Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is a triumph of realism over romanticism. Emma Bovary, an uncompromising romantic, suffers the consequences of being trapped in a realist’s novel. Her romantic imagination is incompatible with her prosaic surroundings. The banality of her married life cannot live up to her fantasies. Even what she wishes to be the tragic beauty of her suicide is marred by reality (she vomits black bile on her beautiful white dress as she dies). In this lesson, you will encounter both Emma’s world and Flaubert’s destruction of that world.
After studying this lesson, you should be able to explain Flaubert’s life and work in the context of realism. In particular, you will learn to identify the details Flaubert uses in Madame Bovary to undermine the romantic outlook of the titular character.