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Madame Bovary Relationship

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In Gustav Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary, Emily and Charles’ relationship is what the reader follows throughout the entire story. The dynamic of their relationship and their individual characteristics don’t mesh well together, and end in their eventual downfall as a couple and as characters individually. Emma and Charles each show themes of the novel through their characteristics and points of view in their relationship. Emma Bovary has unrealistic ideas about love and wants to have a luxurious life, while in contrast, Charles Bovary is very content and satisfied with having a simple life without the need for expensive items and frivolous spending. These factors and characteristics of Emma and Charles contribute to the themes shown in the …show more content…

The pharmacist Homais advocates Emma to convince Charles to perform surgery that he isn’t qualified to perform and other things that he can use to his benefit as it seems. Emma has an affair with two different men, Léon and Rodolph, throughout the novel. At one point she was even going to run away with Rodolph, but she soon realized that he was just using her for sexual relations when he pulls out of their plan to run away together. Her and Léon also have an affair and she thinks they are in love too, but they eventually get bored with each other and end the relationship. Lheurex is a salesman that effects Emma for the worse in the long run because he is always convincing her to buy things that her and Charles don’t have the money for, but he gives her extensions and lets her wait to pay for things. Emma and Charles have a kid, but she doesn’t even want to be around her kid or take care of her. At one point in the novel Emma gets sick and Charles has to take loans out at high interest from Lheurex to pay for her hospital bills. Emma tries as hard as she can to find ways to raise money to pay for the debt that they have, but she can’t prevail. Ultimately Emma kills herself with arsenic because she doesn’t know what to do and just gives up. Charles dies as well at the end of the novel, giving it a tragic ending. Flaubert used Charles’ character to portray the theme of obliviousness in the novel through his actions in his marriage with Emma. Charles has

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