Book: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Reality Sets In: The Rise and Fall of Emma Bovary A central

character in a literary work generally has a goal that they plan on achieving. At times, the character will succeed at their desired feat or they will not. The journey to the goal can prove to be one that leads to the growth of the character or it can be one that leads them to ruin. This particular instance occurs for the character Emma Bovary. In the book Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, it is revealed that Emma has numerous desires that she wants to accomplish. In the work, Flaubert reveals the very desires of Emma. Flaubert illustrates just what Emma strives for, gets and misses on her road to achieving her goals, for which she believes will bring her happiness. Instead though, she leads herself to her own demise. Emmas goals are revealed early on in the piece. She strives to accomplish these ambitions so that she could reach a point of happiness in her life. Emma believes that when she does achieve her desires, she will be living the life that she has only dreamed of having. It is revealed that Emma strives for a life full of romance; one that includes bliss, passion and intoxication (Flaubert 30). Due to the romance novels that she read in her youth, she finally made it to a point in her life where the romance in the books that she read was not enough. Emma had an intense desire to actually live the life that her characters did. She wanted a gentleman that had the ability to fill her life with that bliss, passion and intoxication that she only dreamt about. Emma felt that this is what she needed in order for her life to actually be worthwhile. This is shown when Emma described her days as a young girl in the convent, listening to the sermons of the priest: The metaphors of betrothed, spouse, heavenly lover, and marriage everlasting that recur in sermons stirred unexpectedly sweet sensations in the depths of her soul (Flaubert 31). Even as a young girl, her visions of romance were evident. As a child in

the convent, she had that craving for the storybook romance that she continued to strive for into adulthood. In addition, later in the novel, it is described in more detail just what Emma strives for. She has a craving for not only romance, but also love. This particular element is revealed when Emma describes what she felt love should be: Love, she believed, must come suddenly, with great thunderclaps and bolts of lightning, -a hurricane from heaven that drops down on your life, overturns it, tears away your will like a leaf, and carries your whole heart off with it into the abyss (Flaubert 87). Here, Emma reveals the very high hopes that she had for love. She set a certain standard for any men that she would encounter in her life. The man that she chose would have to make her feel this and if he succeeded in doing so, she would immediately love him for being able to accomplish this particular feat. The man that Emma made her beloved would have to be one that was just as special as the men in her romance novels. Emmas journey to the achievement of her goals eventually began to go downhill near throughout the novel. When it comes to what Emma gets, the road is more reminiscent of a rollercoaster. There are instances in the novel where she does accomplish getting what she wants, but these instances last for a while and then reach their end. Emmas main desire would have to be her intentions for her wedding. Emma reveals just what kind of wedding she wants with Charles, but it does not end up being how she wanted it to be: Emma, however, would have liked to be married at midnight, by torchlight; but Pre Rouault found that idea incomprehensible. So there was a wedding celebration to which forty-three people came, during which they remained at table

for sixteen hours, which started up again the next day and carried over a little into the days that followed (Flaubert 22). This represents the first time that Emma had to settle for what she was given. She had her mind set on having a certain type of wedding with Charles, but when Rouault told her that it was incomprehensible, she had to compromise; she was unable to have the wedding that she desired to have. Emma also seems to settle within her marriage. She ends up in a marriage that was one-sided. Charles seemed as though he was happy within the marriage, but Emma was not: But her impatience for change, or perhaps the nervous excitation caused by presence of this man, had been enough to make her believe she at last possessed the marvelous passionand now she could not convince herself that the calm life she was living was the happiness of which she had dreamed (Flaubert 34). It is evident here that Emma felt as though she was misled. She believed that Charles would be a certain way, but later on in their marriage, it is shown that Charles wasnt who she thought he was. To continue, the marriage was one-sided when it came to love. The feelings that Charles felt for her were not reciprocated; she didnt return the love that he had for her. Emma believed that what she felt for Charles wasnt love, but she had mistaken it for love: Before her marriage, she had believed that what she was experiencing was love; but since the happiness that should have resulted from that love had not come, she thought she must have been mistaken (Flaubert 30). Emma strived for so much when it came to her life, but it seemed like nothing went like she had planned. So many events that occurred were mainly not what she desired. An example of this was when Emma had her first child. She had a desire to have a boy because he would be able to do what he wished and not be restricted like a girl would due to society. This did not happen though, as Emmas first child proved to be a girl: She wanted a sonShe gave birth one

Sunday, at about six oclock, as the sun was rising. Its a girl! said Charles. She turned her head away and fainted (Flaubert 77). Eventually, the unhappiness that Emma felt in her marriage as well as the lack of love, lead her to have her own affairs with men she felt were giving her romance. This eventually gets her nowhere. After her affairs with Leon and Rodolph, she ended up far worse than she had imagined. Emma eventually lost everything it seemed. She went into debt and finally went so far as to take her own life, leaving behind her a husband and her daughter: A convulsion flung her down on the mattress. They all drew near. She had ceased to exist (Flaubert 290). Emma had strived for a great many things in her life, but she didnt necessary get everything that she desired. There were events that happened in her life that led her to a point of unhappiness. Emma had so many expectations for her life, but in the long run, she ended up with nothing, which proves to be worse than when she had started. This is what led her to her demise. She was forced to face reality after she had gotten married to Charles. She discovered that life wasnt as romantic as she had perceived it to be. Despite Emmas failure to achieve what she had planned to, there were moments in the novel where she was able to find a small amount of happiness amidst her disappointments. Emma, at one point in the piece, missed a simpler time in her life. There was a moment that Emma was reminded of her childhood; she rediscovered her religion when her life went sour: This splendid vision lingered in her memory as the most beautiful thing she could have dreamedShe could glimpse, among the illusions born of her hopes, a state of purity floating above the earth, merging with heaven, and this was where she aspired to be. She wanted to become a saint (Flaubert 187). Emma had a desire to use religion as a substitute for the lack of romance that had occurred in her life. She sought for solace in her religion, but in the end though, even religion didnt save her

from herself. Emma still went forward to take her own life, despite this epiphany that she had. Emma believed that religion would be a substitute for the lack of bliss, passion and intoxication in her life, but that proved to not be the case. In conclusion, the character of Emma Bovary had a great many desires that she wanted to accomplish in the novel. She strived for certain things, got others and ended up missing a simpler time where her life wasnt so complicated. Emma craved a life that was somewhat of a fairy tale; she tried to live a life that was fit for a romance novel and attempted to do this by any means necessary. In the long run, this proved to be a very poor decision because it led to her demise. Emma desired to have bliss, passion and intoxication so much that she led herself to ruin.