Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is a novel about a woman who is never satisfied. She is always searching for something new, and when she finds that, she quickly leaves it to search for yet one more thing. Throughout the novel there is a constant reference to windows. This motif is used by Flaubert to help give insights into the character of Emma. By showing her in the context of windows, Flaubert paints a picture of a woman who is constantly searching for excitement and a woman who is trapped inside her own life. From the opening of the book, the reader realizes that windows will be a major part of the novel.
Windows make up the crucial centers around which the plot is organized (Rousset 161).
Windows are used in two main ways in the novel: as description tools that convey theme, and as a way to convey theme through the character of Emma. Windows become powerful description devices because they convey Emma Bovarys attitude towards life (and the authors theme) simply with description. Because Emma does not like her married life, the description of her home is not very flattering. In her home the pallid light that filtered through the window faded softly away with little shadowy undulations (Flaubert 16).
Here, the reader perceives a decidedly negative picture of the house simply from the light coming through the window.
The Essay on The Theme Of William Carlos Williams The Use Of Force
The theme of William Carlos Williams The Use of Force William Carlos Williams The Use of Force is a short story that depicts the variety of feelings of a doctor who visits a home call. The main theme of the story is the use of force in the interpersonal relations of people. But the force is not something that is used meaninglessly and brutally, it is rather something by the means of which one ...
Obviously Emma has many negative feelings about her life in that house. However when she is with Rodolphe, through the yellow curtains that draped the windows a soft old-gold light [comes] stealing (Flaubert 18).
This description is in stark contrast to the earlier one. Emma obviously believes that being with someone new is a wonderful thing. Flaubert thinks this is foolish however, and the continual contrast between what the reader sees as reality and what Emma sees as her supposed reality creates a theme that Emma is not right in believing that it is OK to live life without realizing that she cannot live life the way she wants to. One of the very first references to windows in direct relation to a character comes when Charles [opens] his window and [sits] gazing out with his head on his hand (Flaubert 1).
This sets up the general function of the window in the novel. Flaubert is using images of a character sitting in front of a window and gazing out at life. This same image will be used many more times in the novel. After setting up this motif, Flaubert then begins to use it in context with Emma. Emmas characteristic pose is at a window, and this image suggests some manner of imprisonment (Brombert 166).
The first reference to Emma with a window is her standing by the window looking out into the garden at the bean-sticks that had been blown down by the wind (Flaubert 2).
Emma is standing in front of a window looking to the outside world. This will become a familiar pose for Emma. When Emma moves to Yonville, she is happy for a time, but she quickly resumes her routine of sitting in front of the window. Emma would pull her easy-chair close up to the window so that she could watch the villagers as they went by on the pavement (Flaubert 14).
To Emma, looking through a window is a way to free herself from the bonds she has in married life. She is longing for liberation, and by letting her imagination run wild when looking through the window she can accomplish this (Brombert 164).
This constant dreaming and longing for something more leads to the authors theme of ridiculing those who cannot resolve the conflict between their dreams and their realities. By having Emma constantly unhappy and constantly focused on imaginary hopes and far-off places, Flaubert is ridiculing her and stating that she is most foolish for not having the sense to be even remotely realistic about her life. In Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, Emma Bovary is portrayed as a foolish woman. By contrasting her feelings about life and displaying a consistent pattern of her behavior, Flaubert allows the motif of Windows to become prevalent in the novel. Through this use of windows, the reader gets a complete picture of a woman who is never satisfied with life, and who is constantly searching for something that will never come to her. Flaubert believes this is foolish because a key to life is having a balance between reality and dreams, and Emma can never obtain this.
The Essay on The Life Of Madame Curie
The Life of Madame Curie Madame Curie was born Maria Sklodowska on November 7,1867, in Warsaw Poland. Maria was the fifth and youngest child of Bronsilawa Boguska, a pianist, singer, and teacher, and Wladyslaw Sklodowski, a professor of mathematics and physics. Maria's accomplishments began at a young age; by the time she was sixteen she had completed secondary school and taken work as a teacher. ...
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The Novels of Flaubert. Princeton University Press 1996. Reprinted in NCLC Vol. 10. Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Translated by Lowell Bair. Bantam. New York, New York.
1989. Rousset, Jean. Madame Bovary: Flauberts Anti-Novel. W.W. Norton. 1965. Reprinted in NCLC Vol.
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