Write 2 page essay on the topic Madame Bovary reflection:.Throughout the novel he remains witless, clueless and unwise yet honest and trusting.In contrast the film opens on Flaubert himself (starring

Write 2 page essay on the topic Madame Bovary reflection:.

Throughout the novel he remains witless, clueless and unwise yet honest and trusting.

In contrast the film opens on Flaubert himself (starring James Mason) standing in the court where he is being convicted of writing an unethical and immoral novel. In response to these accusations Flaubert tells his peers a story of a naïve,

innocent girl named Emma (starring Jennifer Jones) who spends her days reading romantic novels and fantasizing her own life in a similar pattern. This great difference between the opening acts of the novel and the film was an unexpected yet an interesting change. The film was actually based on a partial true story as Flaubert was in reality convicted by the French judiciary for writing something that insulted France and disgraced womanhood.

Ironically Flaubert has criticized his own profession in his writing as he mocks novelists “I have dissected myself to the quick.” (Salon 2013) During the course of the story Emma is exposed as a dreamy, unrealistic and impractical woman. As we discover her life, she takes some ill-fated decisions, of how she gradually comes around to committing adultery and later suicide. All these consequences can be depicted as a moral lesson i.e. differentiating between fantasy and reality. The novel gives us a short brief preview of Emma’s former life as it is written from Charles Bovary’s point of view however the film provides us with a detailed description of her childhood as the film is being told from Emma’s perspective.

Flaubert dichotomized Emma’s character in two – dividing her between her fantasies and the harsh realities of life i.e. Rodophe Boulanger’s betrayal, Lheureux’s scheming