her knife.” She also expropriates what at the time was a male prerogative, smoking in public “just to vex people”, as well as playfully putting Rodolphe’s big pipe into her mouth, which is also representative of a phallic symbol. These aspects of Emma’s characterization further reinforces the idea that she is consistently displaying masculine behaviours that release her from the restraints of a woman. Flaubert plays with this feature as it subjects the readers, and most relevantly, the people from his time to question the traditional gender roles.

Frequently seen throughout the novel, Emma inspires desire, most tellingly, through her shoes. The men in the novel who are sexually interested in Emma appear fixated by the sight and sound of her shoes. Charles’ first inclination of romantic feeling towards Emma is apparent through the memory of her “little clogs on the clean-scrubbed kitchen flags,” and the sound of her “wooden soles…[that] clacked smartly on the leather boots she wore”. Léon notices her “foot clad in a small black boot”. Rodolphe admires her “dainty little foot” when expressing her beauty as well as when “walking behind her, [he] glimpsed – just… the black boot – the delicacy of her white stocking, like a snippet of her nakedness,”. While it is superficial to perceive the shoes as strictly feminine, moreover, the shoe represents both male and female. The shoes symbolize how Emma ignites the male characters’ passion and desire. While it is superficial to perceive the shoes as strictly feminine, moreover, the shoe represents masculinity. It symbolizes how Emma ignites the male characters’ passion and desire. Flaubert presents Emma’s shoe as a phallic symbol to capture how she fits in both roles.

The significance of Emma’s adoption of masculine styles and the manipulation of phallic substitutes require careful consideration. Emma’s male attributes do not displace her feminine aspects. She continues to exhibit many of the traditional feminine features, such as her sentimentality and delusional pursuit of a fairytale. Emma’s adoption of masculine modes is an example of her will to achieve some resemblance of freedom that men obtain. Furthermore, Flaubert shows not only does Emma exhibit masculine traits, but there is also a symbolic exchange of these traits. Male characters go through a symbolic emasculation; “[Monsieur Rouault] had broken his leg”. Hippolyte has his amputated, “then having flatly declared that it must be amputated, he went off to the chemist’s to rail at the asses who could have reduced a poor man to such a state”. Focusing on their broken legs, it symbolizes the hindering of their ability to leave and be free. Hippolyte’s masculinity diminishes as Emma’s advances. Additionally, Emma’s ability to manipulate men seen previously with her shoes also supports the idea of Emma’s description of being masculine. Emma’s ownership of a knife displays how she can effortlessly take ownership of a masculine persona. These behaviours enable Emma to progress in attaining liberation. Flaubert criticizes the masculinity of men showing how it’s symbolically in retreat and males in various ways are shown to be defective, which causes the reader to question the circumstances of men in society.

Consequently, Emma’s impression of men plays an essential role in her pursuit of freedom. Men appear to have more freedom and control, especially in terms of marriage. When stepping out of marriage, it is commonly the man. The act of Emma’s betrayal to her marriage is an example of her rebellion to her expected role. Likewise, its Faluberts portrayal of Emma becoming masculine. While marriage is according to the man’s convenience, this is perhaps one of the reasons why “Emma[’s] found again in adultery.” Emma has a glorified perception of men as “a man, surely, ought to know everything, ought to excel in a host of activities, ought to initiate you into the energies passion, the refinements of life [and] all its mysteries”. Contrastingly her perception of women is correspondingly low; she complains to Rodolphe that women do not have the right to roam the world, deprived, and to Léon that they live useless lives. Notably, Emma also wishes to give birth to a boy:

A man, at least, is free; he can explore each passion and every kingdom, conquer obstacles, feast upon the most exotic pleasures. But a woman is continually thwarted. Both inert and yielding, against her ranged weakness of the flesh and the inequity of the law. Her will, like the veil strung to her bonnet, flutters in every breeze; always there is desire urging, always the convention restraining.

This naive perspective of the sexes gave rise to Emmas’ exalted notion of what it is to be a man, and, unsurprisingly, Emma repeatedly wishes she were a man. Her misguided delusions conceptualize such thoughts. It follows that she would create a persona of such to allow her to be free of her restraining convention. Emma gives birth to a girl despite her wishes such that she neglects her child. Why is it that Emma is made to be negligent and indifferent to her daughter? Why could Flaubert not have made Emma be both defiant of her role and a genuine mother? During Flaubert’s time, although rebelling against her position would have caused controversy regardless of the impersonal behaviour she has towards her daughter and relationships made much more of an impact. Flaubert broke away from the romantic fantasy genre and the radical nature of Emma’s character not only appalled people but also had them learning to empathize with her.

Flaubert’s use of masculine modes, the association of men and freedom, influences how Emma presents herself in a society that benefits men over women. Fashion plays a significant role as it affects how the reader perceives Emma and questions her femininity and the realistic life of a woman’s struggles. Flaubert emphasizes the idea of romanticism with Emma. Emma expresses her thoughts openly while others conceal theirs. Nevertheless, representative of you and I. Knives and Shoes act as phallic symbols, Emma’s possession of a knife represents her taking on masculine traits that extend to physical objects. The shoes represent the passion stored within Emma, which she then ignites in the male characters, allowing her to acquire some of their freedom. Emma’s views of women are inferior to men, influence why she thinks men equal freedom. All these aspects of Emma’s characterization help the reader understand how Flaubert is displaying her masculine traits, showing the conflict of where true freedom is unattainable for women.

When analysing Madam Bovary as a character, it is important investigate all facets. This will not only ensure a greater understanding of her actions, but will give a more informed decision for the extent to which Emma deserves sympathy. Gustave Flaubert uses Madame Bovary to express women’s obsession with the bourgeois life in nineteenth-century France, as well as give insight and commentary on gender, and socioeconomic roles prevalent at that time. Emma Bovary is an antiheroine who uses transgressed behaviour and conscious acts of indiscretion to reject a lifestyle imposed on her by the repressive patriarchal and stereotyped society. Flaubert’s novel is written in a realistic style, which highlights his opinion of the bourgeoisie and portrays the nature of provincial life, even where it may not be appreciated. Emma Bovary is used to portray how the corrupt and misplaced values of the bourgeoisie could only lead to the breakdown of a previously stable life. Throughout the novel, Emma searches for passion and pleasure as well as a way to escape the monotony and drabness of ‘small-town life,’ which is the catalyst for her affairs, both physically and emotionally.

Emma’s actions throughout the novel are seen as morally ambiguous; these manifest themselves as her unfaithfulness to Charles, lack of dedication to Berthe and her drastic mood changes. Flaubert’s novel, especially in modern times has raised the question of sympathy towards Emma Bovary and whether her actions were justifiable and possibly even relatable in modern-day society. Previously women had far more constraints on who they could be, what jobs they had to do and what was expected of them, but in the modern-day society, Emma Bovary might be seen as a heroine instead of an antiheroine.

Emma Bovary’s actions can be explained as the result of intense disillusionment from her childhood fantasies. Her yearning for passion and pleasure can be attributed to misguided beliefs instilled in her as a child brought up in a secluded convent. Flaubert’s literary construct exhibits Emma’s thoughts revolving purely around her notions of romance throughout the entire book: “Before her [Emma’s] marriage she thought herself in love; but since the happiness that should have followed this love not having come, she must, she thought, have been mistaken and Emma tried to find out what one meant exactly in life “felicity,” “passion,” and “rapture” – words that had seemed so beautiful to her in books.” Emma believed that Charles could fulfil her romantic expectations, but after marrying Charles, her feelings of happiness morphed into discontent as she discovered him to be quite boring. Charles tried to console her and take care of her perceived ailment, however, “His conviction that he was making her happy seemed to her an imbecile insult, and his sureness on this point ingratitude.”

Emma failed to realise that the romantic ideals she had read about were unattainable, or at least fleeting, in the real world. She delved deep into her daydreams and spent her waking hours seeking the extremes in emotion present in these fantasies. After being unable to attain the passion and pleasure extremes, she instead turned to the other of residing in exaggerated misery. “The lusts of the flesh, the longing for money, and the melancholy of passion all blended themselves into one suffering, and instead of turning her thoughts away from it she clave to it the more, urging herself into the pain, and seeking everywhere occasions for it”. Had the books she had read as a child not only been about “Love, lovers, sweethearts, persecuted ladies fainting in lonely pavilions, postilions killed at every stage, horses ridden to death on every page, sombre forests, heartaches, vows, sobs, tears and kisses”, she would not have mistaken her fantasies for reality; thus, her life would have turned out differently. Her romantic disposition caused her to look for fulfilment in accumulating physical possessions and exaggerated emotions. Flaubert intends for readers feel some level of sympathy towards Emma, evident in the way he describes her upbringing. Her limited reading material, sheltered life and lack of freedom at the convent, non existent maternal figure and lack of guidance towards the areas applicable after being married are all important facets to consider when deciding the level of sympathy Emma deserves.

Upon further investigation, it can also be concluded that nurture is not an excuse for nature. This means that while she grew up with certain resources leading her towards her romanticism and fantasy ideals, it cannot be used as an excuse for her actions, fully conscious of the consequences and repercussions. In the novel, Flaubert details one of the main reasons for Emma’s growing dislike of Charles as her need for more wealth. When she has an affair with Rodolphe, her thoughts are purely filled with the life she could have if she possessed both his social status and vast amount of money. This is another driving force toward Emma seeking out other men. Not only is Emma unfaithful to her husband, she gathers a large amount of debt, expecting him to pay it. Charles did everything to make her feel loved and happy but yet she still perceived him as boring and plain, with Charles even going as far as to move from where he had set up his life to ensure her happiness and health. “It cost Charles much to give up Tostes after living there for nearly four years and ‘when he was beginning to get on there’. Yet if it must be!”.

Unbeknownst to Charles, Emma’s unhappiness was sourced of her own fantasies. While it has been established that Charles is quite dull, he still makes an effort and is a dutiful husband to her. Emma repays him by starting both emotional and physical affairs with people he might have considered friends. Emma is a victim of her own unrealistic desires and her need for change. The change that Emma spends her life wishing for is the same emotion which she seeks through her affairs; The excitement and drama present in the novels she read as a child. A large contributor to Emma’s suicide was her constant waiting for her fantasies to materialise, her romantic mindset and her exaggerated moods. These, in turn, lead her to a more realistic ending rather than a fairytale ending. Emma’s own foolishness and emotional extremes led to the breakdown of her once-stable and comfortable life.

Madame Bovary exhibits many characteristics of a tragedy, where the tragedies of the novel are based on Emma’s relationships, including the relationship of Emma to herself, to her romantic partners and to her daughter. One tragedy to be noted is that Emma never truly understood or was truly honest with herself. She was unable to perceive that her own attitude was the issue preventing her from happiness. Her constant searching for a romanticised love was the cause of her falling into depression in the first place, which in turn began her turning from a sweet child to a deceitful and shallow adult, wholly corrupted by her own desires. Emma’s whole life was based around pleasing herself; she understood the weight of her adultery towards Charles, but never took a moment in the book to self reflect on her actions. Charles spent his married days aiming to please her; he loved her blindly with a great consequence to himself – the depth of his devotion was his downfall. After Emma committed suicide, he submitted himself unto grief. The tragedy of the relationship Emma had with her lovers is that of her expecting that they would fulfil her romanticised view which her husband had not been able to do; both physical and emotional affairs that once began with perceived legitimate love and lust ended horribly with disgust and apathy.

Another tragedy in the novel is Emma’s lack of relationship with God, even after growing up in a convent, she never really knew God and tried to fill the hole that religion may have filled, with other desires and passions. The final tragedy is the relationship between Emma and her daughter; Emma neglected her and left her to be raised by a nurse, unhappy that she had had a daughter instead of a son; That, however, can be attributed to her view of the confines of being a woman in that day and age; she believed that a son would be happier in the world and did not want a daughter to have the same obligations and views placed upon her as she had. A literary tragedy involves the main character being brought to suffering or extreme sorrow because of a tragic flaw or moral weakness. Emma Bovary has both a tragic flaw a moral weakness, so it can be concluded that Madame Bovary is indeed a tragedy.

With an in-depth study of both sides of sympathy and blame, it can only be concluded that no one person can be blamed for the actions of Emma Bovary; henceforth, sympathy should be shown towards her. While her actions were of her own volition, the influence of her early life has shown to be the cause of her tunnel vision in terms of her marriage and relationships. However, the extent of that sympathy is quite short, her actions were still her own-she made a conscious decision to commit adultery, start an emotional affair and neglect her daughter based on her gender, no matter whether or not she had a valid reason for wishing for a son, it does not excuse her neglect. At the end of the story as she lay dying she has a moment of self-realisation that she had indeed been searching for love in the wrong places, unfortunately at the point it was too late. Flaubert’s literary construct of Madame Bovary provides insight into the challenges women face in terms of being confined to the expectations of society.

Women in society have always been seen as inferior to men. With that being said, there has always been a social construct that men have more power and responsibility than women. In Madame Bovary (1857) Gustave Flaubert manages to show how Emma is simultaneously the perfect woman and the nightmare woman of this period. Through her life, he attempts to show us an objective, intimate perspective on the difficulties of womanhood during a restrictive and judgmental time period. Flaubert does this by utilizing Emma’s masculinity to accentuate Emma’s desire for control and uses this to depict her difficulties with her power. It gives us an insight into the challenges associated with womanhood without much power. Flaubert’s ultimate goal when talking about the woman in the novel was to depict the idealized vision of the perfect nineteenth-century woman.

One of the most significant events in the novel that shows Emma’s misfortune is when she gets pregnant. She wants the child to be a boy because she does not want a girl to have to go through the same problems that she had to go through. She knows that men in the nineteenth century had more opportunities than women so having a boy was one of her biggest desires. She shows this when she says “A man, at least, is free; he can explore each passion and every kingdom, conquer obstacles, feast upon the most exotic pleasures. But a woman is continually thwarted. Both inert and yielding, against her are ranged the weakness of the flesh and the inequity of the law.” Emma knows that the rights of men and women are different, and so she believes that the only way she could remain happy is by having a boy. She knew that if she did have a boy, it would have the freedom and strength to overcome the constraints that had always so frustrated her. This is explaining the powerlessness that she continually dealt with both in society and her personal life. Flaubert highlights Emma’s lack of power in order to give the reader some sympathy for her plight as a woman in the 19th century. Even though Emma makes mistakes of her own, she is still trapped in a life she finds miserable due to her inability to create a life on her own.

Emma’s early life at the convent influenced her entire approach to life. She preferred the dream world rather than the real world. Instead of being brought up in the realities of everyday living, she was sent as a young girl to a convent where she indulged in daydreams and in sentimentalizing about life. Here at the convent, she began reading romance novels which affected her entire life. She constantly felt the need for excitement and could not endure the dull routine of everyday living. After her marriage with Charles, Emma continued in her search for excitement. All she desired for was a higher class life with the “perfect husband” and a substantial amount of money. Emma felt powerless and unworthy and wanted a man like the ones in her romantic fantasies. “She had bought herself a blotting pad, a writing case, a pen holder, and envelopes, though she had no one to write to; she would dust her ornaments, look at herself in the mirror, pick up a book, then, dreaming between the lines, let it fall into her lap. She longed to travel or to go back and live in the convent. She wanted equally to die and live in Paris.”

Emma could not tolerate her marriage because it did not fit into the fictionalized accounts that she had read about. She was continually dissatisfied with her life and searched constantly for ways to change things. “Down in her soul, she was waiting for something to happen. Like a shipwrecked sailor, she perused her solitary world with hopeless eyes, searching for some white sail far away where the horizon turns to mist.” (1.9.58) She felt empty, and unworthy as she depended on her romantic novels growing up to influence her life. Thus, since life refused to conform to her romantic picture, she began to alternate between various things in the hope that her unfulfilled longings would be satisfied. She tried everything and even redecorated the house, took up reading, subscribed to Parisian magazines, helped at charities, knitted, painted, played the piano, and engaged in a multitude of other activities. But with each thing she attempted, she soon became bored and rejected one activity for another. This frenzied search for excitement exhausted her until she made herself physically sick.

In Madame Bovary, the beginning of Emma’s powerlessness began with her union to Charles. Because of this, she resorted to other men including Rodolphe and Leon. Charles’ mediocre existence was an embarrassment that Emma wasn’t legally able to break free from. During the nineteenth century, the wife was expected to look after the family and household. This feeling of emptiness and lack of power led to her affairs with Leon and Rodolphe. She wanted to have control over people’s emotions and desires. Her romantic involvement with Rodolphe and Leon satisfied her desire to have influence over their decisions. With Leon, Emma felt that she has found a kindred spirit. He served to illustrate the divergence between Emma’s dreams and her reality. Both Leon and Emma wanted to flee to bigger and better things. However, since Leon is a man, he was unable to actually flee to the city to fulfill his dream, while Emma had to remain in Yonville, chained to her child and her husband. It showed her the concept of a perfect husband unlike Charles, who made her feel unworthy. She forces Leon to conform to her idealized concept of a lover. Emma refuses for a long time to face reality, and the contrast between Flaubert’s objective description of the weak, fluctuating Leon and Emma’s idealized conception of him underlines Emma’s predicament. Rodolphe is a wealthy man with much financial power and was able to take Emma from her current life into one she strongly desires, but he leaves her. Being a woman, she is not capable of leaving on her own. He would seduce her, and Emma without a clue went with it. His attraction toward Emma was founded only on her good looks and her sensuous appeal. Thus, he had no qualms about seducing her and later abandoning her. I was almost as if he didn’t have any emotion, only concerned only with his own pleasures.

Emma knew that when she grew up she wanted to be wealthy and apart of the bourgeois upper class. Charles was a doctor who earned a reasonable amount of money, but this wasn’t enough for Emma’s desires. Emma Bovary was a middle-class woman who could not stand the middle-class life. She spent her entire life in an attempt to escape from this middle-class existence by dreams, love affairs, and false pretensions. The concept of being wealthy was always appealing to Emma, so she would spend money on things that she knew she couldn’t afford. She was bored with her life, and because of this, she resorted to spending money; not only for herself but for her secret lovers Rodolphe and Leon. She constantly felt the need for excitement and could not endure the dull routine of everyday living. She dreamed of a life that that would allow her to look for ideals and feelings greater than she was. Even though these ideals might’ve been superficial, she was aware that feelings were greater than those found in her middle-class surroundings. Emma would use money as an escape route, and Lheureux managed to take advantage of her situation by convincing her to buy new things that he new she couldn’t afford. This resulted in putting Emma and Charles in more and more debt every time. She ended up killing herself because she was in so much debt and she was indebted because of her extramarital love affairs.

In short, her suicide happened to be the last consequence of a chain of causes that reached back to a first mistake: as she had too much imagination, she had mistaken literature for life. The feeling of emptiness in Emma made her want to become more powerful, but it didn’t actually help her in the end. All of her choices somehow reflected her childhood dreams which negatively impacted her life in the end.

In Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert deconstructs the nineteenth-century notion that women should have fewer desires and ambitions than men and suggests instead that women’s subordinates role in society creates tensions between their internal and external lives. Flaubert depicts the frustrations that Emma Bovary might have felt. Though Emma has her flaws, she is trapped with little recourse in a life that feels wrong in her social standards. She dreams of something extraordinary that she can be content with. Emma had always wanted a boy because she knew that men had the freedom and strength to overcome the constraints that had always frustrated her. She preferred the dream world rather than the real world and she adapted to the idea of a “perfect life” by growing up in a convent. One of the biggest starts to Emma feeling Powerless was her marriage to Charles. Because of this, she resorted to other men including Rodolphe and Leon.

The concept of being wealthy was always appealing to Emma, and money made her feel powerful, so she would spend it like it meant nothing. Little did she know that it would lead to going into debt as well as her eventual death. Women in Flaubert’s day were far more restricted than their male counterparts who were allowed to pursue their dreams and experiment. It’s shown that women’s desires can never be fulfilled in a society that holds them back.

The representation of gender in the works of both Zola’s Thérèse Raquin and Flaubert’s Madame Bovary could, on the surface, be considered to hold more similarities than differences. The situation of the young wife, a focal point in both novels, is especially crucial and how the two titular characters in their respective novels have to stifle their feelings and fantasies for fear of being shamed by society. Although, Emma’s situation is perhaps more focussed and intense as Thérèse does appear to be slightly more subservient and domestic in comparison yet both are slaves to the choices of their mothers.

Feminism is another important theme in both novels. Thérèse’s affair with Laurent in Zola’s novel could almost be compared to Rudolph’s seduction of Emma in Madame Bovary, however, Laurent’s is rather unremarkable and unmemorable in comparison to that of Rodolphe’s. Chapter VI of Thérèse Raquin, in which the beginning of the seduction occurs, features Laurent almost as a predator stalking his prey, which so happens to be Thérèse: ”Here is a little woman,’ said he to himself, ‘who will be my sweetheart whenever I choose…” . The patronising condescension evident in Laurent’s internalised is nothing more than a product of the zeitgeist of the era yet for a modern audience his thoughts would anger many, particularly with his insensitive critique that highlights his own psychological indecision, ‘But she is ugly, thought he…’. The demeaning adjective ‘little’ combined with the possessive first person pronoun ‘my sweetheart’ belies the assumed subservient nature of women, to which Zola could be examined to subversively represent in a conscious effort to make a change to the typical female role in society. Madame Bovary also explores a seduction by a ‘powerful’ man to Emma yet their empty speeches to one another hold certain ‘framed’ narratives and mimic those of a tragedy, which could perhaps foreground the narrative of the novel.

The importance of a novel’s title is not to be underestimated as it often illustrates a particularly prominent idea within the novel. Upon first inspection, the title of Annie Ernaux’s novella, A Man’s Place, could also be an indicator of the importance of feminism in this work of literature. The focus on a ‘man’s place’ is particularly unsettling as the language blatantly discriminates between gender, however, Ernaux’s biographical novella focuses intensely on the relationship between her and her father during her education and subsequent rise in societal class. ‘It is a story of a working-class man who believed that self-denial, hard work, and careful speech would gain him entrance into the middle class where good manners, well-spoken words, and respectability reigned. ” The focus is not on feminism or the lack of it but rather Ernaux manages to misdirect her readers before they had even started reading.

Madame Bovary, meanwhile, does hold significant feminist ideologies, especially in the sense that, during the course of Flaubert’s novel, there are several Madame Bovary’s yet it is focussed on the role and characterisation of Emma, as opposed to the numerous other women who take up the title. This could be Flaubert’s way of subtly subverting the stereotypical female role by illustrating through his rather aptly-named title that a woman is more than just a mere name or title, much as in the same manner as a man is. Flaubert encourages his readers to engage beyond Emma’s title as Madame Bovary and instead focus on the personality traits and the characteristics of the role of Emma, which is why it is particularly emancipating when her adultery is revealed to the audience.

The clear subversion of society is evident in both Thérèse Raquin and Madame Bovary with the dichotomy of murder and morality a clear motif in both of these novels. Zola’s Thérèse Raquin could be considered a scientific study into the complexities of the human mind with the intertwining of poetry and scientific facts. The lyrical prose and poetry remains separate from the science, however, though the paranoia and mental breakening of the characters matches the lyric and rhythm of the language, leading some readers to possibly deduce that the novel is, in fact, an analysis of the various reactions of the human psyche. The slow descension into paranoia and insanity provides a rather deep psychoanalysis into the profiles of Zola’s characters Thérèse and Laurent, evidenced through several examples of Freudian psychology. The manipulation of their characters by Zola provides a clear message to his readership on how a crime such as the murder they both willingly committed will impact severely and psychologically on one’s conscience and morality. Chapter XXVIII of Thérèse Raquin represents their slow descent into madness and hatred: ‘The quarrel continued, bitter and piercing, and Camille was killed over again’ The repetition of Camille’s murder represents Thérèse’s and Laurent’s guilt over their respective roles in his death.

Whilst Zola’s novel might be considered rather psychoanalytical with references to Freud’s own psychological practices interwoven throughout, the manipulation of the language and rhythm of a piece of literature for societal representation is something both Madame Bovary and A Man’s Place have in common.

Moreover, the publication of Madame Bovary was also wrought with public outcry in France in the nineteenth century, due to its apparent scandalous nature for the time period and for its rather adulterous themes that would betray the stereotypical image of the perfect nineteenth century French image. The trial of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, on the 7th February 1857, was met with similar criticism as D.H Lawrence’s 1928 novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, would in England wherein an unadulterated version would not be published until 1960 due to similar, adulterous content. The history of literary trials in that sense is rather fascinating in that it reveals the power society had over literature and also it illustrates the depths society would allow itself to sink to in order to protect against such scandalous material manipulating others. As one modern perspective has on the matter of Madame Bovary’s trial, ‘All those participating in the trial—prosecution, defence, and the court in its judgment—tend to read the novel in an extremely restricted way,’ it does highlight just how narrow-minded society can become and how it is so against change, particularly if that change is to come about through a literary movement.

Furthermore, the representation of class should not be overlooked in examining representation in work as a whole. Annie Ernaux’s novel, A Man’s Place, is perhaps most closely associated with this theme. The notion that Annie Ernaux does not belong to either world provides a clear link to Emma’s early characterisation in Madame Bovary. Ernaux states that, ‘I felt separated from myself’ , depicting this state of division. In spite of this similar, liminal state almost between the two characters, the reasoning behind those feelings are distinctly different – Ernaux’s is based on her ever-changing social status and her close familial links that provide the basis for the 1984 novel, whereas Flaubert’s Emma instead desires adventure and excitement (‘At the bottom of her heart, however, she was waiting for something to happen’ ) as opposed to the state of self-duplicity Ernaux finds herself in. The beginning and end of the novella symbolises her plight and social class dillema, epitomising them and the contrasts within herself based on how she should act and behave depending on which social class she is representing. The representation of herself through herself is also significant, such as her claim that there are different styles of writing, showing her readers a glimpse into her childhood and family. Although, this does also reinforce the contrasts between social classes as even the style of writing can be accommodated based on the pragmatics of such an occassion. A source from a library journal has claimed that: ‘Ernaux tells the story without sentimentality, conveying the alienation and pain of the humiliating limitations of class’ .

Madame Bovary is representative of the political, social and cultural zeitgeist of the time period and the difference in class, while not quite as centred as it is in A Man’s Place, is still present in Flaubert’s novel. Rodolphe is an upper class aristocrat and, as such, has no true issues with money and is able to obtain anything he desires.

Following the French Revolution, the French feudal society came to an end and the bourgeoisie middle-class emerged. A prominent novel from this time period is Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. He tells the story of Emma, a young woman who dreams of love and prosperity. Nonetheless, Emma’s bourgeois aspirations are unattainable due to her marriage to Charles Bovary. Ultimately, Gustave Flaubert employs illusion to depict Emma’s longing for love, and Charles’s idea of a happy marriage but utilizes reality to disregard their fantasies.

Emma Bovary was fostered in a convent that forced her to glamorize reality. Hence, she fantasized over having a romantic relationship full of excitement and butterflies. Emma believed that love “…should arrive all at once with thunder and lightning – a whirlwind from the skies that affects life, turns it every which way, wrests resolutions always like leaves, and plunges the entire heart into an abyss” (95). According to this quote, Emma presumes that love is supposed to be intense and powerful similar to storms.

However, the reality of her situation is that she has failed to find the excitement similar to her preconceptions of love. She sought that “Charles’s conversations was as flat as a sidewalk, with everyone’s ideas walking through it in ordinary dress, arousing neither emotion, nor laughter, nor dreams” (39). Emma has mistaken herself due to not feeling the expected happiness she thought she would feel while being married. As a result of Emma’s fantasizing reality and love, she is unable to adapt to real life.

Initially, Charles Bovary believes that Emma is the perfect wife. Charles could come home late from work and “Emma would serve him because the maid was asleep” (41). This represents Charles’s illusion of his marriage with Emma, in that she was being a thoughtful wife who served her husband. However, Charles is unaware of the reality of his marriage, as he does not thoroughly know Emma. He is oblivious to the fact that Emma asks herself “…why did I even get married” (43). The perfect wife would not have to ask herself that question. Furthermore, Charles additionally fails to recognize his wife’s infidelity. Emma searches for other companions to flee from her boring husband. In all actuality, Emma is not the ideal wife because she commits adultery and consistently questions her happiness with her so-called husband.

Flaubert appropriates illusion to demonstrate Emma and Charles’s ideals but nonetheless reality ultimately strikes them.

In Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, the novel explores the themes of love and marriage, the unrealistic ideals of women, and the resulting dissatisfaction she faces due to these themes.

As a child, Emma fully immerses herself into the world of romance novels consequently leading her to have unrealistic expectations of love and marriage. Because the novels Emma reads portray a woman’s appearance rather than the actual experience of love as important, Emma’s perception of love becomes distorted and indistinguishable from the reality of love. Although Emma is fascinated with the idea of love, she inevitably does not find herself ever truly loving individuals. Because of this, Emma marries Charles, a dull man, in hopes of satisfying her desire for unrealistic romance. Not soon after, Emma becomes very bored with married life and realizes that,“before marriage she thought herself in love; but the happiness that should have followed this love not having come, she must, she thought, have been mistake[n]”(46).

Charles could potentially make Emma happy, but “Emma fails to see in Charles her unsuspecting Romeo because she prefers instead to fall for cardboard ones”(Orr 108). Charles’ inadequacy shields him from pushing forward to a higher social level that might save his marriage. But his lethargy shields him from being a better husband. Emma’s view on marriage also becomes distorted as she wishes to experience the immoral relationships in her novels. Contrary to Emma, Charles stays loyal to her and “never dreamed of pleasure,” but “now [it] made up the endless round of his happiness” (45). Meanwhile, Emma is yearning to imitate the passion displayed in her novels. This prompts her affair with the wealthy landowner, Rodolphe. Rodolphe is a canny and pessimistic bachelor who spends his time seducing and having affairs with women. Emma falls in love with Rodolphe’s superficial act and tries to hold on to their doomed relationship.

Due to Rodolphes unrequited feelings, “[Emma] tries to be ever more physically alluring, but becomes jealous and desperate as she feels she is losing”(Meyer 60). Rodolphe then writes her a letter severing ties of the affair completely. Emma then begins a second affair with a law clerk named Leon. Initially Leon and Emma have many similarities; for instance, he is similarly bored with his life. Leon travels to Paris for three years, but when he comes back he boasts about his romantic conquests and finally admits his love for Emma. Emma concludes that she is “in love with Leon, and [seeks] solitude that she might with more ease delight in his image”(136). Like all of Emma’s relationships, Leon and Emma’s affair subsequently loses the excitement it once had. Emma longs to have the ideal life of romance that does not include marriage. Ultimately, Emma’s actions show that she feels as if her marriage is illegitimate. Dissatisfaction with conjugal lives causes her actions of infidelity and passionate betrayal throughout her life.

Even for those who are happy with their lives fall under judgement in an overwhelmingly male society that predisposes infidelity as a path for autonomy and an entryway toward freedom. Charles speculates that Emma is having an unsanctioned romance, yet, because of his idealism and naivete, he overlooks his suspicions and continues to believe that she is wholefully dedicated to him. Be that as it may, after her suicide he discovers her adulterous letters and “his own broken heart, [is] an echo of the letter Rodolphe had sent Emma”(Schlossman 96). The lack of communication between a couple during this time period makes the characters search for adoration and comprehension outside of their own homes, consequently adding to their traitorousness.

Gossip Girl is a TV drama series based on the book sequel of novelist Cecily Von Ziegesar. Von Ziegesar, wrote her first novel, at 2004 and her starting point was her private school days. Then 2007 the book series become a TV novella in the same name Gossip Girl and on air till 2012. Basically, in the TV series, we watched the rich adolescences of Upper East Side (Manhattan / New York) torturing each other by socially, psychologically and sometimes even physically. They harmed each other every now and then for sudden reasons like social relations, love relations or money-based problems.

In Gossip Girl, we see two private schools one for boys one for girls: Constance Billard School For girls and St. Jude’s School For Boys. In these schools we see highly privileged teens; Serena Van Der Woodsen, the socialite blonde bombshell whose mother from Irish aristocracy; Blair Waldorf, whose mother is a well-known fashion designer; Chuck Bass, whose father a successful businessman (or tyrant) and doing dirty jobs; Nate Archibald and other male or female figures from school or their social life from Upper East Side. Upper East Side is a symbol here to provide richness, high-class lifestyle and social status. And there is Dan Humphrey from the Bronx who is the outsider, the unwanted and invisible nerd boy, going to the same school with the Manhattan elites, dreaming to be a well-known novelist and secretly has a crush on Serena from the first grade of school. Although his father -was an almost Rockstar like two decades ago- an art gallery owner and his mother is an artist, Dan has no privilege inside the elite boys and girls. We can call him basically a middle-class poor boy. In the TV series the voice over usually calls him as ‘poor boy’ too. He is the modern Madame Bovary. Who does not accept his place in society and wants to upgrade himself. He is not the one and only persona who is looking for an upgrade. For example, Blair Waldorf is an admirer to be a royal. She also calls herself as Manhattan’s royalty and even married with a prince for that aim, but she can not make it her way to the top and the marriage finishes with a divorce. So, if we want to find someone who achieved his/her goals to the top, we have to follow the “Lonely Boy” aka Poor Dan Humphrey.

From the starting of the TV series, a woman voice is guiding us and telling us the story. Like God’s voice, her voice is popping up in every episode. The voice assumes she is Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl is a blog site writing by anonymously. The blog’s owner is writing about secrets of the elite students, sharing their secrets, making them fight with each other, guiding their social relations and managing their lives like they’re his or her puppets. All the students, especially the fivesome are on gossip Girls hands because she knows everything about them and nobody knows who she is. Besides Gossip Girl is not just messing with the students but their relatives, friends, and families. The anonymous is acting like nothing she or he can’t see. The voiceover gives us that impression too.

After one-year Gossip Girl’s page starts spreading rumors to Manhattan’s young elites, about Serena and Dan. Somehow, they meet in a coincidence. Gossip Girl starts writing about Lonely Boy or Poor Dan Humphrey then he became visible in the eyes of school society which acts like he does not exist. Then, Serena and Dan start to dating. It was a dream for Dan like a year ago but now it seems like he is living his dream.

As times passes, Dan becomes one of the main subjects of Gossip Girl. Not just him also his sister Jenny and his father Rufus, became a part of the gossip page. He became much more visible day by day, but Gossip Girl keeps calling him an outsider or poor Dan. Now he is an insider but also an outsider. The voice reminds the truth to us for 6 seasons, from the start. Even Dan broke up with Serena, their parents Rufus and Lily started dating then getting married, then Dan’s family moved to upper east-side, the voice never gives up of calling him as an outsider. Dan and his friends never forget where he came from: He is the Lonely Boy from the Bronx. From the middle class. From petite bourgeois.

At the end of season 6, Dan Humphrey comes out as Gossip Girl. He is the one behind all the gossip and manipulation. He is secretly ruling the Upper Eastside and its residents’ lives. When we expected all his friends will refuse him and don’t want to see him again, they embrace him with respect because of being the real king of the Upper East Side, all the times. The passive and weak one wins the game in Manhattan. And powerful Upper East Siders who have money, social status and everything a man can imagine, lost over him. I found that twisted ending as evidence of the revenge of petite bourgeois. And I want to examine his situation from different social concepts.

Bovary vs. Humphrey

Daniel Humphrey is coming from the Bronx. In the TV series, the location is used as a symbol of middle class, boring people, low standards and lame people. The Upper East Siders’ approach about Dan was the same. They took him as a lame poor boy. They did not give him importance. He was just a common person for them. Dan knew that fact and he planned something to conquer their world and started to write the blog; Gossip Girl. In the beginning, Dan’s situation was not so different from Madame Bovary’s. He was not happy in his place of the social life and he wanted to upgrade himself. The upper-class schoolmates were taking him as a villager, like Bovary. Also, like Madame Bovary, he was in love with an upper-class person: Serena. He had to be one of them to be with Serena and a part of the world.

There are similarities with Humphrey and Bovary. Like, they both are in-between people, not rich or poor but middle class. They both want to upgrade themselves. They both in love with an upper-class person. They both trying to reach higher life-standards from what they have. They both trying to be inside. They both are getting bored of what they have. They both reading too much and so intellectuals in a similar way. But their ways are so different. Because of Madame Bovary is a depict of a petite bourgeois French woman from the 19th century, but Dan Humphrey is a portrait of a young intellectual American boy from the 21st century. Bovary is a depict from the beginning of modernity, Dan Humphrey is a depict who belongs post-modernity or information society. Whereas the two depicts mirroring the same social class, but their conditions are so different from each other.

Like Madame Bovary, Daniel Humphrey cannot forget where he came from (Bronx) and not feeling belong to Upper East Side, but he does not fall into a depression. Well, in his life we can see chaos everywhere, but he never falls into it, because he creates it. He has control of everything, so he never became suicidal or turbulent, but always calm and smart. Unlike the tragic persona of Bovary, Humphrey is writing his story. This was the promise of modernism from the start. When they killed the god, they told us, “you have wills, you are rational beings, you can write your own destiny.” Madam Bovary tried and failed, but after two century, Daniel Humphrey did – literally. He wrote his own destiny and shaped the others. Like he is playing god in the game. For me, he took the revenge of Emma Bovary by turning the tables and winning the glory in the name of the petite bourgeois.

Madame Bovary is a typical narrative of modernity. Jacques Ranciere gave big importance to the novel about describing modern life and the turmoils of it. In his article “Why Emma Bovary Had To Be Killed” (Ranciere, 2008) he explained the facts why the novel is so important about the understanding of modernity. In his article, he tells Flaubert depicts Emma Bovary as a sentimental character who wants literal pleasures to come alive. “The sentimental character wants the pleasures of art and literature to be real, concrete pleasures. He or she wants them to be more than a matter of intellectual contemplation: a source of practical excitement.” (Ranciere, 2008) This situation is the same for Dan Humphrey. He has the same persona with Bovary. Also, Ranciere pointed out the social climate changing in France at that time and the turmoil of the social class. He says the excitement was the key world of the community at that phase. Because the social order was changing. ‘In the good old times of monarchy, religion, and aristocracy, there had been a clear, long-standing hierarchy that put every group and every individual in its right place. It gave them a firm footing and limited horizons, which are the conditions of happiness for poor people. Unfortunately, that order had been shattered, first by the French Revolution, second by the rise of industrialism, third by the new media—the newspapers, lithographs, and so on, which made words and images, dreams and aspirations, available everywhere to anybody. Society had become a hustle and bustle of free and equal individuals that were dragged together into a ceaseless whirl in search of excitement that was nothing but the mere internalization of the endless and purposeless agitation of the whole social body…. Poor people were now taking a new view of what practical-mindedness meant. They wanted to enjoy all that was enjoyable, including ideal pleasures. But they also wanted those ideal pleasures to be practically enjoyable ideal pleasures.” (Ranciere, 2008) This explains our Dan Humphrey’s situation as well as Madame Bovary. After two centuries, whereas you’re in France or America, things are not changing too much. Dan wants to be a part of the upper class, because he wants to taste the lifestyle, the pleasures, like two decades ago.

Ranciere says, this French person had gained their freedom together and their new democracy model involves lover classes as equal as upper classes; in politics and social life. Commoners have a right to do politics, arts and have leisure time like upper classes; but did they have money to live the life which they had the right to live? French Revolution created a new democracy and new problems at the same time. Before that, things were much easier. Everybody knew their places and lived the life path which they allowed to live. After the French revolution, the industrial revolution and at the beginning of modernism, this excitement issue was a big problem. They needed new orders to arrange the pleasures. Reincerie says “Therefore a new democratic ghost was substituted for the older; political democracy, they said, had been crushed, but there was a new, far more radical uprising of democracy that no police, no army could tear down: the uprising of the multitude of aspirations and desires, cropping up everywhere in all the pores of modern society. To be sure, the idea was not exactly new; Plato had invented it two millennia before by stating that democracy, in fact, was not a form of government but the way of life of those “free” Athenians who cared for nothing except their individual pleasure.” (Ranciere, 2008) From his point of view, the modern anti-democrats took the model as wrong as it can. They were greedy. They started to want anything that GOLD can buy, also, what gold cannot buy; like literature, passions, values, art, and ideas. (Ranciere, 2008).

In Plato’s Republic, the Ideal State model, there are three classes: Rulers (philosopher), Soldiers and Artisans. (Heighnotes, 2016) From Plato’s point of view, people unite to the form of the community because they have needs. People are born with abilities and talents. So, they have to do different jobs which are good for everybody. In this kind of society, everyone has their own job. And this kind of society, grow easily. Then your neighbors start to jealous, and a war risk appears. Then you need guardians. The guardians of the state who are trained soldiers, like a dog. They know who a friend or a foe is, and bark at the right person. At the point the need of training that soldiers require wisdom, so you need philosophers. Philosophers tell stories to the soldiers to train them. The stories must be positive to give them motivation. At that time the poet was excluded from the police. Because from Plato’s point of view, Homeros was the wrong story to tell the soldiers. They censored the myths, and the philosopher started to write his own myth. One and the most important myths of Plato is Three Metal which is taken as starting point of monotheism.

In Three Metal Myth, the citizens of the city are brothers but when God create each one, he added gold to the rulers (philosopher), silver to the soldiers (aux) and iron to the artisan. Plato says you have to know your place. You should never ever mix the metals. A good society is the one which everybody knows what they were made of. The mixture of any metal is creating problems in society. Children are usually made of the same metal as their parents, but if this is not the case the child must either descend or ascend in the social order. You can be gold or silver after education if you are talented but once you are one, you can’t change it. Know your place was the main concept behind the myth.

In the old Greek city, there are the police and the Oikos. Police is for play and leisure, politics and art. And the Oikos is for necessity, economy, artisans, producing things, usefulness and work. Everybody does their own job and one thing which is naturally suited. Work is done in the Oikos by the slaves. The concept of leisure time was belonged to the residents of the polis, except artisans. Artisans belonged to the polis, but they were doing jobs with their bodies. The leisure time concept or the pleasures were not their things, because they had to work, they did not have time. For Ranciere the problem has started when artisans or workers gained their freedom to do politics and art and have leisure times on their own. The modern people’s main tragedy is to manage the situation and fit in a place in social. They feel disconnected and not belong, because of that case. It was like that in Madame Bovary’s century and it is the same in Dan Humphrey’s century. Petite bourgeois still struggling to fit in social order and they want to climb the social ladder.

The Modern Nihilist: Emma Bovary

When we talk about modernism, we also remember nihilism. Nietzsche assumed that nihilism is a disease of modernism for the first half of 19th century. He thought that nihilism infects everybody in European society. He said “What I relate is the history of the next two centuries. I describe what is coming, what can no longer come differently: the advent of nihilism.” (Nietzsche, 1968) This testifies my thesis about Dan Humphrey and Madame Bovary’s sameness in another way. After two century Dan Humphrey is as nihilist as Madame Bovary, but -like when I said at the beginning- with differences. Can the nihilist learn who he is and use his power to turn the tables? To answer the question, we have to understand who the nihilist was and after two centuries who he becomes.

For Nietzsche, we are rational beings. In modern city life, there is too much rationalism, we are overstimulated, and we become introverts. We are BLAZE creatures. We are trying to protect ourselves from turning inside. We are losing excitement and looking for excitement. In an over-stimulated world, we turn blaze then we go extreme. Then we get over stimulated and we go blaze. It’s an endless circulation. This is the tragedy of the modern world. And it was a bigger problem in the 19th century. The system calls us, don’t demand. Moderate your demands. Don’t demand about what is beautiful or great and live in peace. Even devil is a banal devil without evil. This was the nightmare of the 19th century. Nietzsche hated the situation. This situation which is Madame Bovary belongs.

In the 21st century, we have the decaf reality. We have normalized the modern culture. We have virtual sex which is sex without sex. Decaf coffee, coffee without caffeine. We have invented a form of politics without politics, without antagonists. This is the post-truth without truth. This is the truth which Dan Humphrey was born. Nihilism is the answer to this situation. It is the search for a pain-free life for Nietzsche. This conquers the denial of life. A nihilist is a person who imagines a life without porn, conflict or antagonist. Whenever he/she sees one of these, immediately runs away. The nihilists are unable to live with conflicts or struggles. This is the new form of a modern person. Religion also creates another world to escape. Three monotheist religions, Islam, Judaism, and Jews are the forms of nihilistic religions. They take this chaotic world as an illusion, just a testing world and assume the other world is the true world which is pain-free. The truth in that approach is an illusion. This approach is sort of the origin of Nihilism in our culture. (Woodward, 2002)

Modernity means the death of God. When the god is dead, you have two alternatives. A world without values or values without the world. You can say, I’m ok with this world and you became passive Nihilist aka Boring Demon (Decaf culture) or you say I’m ok with the other side, I like this illusion and you become Radical Nihilist. In two ways, a nihilist is a man who judges the world. That emerges a weak type of person because he creates a ‘true world’ because he cannot adopt the world.

Darwin says the strongest survive but Nietzsche says the weak survive because he/she does not disappear. The weak eat the strong so the weak is powerful. This is exactly our Lonely Boy, Dan Humphrey. He was the weak one, but he ate the strong ones. Then it proves he has the power. This is anti-Darwinist schema but how the weak one is dominant and survive? There are two segments in Nietzsche: Resentment and Ascetism. Resentment is the passive forces, Ascetism is the active forces. In Nietzsche, there are active and passive forces. Woodward says, ‘The radical nihilist is one ‘who judges of the world as it is that it ought not to be, and of the world, as it ought to be that it does not exist.’ (Nietzsche 1968, p.318). Radical nihilism contains two possibilities: the passive nihilism of accepting a meaningless world in despairing resignation, or the active nihilism of seeking to destroy what remains of the traditional categories of valuation. Active nihilism—the useful form of radical nihilism (as opposed to passive nihilism)—is the attempt to destroy all values, including those that were attached to the ‘true’ world. Nietzsche’s attacks on traditional religious, moral, and philosophical values such as God, metaphysics, truth, pity, compassion, humility, and the distinction between good and evil, can be seen as active nihilism in action.” (Woodward, 2002)

The resentful person is who does not act or can’t act. He is passive. Continuously delays acting. Cannot forget or forgive but can not act. This is the symbol of the modern person. They are hostile opposing the world. They build a fiction which separates them from what they can do. Their subject position: they have the illusion of the wolf cannot kill the lamb with the free spirit. Their moral position: the beaten one is the good one. Then the weak becomes good. Like Dan Humphrey. He is the one who has beaten all the time, but he has been beating everyone around him secretly. With the separation of Ascetism and Resentment took us the first form of nihilism. 1- Religious Nihilism: The original. The first man. The myth of creation. Imagining the first man, Adam. 2- Radical Nihilism: 12th man. 3- Passive Nihilism: The last man. Capitalism. 4- Anti-Nihilism: Perfect Nihilism. Overman.

Modernism has two types of Nihilism: Passive Nihilism (consumer culture) and Radical Nihilism (terror). In contemporary life, we are still living with these types of Nihilism: War against the terror. Out characters in Gossip Girl are passive nihilists. They are a part of consumer culture. What are the characteristics of passive nihilism? One-dimension society. Passive reality. Taking radical Nihilist as his first antagonist (false antagonism). Freedom is shopping. Police state. A world with values. The most violent form of nihilism. Only an overman is overcome Nihilism, who wants to get rid of himself.

Daniel Humphrey is also a good example of Nietzsche’s passive nihilist. He seems like the weakest chain, but he wins in the end. But what is the difference of him with Madame Bovary? What makes him a winner when she was a loser at the end of the game? The different centuries? Or the different phases of modernity?

Breed of Information Society: The Postmodern Nihilist Daniel Humphrey

From my point of view, the main difference with Madame Bovary and Dan Humphrey is they belong to different phases of modernity. Bovary is a depict from the beginning of the modernity, Humphrey is the breed of the information society or postmodernity. I think the glory of him basically based on the new modernity type. Yes, we are all Nihilist right now, but the age is so different from before. First, we are living in an information age, information society. And the power is not based on who you are or where do you come from anymore. In our age, you can rule the world with knowledge and technology. At least some theorists are thinking like that.

Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo developed a detailed account between Nihilism and post-modernism. When Dr. Ashley Woodward wrote about postmodern Nihilism he says, “Although there are competing theories of postmodernity, theorists agree that changing social conditions, typically thought to be occasioned by the development and proliferation of new information technologies, mean that the old theories of modernity no longer apply to societies in the most technologically developed nations at the present time. Postmodernity is generally thought to be characterized by the fragmentation of society into multiple, incommensurable forms of life.” (Woodward, 2002) He says, “According to Vattimo, modernity will have come to an end when we are no longer able to view history as unilinear. This, he believes, has in fact occurred, and constitutes the advent of postmodernity. For Vattimo, the popular postmodern theme of ‘the end of history’ means the end of unilinear history…. History has ended not only for the theoretical and practical reasons outlined above but because the mass media has made us aware of the untenability of a unilinear history since that history can only tell one story where there are many to be told. Media and information technology have made people increasingly aware that there are multiple histories, not just one. In summary, then, for Vattimo postmodernity is characterized by the ‘end of history’ in societies of mass communication, instituting an era of fragmentation, multiplicity, and pluralism.” (Woodward, 2002)

With the sudden effects of globalization and technology, nowadays we’re living in a different society. Some call it as the end of modernity and the beginning of the post-modernity. That can mean different thing: 1- A specific period of social life. 2- A form of cultural sensibility (Art) 3- An aesthetic style (media forms) 4- A mode of thought useful for analyzing that period. Post-modernity means, what came after modernity. Modernity is a set of social development which includes industrial developments in nation-states (pre-modern, feudal, community, kingdom) and changes in the mood of the production. At the end of the 90s, when everything happened so fast, some call it post-industrial society, information society or network society, late modernity, high modernity. They were trying to analyze (late 80s-early 90s) the impact of TV, internet and other technological developments on consumers. They were trying to understand if we’re moving to another society. Frederic Jameson was talking about cultural logic, Jean François Lyotard was talking about post-industrial society and Jean Baudrillard was talking about hyperreality and simulacra. Vattimo also one of those philosophers and he was talking about a new Nihilist model. He provides us a postmodern Nihilism. His main idea was the modernist Nihilism is not suitable for the post-modern world. He was assuming, when we overcome something, we have progressed over it and we find ourselves in a different path of history. For Vattimo, who assumes the history is already ended, postmodern society seems like a Nihilistic society.

Dan Humphrey is a part of a completely postmodern society and by the help of technology, he can write his own story. He is not as weak as the first modern people, the first Nihilists. After two centuries and in a highly technological world, people can find a way to living without a god; and living the destiny which they deserve as much as higher class people. I think Dan Humphrey is a modern version of Madame Bovary and the story shows us, this is the age of petite bourgeois. Like Castell says, information is more important than the machine. Having skills, being well educated is more important in information society which Daniel Humphrey is a part of it. That is the real reason behind his success to write his own destiny and conquer the Upper East Side.

REFERENCES

1. Heighnotes.com, 4 April 2016, Plato’s Theory Of Three Classes And Three Souls, https://heignotes.com/tag/platos-theory-of-three-classes-and-three-souls/
2. Rancière, J, 2008, Why Emma Bovary Had to Be Killed, pp. 233-248, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Winter 2008), The University of Chicago Press
3. Woodward, A, 2002, Nihilism And The Postmodern In Vattimo’s Nietzsche, http://www.minerva.mic.ul.ie/vol6/nihilism.html
4. Wright, C, 2012, Plato’s Just State, https://philosophynow.org/issues/90/Platos_Just_State

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and ‘Swann in Love’ by Marcel Proust provide examples of the way desire affects romantic relationships. Both novels depict their female characters as desired and having desires; however, the desire they possess and manifest in others is what contributes to desire’s death. In Madame Bovary, Emma’s lack of desire for her husband and uncontrollable desire for unattainable romantic scenarios stirs up her adulterous desire for Léon and Rodolphe. Emma’s fervid desires are briefly satisfied by her affairs, but when Rodolphe leaves Emma and her devotion to Léon dissipates, Emma loses hope in the attainability of her desires, which leads to her demise. By embarking on a quest to satisfy her desires, Emma begins her descent into desire’s eventual death, because she realises that her desires will never be assuaged. In ‘Swann in Love,’ desire manifests from aesthetic association and absence or lack. Within Swann’s isolated sphere, removed from his lover, is where the desire to possess Odette’s heart and the fear of losing possession grows into an intense infatuation, which is deepened by his filtering of Odette’s appearance through the lens of the artwork he admires. Using artwork to create idealised representations of Odette allows Swann’s desire to intensify through jealousy and absence, securing his devotion for her until the end of their relationship. Both texts discuss the effects of acting on a desire encouraged by lack, exposing the nature of their desire as unable to be satisfied.

Emma’s relationship with language is directly linked to the literary stereotypes she consumes in her readings and projects through her desires. Emma’s infatuation with Romantic literary constructs creates ill-informed and unattainable desires. She speaks of her love of the romantic arts and conjures up images of ‘little boats by moonlight, nightingales in the grove, gentlemen brave as lions, tender as lambs, virtuous as a dream, always well dressed…’ Emma’s dissatisfaction begins with her husband, Charles, who stirs up no desire in her. Charles is a simple, provincial doctor who becomes a failure in Emma’s eyes; he is a man that ‘[knows] nothing, [teaches] nothing, [desires] nothing.’ Charles is the opposite of what Emma craves, which augments her desire for fulfilment and persuades her to submit to her adulterous longings, which is important to examine chronologically in order to analyse the progression of her desire. When Emma meets Léon, they bond over their shared contempt for provincial life and enjoy regurgitating the same ‘[stereotypes] of Romantic passion’ they consume in their readings. They play the part of the idealised romantics; enveloped in passion and the unique human experience, they speak of ‘[evenings] by the fire with a book, with the wind beating on the panes, the lamp burning…’ Every desire they have and every idealised perception of love is informed by the constructed versions of desire within the Romantic novel.

After Léon leaves Yonville, Emma’s attention shifts to Rodolphe, who further controls Emma’s perception of love. Rodolphe understands how to use romantic language to his advantage in order to seduce women, and this is highlighted during the agricultural show. Rodolphe’s dialogue is juxtaposed with the orator’s speech. As Rodolphe is making promises of love to Emma, the orator is rewarding prizes for achievements in agricultural commerce. This juxtaposition highlights the absurdity of Rodolphe’s promises: Rodolphe says to Emma, ‘A hundred times I wanted to leave, and I followed you, I stayed,’ to which the orator seems to respond to with ‘manure!’ The parallel between commerce and loving devotions also highlights the similarity between the two aspects of society: both attempt to maintain ‘the circulation of similar values.’ In this sense, the romantic stereotypes that ‘Emma has consumed… [is] preparation for being “consumed” as an object of male sexual desire.’ By surrendering to the idea that a woman’s desires are completely dependent on her ability to be desired by a man, Emma is relinquishing her sense of self which contributes to desire’s death because Emma is relying on a false perception of male love that, in reality, will never be fulfilled. As soon as she gives into Rodolphe’s devotions, she assumes the role of the literary female lover, showering the male subject with letters, love-making and sentiments. Eventually, this routine becomes too mundane for Rodolphe and Emma’s words began to ‘[mean] very little to him. Emma [is] just like any other mistress; and the charm and novelty, falling down slowly like a dress, [exposes] only the eternal monotony of passion, always the same forms and the same language.’ Emma praises the power of romantic clichés, touting them as an important way to accurately express human emotions. She believes that romantic rhetoric encourages desirability and an emotional self-awareness; however, Emma is unable to realise that the very rhetoric she places such importance on is an invention of the bourgeois meant to limit the value of the female self. Emma is unable to rise above her desire to uphold romantic clichés, which is the reason for her eventual demise.

After Rodolphe leaves Emma because his desires are not in line with Emma’s longing to run away with him, Emma is thrown into a deep depression. Anxious to help his wife, Charles decides to take Emma to a production of Lucia di Lammermoor in Rouen. Emma is completely enraptured in the opera, and relates to Lucia, who is engaged in an arranged marriage. Emma reflects that ‘if only, in the freshness of her beauty, before the blight of marriage and the disillusion of adultery, she could have founded her life upon some great and solid heart… now she knew the pettiness of the passions that art exaggerates’ The result of Emma’s affair with Rodolphe is an acute awareness of the death of her ill-informed, fantasised desires which are inspired by art. Although Emma has come to a conclusion about the truths of her desire, she does not abandon her desires. Immediately following this scene, she sees Léon for the first time since their flirtations in Yonville, and Emma – already enveloped in remorseful desire – is thrown into the passion of her second affair. As their affair progresses, Emma becomes bored with Léon because he is unable to satisfy her unending desires. Emma tries to create in Léon her ideal lover, only to realise for the last time that this man does not exist in reality. Emma goes a step further and tries to recreate the romantic environments from her novels by filling her life with purchases from the local merchant, Lheureux, plunging herself further into debt. When she realises – despite her efforts to raise the money –that she cannot pay off her debts, Emma’s debt is the last disappointment before she decides to commit suicide. Desire in Madame Bovary springs from Emma’s lack of desire for her husband. The moment she tries to satisfy her desires, she is thrown into a world of emotional and financial ruin, and in realising that her desires have no possibility of being fulfilled, she takes one final action to remove herself from her cycle of disappointment.

In ‘Swann in Love,’ Swann’s desire develops through a construction of desire based on aesthetic associations, absence and jealousy. When he meets Odette, the demi-mondaine from the Verdurin clan, at the theatre, he originally says her looks give him ‘a sort of physical repulsion.’ The first event that begins Swann’s involvement with Odette is his conversation with Baron de Charlus, who ‘made her out to be harder of conquest than she actually was.’ This introduction intrigues Swann because he finds the idea of possessing her heart attractive enough to begin speaking with her romantically. As Marcel, the narrator, reflects, ‘in his younger days a man dreams of possessing the heart of the woman whom he loves; later, the feeling that he possesses a woman’s heart may be enough to make him fall in love with her.’ Here, Proust suggests not only that desire’s satisfaction contributes to its death, but that desire itself is dead. Desire ‘no longer evolves for itself,’ but is an outlet for male projection and self-interest; it is an invented emotion that is no longer alive in the female subject. With this outlook on desire, Odette becomes an ‘empty vessel into which the [male subject] projects his own desires and which he surrounds with an aesthetic aura of his own construction.’ Because women are an outlet for male expression of desire, Swann decides to spend some time with her, since she so willingly offers to spend time with him. Swann allows his desires to manifest through surrogate objects of art in which he attaches his desire for Odette to; however, it is not until his first visit to the Verdurin’s that Swann begins to attach aesthetic meaning to Odette. At the salon, Swann hears Vinteuil’s sonata for the second time, throwing him into a ‘world of inexpressible delights.’ Swann’s experience of the sonata seems sensual, ‘[leading] him first this way, then that… and then suddenly… in a fresh movement, more rapid, fragile, melancholy, incessant, sweet, it [bear] him off towards new vistas.’ Thus, Vinteuil’s sonata becomes a metonym of Swann’s love for Odette; because she was present in the room during Swann’s musical experience – which stirred up such passion and desire in him – he transfers this desire onto Odette in order to find a means to satisfy it. Throughout the novel, ‘the little phrase’ becomes a ritual for Swann; whenever it is played, it is a way explore the passion of the music and once more transfer it to Odette. One night, when Swann visits Odette’s flat, he notices a resemblance between Odette and ‘Zipporah, Jethro’s daughter.’ Again, Swann’s aesthetic admiration of Botticelli’s frescoes is transferred into an admiration for Odette because of their resemblance. Swann uses his aesthetic associations as a lens in which to view Odette through; it becomes a filter for his desire, highlighting Odette’s constructed desirability and hiding her qualities which originally repulsed Swann. Even after Swann is dismissed from the Verdurin clan and re-enters his aristocratic sphere, the Vinteuil sonata still reminds Swann of Odette, despite Swann’s awareness that he may never see Odette again. The last time he hears Vinteuil’s sonata is at Mme de Saint Euverte’s soirée and trying to avoid reopening the wound in his heart he says, ‘I mustn’t listen!’ However, with the song’s power to resurface his past desires, Swann is able to reflect on Odette’s absence from his life and eventually realise that his desire for her is better off dead.

While Swann uses aesthetic associations to cultivate his desire, absence and jealousy help to sustain it. Desire is based on absence; it is when Swann is removed from Odette that his interest in her grows into an irrepressible infatuation. The first moment Odette’s presence proves to have control over Swann is when he discovers her absence at the Verdurins. Having realised that she has already left, ‘Swann [feels] a sudden stab at the heart; he [trembles] at the thought of being deprived of a pleasure whose intensity he was able for the first time to gauge.’ Odette’s absence becomes ‘the “sole cause” of Swann’s affections, since it is only after having missed Odette that he appreciates “for the first time” the pleasure of her company,’ which highlights the very nature of Swann’s desire. His desire manifests when he is visited by ‘the insensate, agonising need to possess exclusively,’ a need that is amplified by the absence of the lover. One night, when Odette refuses to make love with Swann, he begins to suspect Odette’s infidelity. He decides to check on Odette, despite her contempt for jealous lovers, and knocks on the only illuminated window on her street, only to find that he visited the wrong window. One day, Odette asks Swann to mail some letters for her. He notices that one of the letters is addressed to Forcheville and, suspicious of an affair between Forcheville and Odette, Swann reads the letter, finding nothing suspicious about its content. Swann’s jealousy has him wavering between certainty and doubt; Odette’s absence contributes to Swann’s jealousy because he is afraid of losing possession of her heart, thus jealousy and absence keep Swann infatuated. This blind infatuation and surrender to desire is what eventually leads to the death of Swann’s desire for Odette. Eventually, he realises that she has not been faithful to him, and later reflects on the outrageous nature of his relationship with Odette, a woman was not his ‘type.’

Madame Bovary and ‘Swann in Love’ both present examples desires awakened by absence or lack and the inevitability of desire’s death when it is based on idealised representations. Both texts use art as an outlet for their perception of desire: Emma uses romantic novels to shape the way she understands the roles of a relationship and Swann views Odette through the beauty of art. Each relationship exposes the unreliability of art and language when it comes to representing a reality of love. The nature of Emma and Swann’s desire is centred around idealised and inaccessible principles. Emma is unable to satisfy her desires because they are based on unrealistic romantic stereotypes. The death of her desire is encouraged by her poisoned view of desire; Emma’s desire dies because she is unable to abandoned her longing to view passion through romantic clichés. Swann’s desire for Odette is filtered through Vinteuil’s sonata and Botticelli’s Zipporah, because the death of the female subject’s desire allows Swann to fully project his desires through Odette. Since Swann allows his idealised aesthetic associations to control his desire, he is unable to ascertain the inherent incompatibility of his relationship with Odette. Both texts end with the death of the subject’s desire: Emma’s affairs lead to a series of events that prompt Emma to commit suicide, whereas Swann eventually realises the absurdity of his attempt to satisfy his desires because Odette is unfaithful to him and does not love him. Madame Bovary and ‘Swann in Love’ explore the manifestation of desire through its lack and the death of desire through idealised perceptions.

Madame Bovary is a realistic novel criticizing romanticism written by Gustave Flaubert in 1856. This version was translated by Mildred Marmer. It is set in 1898 Normandy, France. It is about a provincial life of a middle-class woman named Emma. She wishes for a perfect life, but never achieves it. This novel was challenged in the court for being controversial, as this is anti-feminist. This portrays that an educated female is bad for society because she would read this novel and act like the protagonist. This novel would likely be protested by modern-day feminists.The novel that is about the rustic life of Emma Bovary. She is a bourgeois woman. She hopes for a better life, but her hopes do not become a reality.

The narrator shows Emma Bovary a dual character. She has a grotesque inner soul and a beautiful outer self. Her inner grotesqueness throughout the novel was mimicked by the blind beggar, who frequently reminds the reader of Emma’s soul.Emma’s inner soul is corrupted and grotesque. She has no feeling of family or loyalty. Her inner soul could be a foil to her outer beauty and a parallel to the blind beggar. This next quote is when Emma got the news that she was going to have a girl. She wanted a boy so he avenges Emma. Because in the French society women were held back and it is evident when she states that, “She hoped for a son; he would be strong and dark and she would call him Georges…Her will, like the veil of her hat that is tied by a ribbon, reacts to every wind.”(Madame Bovary, II,3)

The Narrator here writes in an immensely connotative style, due to the usage of the words like “strong and dark”. The narrator is appealing to the sense of sight of the reader, as expected boy of Emma is strong and is dark. He uses florid and metaphoric language, comparing her will to the veil of her hat, to establish the motif of male dominating the female and the overlining themes of the unpowered female. There is a hopeful tone created passage and then later an unsatisfied tone, due to the information provided above. Emma must have to have understood the French society, as she knows men stand higher than women in this society and that is the reason she is wishing for a boy. The reader will later read that Emma was sad because she wanted a son, and she got a daughter. This also connects to the grotesque self-centric aspect of Emma. This next passage is when Emma was trying to be religious. She had bought all the god related things. In this specific passage, she is angry, as her wishes have not been fulfilled, while she states that, “The pieces of furniture seemed even more fixed in their place…

Emma felt vaguely surprised that there could be such outward calm while there was so much turmoil within her.”(Madame Bovary, II,6) In the passage, the narrator uses highly connotative style, because he uses words like “so much” and “vaguely”. The narrator is appealing to the reader’s sense of sight, as he is talking about the still furniture. He uses extravagant and rhetorical language, as the narrator is talking about the furniture being still, but the furniture is always still. Due to this, a motif of the difference between Emma and the outside world is established, which then creates the tone of fantasy and disappointment.Emma has a god-like outer beauty. This is a foil the blind beggar and her inner soul. This next passage is when Emma has just reached her new home. She is very excited and happy. Her thoughts were positive, and that reflected on her clothes; when the narrator states that, “She would wear a dressing gown, entirely open…Her belt was a large-tasseled rope, and her tiny garnet-colored slippers had a cluster of wide ribbons that spilled all over the instep.”(Madame .,Bovary, I, 9) In the passage, The narrator writes in a highly connotative style, as he uses words like “extremely”. Due to diction, the reader’s sense of touch is provoked, as the reader can imagine a beautiful women in beautiful clothes. The narrator uses highly rhetorical and exaggerated language, by using words like “spilled all over the instep”, as nothing can be all over the instep. Due to this, the motif beauty is set throughout the passage; which then leads to create a positive and hopeful tone.

The reader understands that Emma is a woman of class; she cares about her outer appearance. This could stand as a direct foil to her grotesque soul as she only cares about her own feelings. The next passage is when Emma and Justin are together, and she asks him if she could enter the pharmacy to eat arsenic to commit suicide. Her appearance gives her the power to persuade Justin to let her in, and she eats arsenic and later dies, the reader can understand that when the narrator states that “She seemed extraordinarily beautiful to him, with a ghostly majesty. Without understanding what she wanted, he had a premonition of something terrible.”(Madame Bovary, III, 8) In the passage above, the narrator is majorly in connotative style, due to the usage of words like “extraordinary”, and that diction appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, as one can imagine a beautiful woman standing in front of a junior pharmacist and asking him to let her inside: so she could kill herself. The narrator then states that “premonition of something terrible”, this is foreshadowing the death of Emma, by using ornate language, and due to this, the motif beauty and the death of Emma are established. And, this creates a fascinating and a negative tone. The reader would interpret that Justin likes Emma and thinks that she is beautiful; even though he thinks something might go wrong, but he still gives in to Emma’s beauty and gives her the keys to the arsenic drawer, which later leads to Emma’s death.The image of the blind beggar is grotesque. This is a foil to her outer beauty and mimics her inner self. The image of the blind beggar worsens with Emma’s inner soul.

This next passage is the time when Emma was with Homais and Hivert. While they were returning back to their home. Emma only has five-franc and is in debt, and spends all of that money throwing at a beggar; while the narrator states that, “Emma, filled with disgust, threw him a five-franc piece over her shoulder. It represented her entire fortune. She thought it was a beautiful gesture to squander it like this. ”(Madame Bovary, III, 7) In the passage above, the narrator writes in a formal connotative style, due to the uses of the words like “entire fortune”. This appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, as the reader can imagine an image of Emma throwing money at the beggar, even though it was all of the money she owned. The narrator uses florid language and foreshadowing; as he is stating that her beautiful gestures are what will doom Emma, and her finishing all her money could also mean that her life was coming to an end, as when death approaches, people try to use the money they have saved.

The reader understands that the beggar is grotesque, the reader also gets to know Emma a little better, as she throws away the last of her money, by just giving it to a beggar, this shows the egotistical nature of Emma, who does not value money. This next passage is when Emma was dying; when the blind beggar starts to sing towards the end of the novel, and as his song ends, so does Emma’s life, and before dying Emma started laughing as the narrator states that “And Emma began to laugh, an atrocious, frantic, desperate laugh, thinking she saw the hideous face of the poor wretch loom out of the eternal darkness like a menace.” In the passage above, the narrator writes in a prominently connotative style; due to the usage of words like “hideous”. Due to diction, it is appealing to the reader’s sense of sight, as the reader can imagine a grotesque blind man singing to a beautiful person. His use of magnificent and rhetorical language, due to the usage of words like “atrocious” and “poor wretch loom”; helps establish the irony and the truth about the beggar. Due to this, a grotesque and a sad tone is created. This song plays an important role in the book as this song is a metaphor for the life of Emma Bovary. It is sung while Emma is on her deathbed and finished at her death. This shows the reader that this song was about her life. The beggar was a reflection of her life.

The beauty of Emma’s outer appearance and grotesqueness of her inner self and the blind beggar indicates to the reader that one’s inner soul is not always the same as the outer appearance. Therefore, one can not judge a person from only the outer appearance.