Madame Bovary

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Madame Bovary

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• Guy de Maupassant, “Boule de Suif” (1880)
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• Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
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• Alexandre Dumas fils, Camille [The Lady of the Camillas] (1852)
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• Sinclair Lewis, Main Street (1920)
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Major Character List

Madame Bovary

• Emma Bovary – a beautiful young woman caught up in her own imagination; lacks the ability to see and accept people and events as they really are; irresponsible and self-centered; a farmer’s daughter who craves a life of elegance and romance; wife of Charles
• Charles Bovary – a rather dull-witted country bumpkin; small-town doctor and husband of Emma; devoid of imagination and ambition
• Madame Bovary the Elder – Charles’ controlling mother
• Berthe – Charles and Emma’s daughter
• Homais – small-town pharmacist with delusions of scholarly greatness
• Leon Dupuis – a young law student who is infatuated with Emma
• Rodolphe Boulanger – the local Lothario; wealthy, sophisticated, jaded
• Lheureux – a manipulative money lender and merchant
• Blind Beggar – seeks alms from travelers

Discussion Questions

Madame Bovary

1. When you first picked up the book, what did you think it would be about? What did you expect from a French novel written in 1857?
2. In 1857 Flaubert was arrested and tried for obscenity for his novel Madame Bovary (he was acquitted). By present-day standards, is the novel obscene? Is it shocking?
3. It's often said that the first chapter of a book is the most important. Did the first chapter of Madame Bovary hook you?
4. The book begins with a "fish out of water" situation: Charles the bumpkin comes to the big city to attend school. How does this early experience shape Charles? Does he become any more sophisticated as an adult? Does he fit into Yonville? Does he fit into his profession? Is Emma, as a child, a misfit too? As an adult, does she find a place to fit in?
5. What does Emma want from life?
6. Consider the education that Charles receives. How does his schooling help to shape him into the man he becomes? Consider the same for Emma.
7. Consider the kinds of material that Emma reads. How do they shape her view of the world? Consider the kinds of material that Charles reads. How do they shape his view?
8. Considering the great amount of influence that books and journals have, especially on Emma and Humais, is Flaubert condemning other writers?
9. What are Charles' expectations for his first marriage? For his second marriage? Does either marriage live up to those expectations? What does he learn from the failure of those marriages?
10. What are Emma's expectations for marriage? Why does she marry Charles?
11. What role does Charles want to play as a husband and a father? What role does Emma want to play as a wife and a mother?
12. What part do the in-laws play in the Bovarys' marriage?
13. Would Emma be happier in 21st century America than in 19th century France?
14. In 1963 Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, a close look at the frustration and disappointment in the loss of their dreams that many American middle-class housewives were feeling. If you're familiar with Friedan's book, would you say that Emma is a victim of the feminine mystique? Is she a victim of anything? Would you consider Madame Bovary to be a feminist novel?
15. What role does religion play in the lives of Yonville's citizens? Are Charles and Emma religious?
16. The novel takes a microscopic look at a segment of society that, in the early 1800's, was new: the middle class. What does Flaubert seem to be saying about merchants and professionals?
17. Flaubert shows us only glimpses of the upper class and the lower class. Why?
18. Why did Flaubert include the blind man's story? Why did he include Hippolyte's story?
19. Humais emerges victorious in the end. What point is Flaubert making with this?
20. Why does Emma commit suicide?
21. Upon whom did Emma have a lasting impact?
22. What role did fate play in her life?
23. Is Emma a sympathetic character? Is Charles a sympathetic character?
24. Flaubert has been often quoted as saying, "Madame Bovary, c'est moi," but how well does Flaubert understand Emma?