Fatal Ending in Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary

The tragedy of Emma Bovary:

In Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert portrays the idea that Emma Bovary’s final demise was entirely inevitable and unavoidable from the initiation of her marriage with Charles. With the exploration of Emma’s intense desires to experience life in ways that her husband cannot fulfill in their present moment, Flaubert illustrates his inquiry into how their story was designed to end in tragedy and had no hope for success. Authors often use motifs to express the overarching ideas that they wish to convey in their texts by using them to create patterns of recognition within their readers. Even in its English translation from french, which most likely diminishes the understanding of his original uses of literary devices, Flaubert’s use of foreshadowing through various motifs and symbols is apparent throughout the work. Readers are consciously and subconsciously directed into certain mindsets to further intensify their expectations of the plot. Because one of the novel’s most prominent aspects is the reckless and careless decisions made by Emma Bovary to achieve her glorified view of life, Flaubert subtly introduced motifs to suggest her inevitable tragic ending. The repeated portrayal of eating habits, dried flowers, and windows are some of the motifs used by Flaubert to demonstrate the unavoidable disappointment of Emma due to unrealistic expectations in her marriage.

One key motif used by Flaubert to foreshadow the couple’s inevitable failure is their interactions with windows. Emma is often portrayed as looking out of windows which coincides with her longingness for a different life, and early uses of the motif suggest that this behavior will hold her apart from Charles. These early uses begin as Charles travels to Emma’s village Tôtes where she has lived a simple farm life while reading about exciting heroines and romantic stories. Charles on the other hand has very few ambitions and would be the happiest with an undemanding and plain lifestyle. This difference in expectations would escalate throughout the novel until their final failure and Flaubert presents strain in their relationship even before they are married with the window motif. Charles would be anxious to see her because she was very attractive to him but in the quote, “He went into the kitchen but did not at once catch sight of Emma; the outside shutters were closed. Through the chinks of the wood the sun sent across the flooring long fine rays that were broken at the corners of the furniture and trembled along with the ceiling. .... Between the window and the hearth Emma was sewing”, Flaubert directs the exploration of the idea that even in their relationship’s most light-hearted state, they are still troubled in their separation. Charles is not able to see Emma due to the window in between them. This separation is seemingly literal and rather insignificant as it is a result of the “closed shutter'' between them and Emma’s seating “Between the window and the hearth”, but later uses of the motif which relates windows to Emma’s high expectations and dissatisfaction in life, present the idea that it was never possible for the two to really be connected in a healthy relationship. If such an early encounter was interrupted by “shutters'' and “windows” which made it impossible for Charles to see her, this foreshadowed the discontentment that the couple would face throughout the novel.

The novel also contains a motif of flowers which coincides with the strength of relationships throughout the text and is expressed with the use of their lifecycle from fresh to dried stages. Flaubert’s depiction of flowers in regards to the Bovarys’ marriage consists of an immediate shift in tone after the two get married which suggests the first indication of their inevitable demise. The repeated use of flowers when illustrating Emma’s thoughts regarding her relationships allows for the creation of a motif that is found throughout the novel. A notable use of this motif is the first time that Flaubert introduces the “dried flower” as shown in the quote, “It was a bride’s bouquet; it was the other one’s. She looked at it. Charles noticed it; he took it and carried it up to the attic, while Emma seated in an arm-chair (they were putting her things down around her) thought of her bridal flowers packed up in a bandbox, and wondered, dreaming, what would be done with them if she were to die.”(5) This quote takes place in a chapter directly after the couple gets married and as they settle into their new lifestyle. The repetition of the word “it” as the newlyweds interact with this dried bouquet connotes that they do not want to acknowledge the subject as it is a difficult subject of a failed marriage which they do not want to welcome into their home. Describing Charle’s passed wife as “the other one” also contains this dismissive connotation which reinforces the couple’s carefulness as if their relationship was delicate. Up until this point, flowers had been discussed by Emma only to indicate that they meant a great deal to her in terms of her family. She even recalled to Charles in one of their first-ever encounters that she had consistently brought flowers to her mother’s grave as seen in the quote, “She spoke to him, too, of her mother, of the country, and even showed him the bed in the garden where, on the first Friday of every month, she gathered flowers to put on her mother’s tomb.”(3) Because Emma is portrayed as holding flowers to signify the closeness of her relationship with other family members, Flaubert’s introduction of the dried flowers at the very beginning of her and Charles’ marriage suggests that it is reflective of theirs as well. As the reader understands flowers to be indicative of Emma’s relationship with others, their focus on the dead flowers from Charles’ previous marriage, suggests another failure in their new one. As Flaubert depicts flowers at varying stages of life, he introduces a motif reflecting the Bovary’s strained marriage which foreshadows a potential downfall.

Throughout the novel, the motif of behavior while eating reveals various personal character traits to the reader. Emma is frequently portrayed as eating sensually and longingly as seen in the quote, “As it was almost empty she bent back to drink, her head thrown back, her lips pouting, her neck on the strain. She laughed at getting none of it, while with the tip of her tongue passing between her small teeth she licked drop by drop the bottom of her glass.”(3) This moment occurs in one of her first interactions with Charles and is used by Flaubert as a technique of foreshadowing. Emma’s behavior while eating is described as eager or hungry which coincides with her personal trait of yearning for an unachievable lifestyle. Word choices like “licked” and “strain”, Emma is portrayed as holding a lustful manner which would not be accepted by more refined people, indicating that she is and will always be separated from this kind of more distinguished life. By introducing Emma before revealing any of her inner thoughts yet in this way, Flaubert illustrates her strong desires regarding lifestyle which ultimately led to the failure of her relationship with Charles. Because this foreshadowed her unhappiness in life and eventual suicide, it is suggested that this was not only predictable but unavoidable. Flaubert also used Charle’s eating habits to foreshadow their inevitable demise. Charles is a simple and plain man who relates absolutely not at all with his wife’s discontentment in life. His eating habits are reflective of this in the quote “he finished the remainder of the boiled beef and onions, picked pieces off the cheese, munched an apple, emptied his water-bottle, and then went to bed, and lay on his back and snored.” (7) where Flaubert uses enumeration to downplay the importance of Charle’s actions. Because each action is presented in list form, the reader gains a sense of Charles’ unembellished lifestyle in which he finds satisfaction in his basic choices. The contrast that this holds against Emma’s behavior again shows the reader that the two have little chance for a successful relationship if they both hold very different perspectives regarding achieving happiness. With the use of eating habits as a motif, Flaubert foreshadows the inevitability of the Bovarys’ marriage’s failure.

Flaubert’s use of motifs such as eating, windows, and flowers to enhance the prediction of Bovarys’ demise not only foreshadowed its occurrence but explored the concept that it was unavoidable and fatal in its initiation. The novel presents the idea that their marriage and happiness failed due to the couple’s inability to see life from the same perspective, so with early uses of motifs, Flaubert allows the reader to look forward in their marriage and see a tragic ending bound to happen. The repeated portrayal of eating habits, dried flowers, and windows are some tools used by Flaubert to demonstrate the unavoidable disappointment of Emma due to her unrealistic expectations and Charles’s naive outlook on their marriage.