1 Madame Bovary, Ch 1-5

1. Poultices: a soft usually heated and sometimes medicated mass spread on cloth and applied to sores or other lesions. -Merriam-Webster Online

Page 36: "The warm smell of poultices blended in his head with the fresh odor of dew; he heard the iron rings tinkling on the curtain rods of the ward beds and saw his wife sleeping."


2. We are first introduced to Charles Bovary as an unremarkable schoolboy, who, while pleasant, is not particularly intelligent or diligent. He is teased mercilessly in school and then fails medical school, only to get his degree with the help of his mother. His mother then proceeds to secure a marriage between Charles and Heloise Dubac, an ill-tempered widow. Charles's life changes dramatically when he is called to help Rouault, a wealthy farmer who has broken his leg. Charles falls in love with Emma, Rouault's daughter, but because Heloise realizes that Charles has feelings for Emma she forbids him to see her. After his first wife's untimely death, however, Charles is free to do as he likes. He goes on to propose to Emma and they are married shortly after his mourning period is over.


3. I feel that a major theme in this section of Madame Bovary is love. There are two main types of love demonstrated in the first five chapters, familiar love and romantic love. Lust is also shown. The first mention of love appears on page 29, when Charles's mother is reported to have "fallen in love" with his father's good looks, leading to their marriage. However, I believe in this situation a point is being made about lust versus love. Monsieur and Madame Bovary seniors were certainly not in love during Charles's childhood. On page 30 it is said that, "His wife loved him madly at first; she showed her love with a thousand gestures of servility, which estranged him even further from her." They were not married on account of incredible romantic chemistry; rather, they were married because of physical attraction and impressive dowries. The second time love is shown is when the relationship between Charles and his mother is explained. His mother is said to have spoiled Charles tremendously and is extremely over-protective in multiple situations, namely when Charles fails medical school and in arranging his marriage, also demonstrating her love for her child. The relationship between Charles and his first wife, Heloise, is an example of a different sort of feelings. While Heloise loves her husband, she constantly nags him and does not demonstrate her love well at all. Charles has no love for his wife. Instead, he feels almost bitter toward her. When he meets Emma, however, he seems to experience true romantic love for the first time. On page 38, the night he meets Emma, Charles noticed that, "Her real beauty was in her eyes; although they were brown, they seemed black because of the lashes, and she would look at you frankly, with bold candor." While this is not a statement of love it is certainly one of lust, and Charles's feelings only grow from there. He begins to visit the Rouault farm unnecessarily just to see Emma. When Heloise forbids him from visiting anymore, he "concluded that his being forbidden to see her gave him the right to love her," (page 41). After Heloise dies Charles goes through a mourning period, but not with nearly the intensity that would have occurred had he loved her. He soon moves on entirely and begins spending all of his time around Emma, who seems to love him back. All goes well and it seems that Emma and Charles truly have mutual love until after their wedding, when Emma's discontent is foreshadowed. On page 55 it is made clear that Emma was not in love with Charles, especially in the last paragraph which says that, "...the happiness that should have resulted from this love had not come; she must have deceived herself, she thought." This upset me greatly because the paragraph went on to hint that Emma will be unfaithful to Charles, who has nothing but adoration for his new bride. I wanted Emma and Charles to be happy together and be the first example of lasting love in the story, but I don't think that's going to happen anymore.


4. My first question is regarding Emma. Will she actually stray from Charles? It pains me to see her question her love for him. I thought they were adorable and hoped that they would be a demonstration of love, since much of the first five chapters seems to imply that romantic love is not lasting.

Another question I have is in reference to Charles and Heloise. How old was Charles when he married his first wife? It says in the reading that she is a widow of forty-five, but Charles has just graduated medical school, so I doubt he is even nearly her age. Was it common for men to marry women so greatly their senior?

A final question I have has to do with the description of the food at the wedding. There was a lot of detail put into the food and I was wondering about the significance of it. I would guess that it has to do with showing the extravagence of the affair, but I'm not entirely grasping why such importance was placed on the feast.