Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary research papers discuss the novel by Flaubert and its themes of escapism, romantic notions verses reality or any other of the wide range of themes within the novel. Have a research paper on Madame Bovary custom written to help you learn about this classic French work of literature.
Madame Bovary is perhaps the best-known novel by French author Gustave Flaubert. It was also Flaubert's first novel. Serialized between October and December 1856, the novel was attacked at the time for perceived obscenity. Many now consider it to be Flaubert's masterpiece, a deceptively simple work that hides numerous meanings and patterns.
The Plot of Madame Bovary
The plot of Madame Bovary concerns Emma, the wife of Charles Bovary. In order to escape the boredom of her life, Emma embarks on a series of adulterous affairs. Charles, a well-meaning doctor, is otherwise boring, and Emma soon finds her married life to be monotonous and routine. Even motherhood is unfulfilling, and Emma soon becomes infatuated with a young law student.
Emma meets and is seduced by a wealthy landowner, Rodolphe Boulanger, and the two begin a four-year affair. Emma becomes swept away by her romanticism, believing that she and Rodolphe will elope. However, on the eve of this elopement, Rodolphe breaks off the affair with a letter.
Emma briefly falls ill, and once recovered, begins to fall heavily into debt. Emma pleads with her former lovers to no avail, and decides to swallow arsenic, believing it will be a romantic death. However, she dies in agony. Charles withdraws from medical practice, and by chance comes across Emma's letters from her lovers. He dies and their daughter is sent to live with relatives.
Themes in Madame Bovary
There are several resounding themes in the novel Madame Bovary that a student can look to in order to write a research paper on the novel by Flaubert. Paper Masters suggests the following themes:
- Ideals versus reality in the life of a woman of the 19th Century
- Middle-class conventions and the myth of progress
- Romance as escapism in Madame Bovary