Madame Bovary: It's All in Your Head

First Impressions: The main character, Emma Bovary, reminds me of the a lot of teen girls that go to my high school. They're so focused on obtaining that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes with infatuation, they forget that real love (past the honeymoon phase) doesn't feel like that at all.

Short Synopsis (I'm going to try and make these as short as possible from now on): Emma marries a man names Charles Bovary, but gets tried of him due to lack of sophistication. This results in her having two love affairs. Later, she begins splurging so much that she and Charles have no way of repaying the debt she (and partially Charles) caused. The only way to solve her problems is to kill herself, which she accomplishes by consuming arsenic.

Emma's Fantasy: Emma Bovary grew up reading romantic books with no one to tell her that those books didn't accurately describe how real love works. As a result, she became obsessed with finding "love," which wasn't really love at all. Charles is clumsy and undignified. Emma becomes repulsed by him. Leon leaves her because he doesn't think he can have a physical relationship with Emma (until later when he comes back and it starts all over again) and Rodolphe ends up being a ladies man who has had several mistresses and leaves her when she becomes boring. Charles is a genuinely good husband for her. He views her as flawless and would do anything to make sure she gets what she wants. But Emma doesn't want a husband. She wants a fling. At one point the book mentions how Leon  was more of a mistress to her than vise versa. I agree, because she was the seducer and manipulator in the relationship. Not so much with Rodolphe, but he had had practice with plenty of women.

Modern Day Emmas: The reason I chose to read this book was because Emma reminds me of a lot of teen girls today. You know that whole theory that Nice Guys get stuck in the "friend zone" while the girls go and date jerks? I am now calling those girls "EBs" or "Emma Bovarys". Those girls don't want a relationship, they want the warm and fuzzy feeling. The Bad Boys are dangerous and cool.They are sometimes more attractive than Nice Guys. An EB would want to go on motorcycle rides and sneak out and feel dangerous. A non-EB would look for a boy that her parents would like (hopefully) and would treat her with respect. She would want a boy that could be a potential husband. Of course, EBs are confused as to why there are no nice guys out there. Emma was the same way. She was devastated when Rodolphe left her. In her mind, no one could beat him. She had forgotten about Leon completely. Then when he came back, she told him she was going to kill her self if she didn't get to see him again. Usually I am angered by EBs. But Madame Bovary was hilarious because Emma's thinking was exaggerated just enough to make it a little ridiculous, but still realistic.

Complete Failure: She failed, and failed hard. Everything she did went wrong because she was so stuck in her fantasy. Emma's marriage with Charles went horribly in her mind (Charles was too oblivious to know about either love affair until after she died so he thought their marriage was fine). Both love affairs ended. Being a mother wasn't all it was cracked  up to be so she left her daughter with a wet nurse almost all the time and rarely mentioned her at all. She used splurging to make herself feel better and to buy gifts for Rodolphe, but that just launched her into debt. And finally, Emma tried to die with dignity by eating arsenic. She ended up having convulsions and vomiting blood, so even that didn't go the way she wanted to. But it was all her fault. She completely failed at life.

Humor: This book is really funny. My favorite quote is "Isn't it a man's job to know everything?" Anything that emphasizes Emma's ridiculousness made me laugh. And also the part about Leon basically stalking Emma and no one seems to care. And anything about how Charles is repulsive to Emma. She is even repulsed by his teeth at one point! But then when there's the possibility of Charles doing a breakthrough surgery that could make them a lot of money, she changes her mind and says he isn't as bad as she thought he was. Then the surgery doesn't work and she goes back to hating him. I thought I'd be so irritated with Emma's behavior, but I couldn't stop cracking up!

Final Thoughts: This book was heavily criticized for the realistic aspect when it was first published. It's interesting how the most controversial books are usually the best ones to read. I don't think Catcher in the Rye would be nearly as famous if it wasn't one of the most banned books in schools. If this is the case, I think there should be more controversy in books. Maybe then kids would read more.