Page 312: "Charles felt himself weakening at his constant succession of prayers and tapers beneath the cloying smell of wax and cassocks."
2. In the final two chapters of Madame Bovary everything wraps up. Charles plans an extremely lavish funeral for his late wife, Emma. While Charles is deeply hurt and angry about the death of his wife, Homais and the priest "keep him company" but really just argue in his presence. Everyone arrives for the funeral and final preparations are made. After the funeral, Emma's collectors come back, this time going to Charles. He pays as best he can but is bewildered until he comes across all of Emma's love letters from her affairs. He is in shock and becomes extremely depressed. One day he runs into Rodolphe and they have a drink together, at which point Charles tells Rodolphe that he doesn't blame him. Charles soon dies and Berthe is sent to live with first Madame Bovary senior, and after her death a poor aunt.
3. The most striking thing about this section, in my opinion, was when Justin visited Emma's grave to mourn in private. Although it is a short segment, it shows that Justin may have truly loved Emma, and if he did he was probably the only one who did. This occurs on pages 314-315 and goes as follows:
There was someone else who was not asleep at this hour. Between the firs, a kneeling boy was crying on her grave. His chest was shaking with sobs beneath the burden of great sorrow that was more tender than the moon and more unfathomable than the night. Suddenly the gate creaked. It was Lestiboudois, who had come to look for his spade, which he had forgotten earlier. He recognized Justin climbing over the wall and then knew who the culprit was who had been stealing his potatoes.
This paragraph, although seemingly insignificant in the scheme of things, absolutely broke my heart. Not only was Justin silently there supporting Emma through sickness and health, he is there after her death. I believe that he had the most real emotions out of all of the characters in the book. He loved Emma and it wasn't superficial; he was content to wait in the background forever. Add to this the fact that he is inadvertently responsible for Emma finding the arsenic and I can't even begin to imagine how he must have been feeling. Justin is my favorite character in this story, although he is not extremely developed. I wish there was more information on him, but then again, that might ruin him.
4. Upon finishing the novel I have a few questions remaining. First of all, what did Charles die of? A broken heart? Old age? Weariness? The book is extremely realistic throughout but when Charles dies it seems unclear. Seeing as he died the day after his meeting with Rodolphe, one might assume he died in a classical/romantic way, but that doesn't fit with Flaubert's writing.
A second question I have is regarding Homais. Although he began the story as a pompous man, he seemed to grow more arrogant as the tale progressed. Did Flaubert mean to demonstrate something with him? In the end he joins the Legion of Honor. Is Flaubert making a statement of some sort?
A final thinking point for Madame Bovary is about Berthe. At the end of the novel it says that Berthe moves in with her grandmother, Madame Bovary senior, and proceeding her death moves in with a poor aunt and has to go to work. Is this supposed to be circular? Flaubert could be trying to make a point about how Berthe's mother struggled her whole life with class issues and trying to climb the social ladder, yet her child ended up at the bottom. Is there deeper meaning? Or was Flaubert just providing closure?
No comments:
Post a Comment