Madame Bovary- the Depressed Fantasist

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Madame Bovary is a highly acclaimed novel by one of the most renowned French novelist, Gustave Flaubert. The novel is his first published piece of work (1856) and it is considered to be a masterpiece by many critics. Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821 in Rouen, a port city in northwestern France. His father was chief surgeon and his mother was also the daughter of a doctor. Gustave had an older brother and a younger sister. (“Gustave Flaubert”, n.d.) Flaubert was a contemporary of the famous French poet, essayist and art critic Charles Baudelaire. He occupied a central position in nineteenth century literature. He was esteemed for his literary talent and as a result, he is today critically recognized as one the greatest novelists of his century. Additionally, Flaubert’s paradoxical and cynical attitude on humanity as a whole makes him a great moralist. His works were strongly influenced by the work of the famous French writer Honoré de Balzac. Madame Bovary is clearly inspired by Balzac’s “La Femme de trente ans” - The Thirty year old woman. (Gusatve Flubert Biography, n.d.) The storyline of Madame Bovary is plain; it does not seem to be intense from the surface. Charles Bovary, who is a second class country doctor, falls in love with Emma, the daughter of one of his patients and gets married to her. Since young, Emma thinks that marriage and love are the remedies of her predicament. However, after getting married to Charles, she realizes that the marriage failed to fulfill her expectations. After she goes to an extravagant ball, she begins to dream constantly of a more stylish life. Depression overwhelms her when she evaluates her fantasies to the everyday village life, and eventually her apathy makes her ill. When Emma becomes pregnant, Charles moves to a different town. In Yonville, she meets Leon, a law clerk who is quite shallow like her

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