Madame Bovary

- E M M A' S  C O N S T A N T  D R I V E -

After reading this week's chapters of Madame Bovary, I found a distinct pattern in the way that Emma lives her life. At the beginning we are introduced to Emma living on a farm with her father. Here she is unhealthy and desires a better life for herself. When Charles comes to mend her father's broken leg, she falls in love with the man of a higher class that is successful. However, she does not fall in love with Charles, but the desire to live a better and more fulfilling life with a wealthier man. As soon as she sees Charles, he instantly becomes the only thing she could ever want.

Soon after they get married and start a life together, Emma begins to feel bored and uninterested in her new life and husband. She finds music, art, and walking in the park to be monotonous whereas she used to find these activities to evoke joy. Eventually the two get invited to the Marquis' grand ball. Emma once again becomes thrilled at the idea of going to an extravagant ball. When there, she is overwhelmed with the pompousness of the event. After dancing and drinking and conversing with wealthy individuals, she quickly decides that living this life is the only thing she could ever want.

After the party Emma describes the night at the best night of her life. However, she immediately goes back to depression because she can no longer enjoy the world she wishes to live in. Sensing that Emma was unhappy, Charles offered to open a new practice in Yonville and start a new life with Emma... again. As soon as he declares that a new life is a possible option for them, Emma realizes that it is the only thing she could ever want.

The two start a new life in Yonville. Emma believed that her life was once again everything she could ever have wanted but eventually finds her self getting bored again. Here is where Emma meets Leon. Leon is a young man who is passionate about the arts. He rekindles Emma's love for music, art, and reading. Emma soon comes to the conclusion that Leon is in love with her and, enthralled by excitement, she falls in love with him also. However, to avoid committing adultery, she quickly ignores this thought and becomes a more loyal wife to Charles. Yet, Emma began picturing how much better her life could have been with Leon and soon she comes to the realization that Leon is the only thing she could ever want.

After Leon leaves for Paris, Emma is once again emotionally distraught. This continuous pattern displays itself over and over again. When Rodolphe comes into Charle's practice and meets with Emma, he falls for her. Yet again Emma is thrown into a spiral of lustful wishing for a new a better life with money and lavish parties. Once Rodolphe expresses his love for Emma, she eventually cannot resist and the two begin a scandalous affair, sneaking around and meeting at night to be together. She wants to go away and start a new life with Rodolphe (sound familiar?) because he is the only thing she could ever want.

Emma is the perfect example of how a person can continuously desire more, but never be able to fulfill those desires. She is a woman who keeps on wanting more in life and can never be truly satisfied. Emma is fully-heartedly, one hundred percent in love with the idea of love and fools herself into believing that whatever fleeting desire she has next is truly the only thing she could ever want.