Realism And Ideas In Gustave Flauberts Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert’s â€Å"Madame Bovary† has been a controversial novel because of its ideas he addresses throughout his work. His style of writing and a sense of realism throughout his book invokes many new perspectives on reality, especially when it was first published in 1856. In the critical essay, â€Å"Gustave Flaubert,† Henry James praises the perfection of this novel and also discusses its realism and romanticism involved within the story, and in Mary Donaldson-Evans’s essay, â€Å"Pricking the Male Ego: Pins and Needles in Flaubert, Maupassant, and Zola,† she observes women’s roles in French societies during the the pre-nineteenth century. Henry James visualizes the novel as very truthful because he believes that Gustave Flaubert writes the†¦show more content†¦I believe that Flaubert’s novel should not be condemned because he depicts real life as it is, and he does not mask the impurities of life through fantasies and happy endings. Mary Donaldson-Evans believes that women seamstresses who are portrayed in the French novel gives an insight of women in a bourgeois lifestyle. Since the novel mentions Emma as a seamstress throughout the plot, Evans considers Emma as a mere subject of men. As seen throughout history, women cater to men by being their seamstress, which shows a â€Å"figure of domesticity who is often represented in art as a young and docile, perhaps eager to be subjugated by the male† (Evans). I agree with Evans’s perspective on women during this time because females always played the role of being inferior to men. Women were to obey the man and do what was expected of them which was domestic work and subordinate roles in society. The idea of women making clothes for men shows how a woman does anything to support a man. In the novel, Emma is seen being a seamstress when Leon comes to her room to talk to her. The scene of her sewing a piece of cloth when he comes in represents Emma as the ideal woman, and Leon wonders why â€Å"the embroidery bothered [him]† (Flaubert 99). As Leon watches Emma complete her duty, he still finds a way to criticize what sheShow MoreRelatedRomanticism vs Realism2268 Words   |  10 PagesCast of Madame Bovary: A Study of Realism and Romanticism Through the Characters of the Novel Gustave Flaubert is considered one of the most influential novelists of the Realist period. His most famous work, Madame Bovary, earned both heavy criticism and fame for its controversial style and mockery of Romanticism. The novel itself even went to trial, being banned for a while due to immorality (Various, 1). Many elements commonly found in Romantic novels were criticized and, to an extent, parodiedRead MoreThe Rise Of A Middle Class Essay1678 Words   |  7 Pagesauthors, and artists moved to realism, which reflects more truthful settings and everyday life and pulls away from idealism. 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