Bourgeois Airs and Bourgeois Mediocrityįlaubert presents a tale of a middle-class bourgeois woman who is unsatisfied with her life and struggles to find something greater. Emma comes to believe that her only source of power is her sexuality, but even that cannot prevent her destruction-a boy in love with her agrees to give her access to arsenic. Most often, when she appeals to men, she is denied assistance-even when attempting to prostitute herself for the funds she requires to pay her debts. When Emma is in her most desperate state at the end of the novel, immediately before committing suicide, she again turns to men for assistance. Clearly, in her mind this happiness can only be reached with a man by her side.
Since childhood, Emma has dreamt of the perfect romance, the perfect love that would give her a life of ultimate happiness. Emma is largely at fault for the tragedy that befalls her, growing increasingly desperate in her attempts to make something more of herself. At home with Charles, Emma spends much of her time looking out the window, as though she lives her life merely as a spectator. Emma keeps trying to develop a more glamorous life, but feels bogged down first by her husband and then by lovers who continue to fail her. In some ways, the entire novel depicts the struggle to assert freedom and power, though Emma is far from worthy of emulation in her methods. Throughout Madame Bovary, Flaubert continually reminds the reader that women in his time tend to define themselves and be defined primarily through the men in their lives, with limited power to live independently and pursue their own interests. Buy Study Guide A Woman's Fruitless Quest for Freedom and Power
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