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Flaubert’s Madame Bovary

Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Issues & Contexts. Main issues. Anti-Romantic novel with underlying Romantic impulses simultaneous criticism and admiration of Emma Bovary; Emma as base and materialistic but also unfulfilled dreamer, failed Romantic hero, a sort of female Don Quixote

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Flaubert’s Madame Bovary

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  1. Flaubert’s Madame Bovary Issues & Contexts

  2. Main issues • Anti-Romantic novel with underlying Romantic impulses • simultaneous criticism and admiration of Emma Bovary; Emma as base and materialistic but also unfulfilled dreamer, failed Romantic hero, a sort of female Don Quixote • Flaubert was tried on charges of immorality stemming from the publication of the novel; successfully defended himself arguing that the novel's ending upholds morality and illustrates the consequences of sin • Critical portrayal of bourgeois life as driven by petty self-interest and hypocrisy

  3. More Issues Novel Illustrates: • Belief in possibility of genuine professionalism, craftsmanship, and scientific knowledge • Redeeming power of art • victory of art over reality, a passionate search for Beauty, even though it is an illusion • Narrative technique blends authorial and characters' perspectives. • "The author, in his work, must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere" (Flaubert)

  4. Main Historical Contexts • Flaubert's critical attitude toward the bourgeoisie related to the failure of the popular revolutions in France and the growing power, selfishness, and arrogance of the middle classes. • French Revolution: popular uprising against the monarchy of Louis XVI; ideals of liberty, equality, and brotherhood; storming of the Bastille (July 14); "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen" (August 27) • Popular and egalitarian character of 1789 French Revolution betrayed in Napoleon Bonaparte's Consulate (1799-1804) and his later crowning as Emperor of France (1804-1815) • Napoleon as characteristic of the bourgeois adoption of aristocratic values and attitudes; return to monarchic, dictatorial model; denial of the values of freedom and equality embodied in the Revolution of 1789

  5. More Historical Contexts • Repeated failures of revolutionary movements in France (1830-1848) • The July Revolution in France, students and workers who wanted a republic against monarchists. • Constitutional monarchy, Louis-Philippe, king of France (1830-1848); Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's repetition of his uncle's historical trajectory and favoring of the bourgeoisie at the expense of the popular classes • French middle classes represented in Madame Bovary by the variety of professionals (doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, notaries, bankers, etc.) and townspeople; middle and professional classes marked by seeming "progressiveness" masking underlying selfishness and hypocritical, self-serving purposes

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