Madame Bovary: a Tragic Hero
March 13, 2006
Madame Bovary: A Tragic Hero
Every tragedy falls into two partsComplication and Unraveling or Denouement By Complication I mean all that extends from the beginning of the action to the part which marks the turning point to good or bad fortune. The Unraveling is that which extends from the beginning of the change to the end There are four kinds of tragedy [One being] the Pathetic (where the motive is passion). (p. 90)
In Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, the protagonist is, by definition, a tragic hero. Emma Bovary has certain character flaws that are driven by passion and she has urges to climb the social ladder. Her desires and so called "needs" consume her youth and, eventually, her life. Flaubert composes the book in a crafty way, meaning that the novel's moral structure requires Emma to assume responsibility for her own actions. Her affairs are brought on at her own will and their failures leave her hopeless. She not only is a slave for love, but a victim. By use of Flaubert's reoccurring themes and motifs, he paints a picture that makes the world of Emma Bovary a tragedy with pathetic traits.
Emma Bovary is trapped confines of her own character flaws and even as a child, these flaws are apparent. In the chapters where the reader learns about Emma's education at the convent, it is clear that she, even as a young teenager, has daydreams of living her life in an enchanted novel. "She had read Paul and Virginia, and had dreamed of the bamboo cabin she dreamed that she, too, had a sweet little brother for a devoted friend, and that he climbed trees to pluck her crimson fruit, and came running barefoot over the sand to bring her a bird's nest."(p. 41) It is clear that she desires things to be brought and presented to her by a man. The so called "brother" that she dreams of is clearly non-existent. This "brother" brings her a bird's nest, as if it was the world on a plate. When the reader meets the father, he arranges the
Madame Bovary: A Tragic Hero
Every tragedy falls into two partsComplication and Unraveling or Denouement By Complication I mean all that extends from the beginning of the action to the part which marks the turning point to good or bad fortune. The Unraveling is that which extends from the beginning of the change to the end There are four kinds of tragedy [One being] the Pathetic (where the motive is passion). (p. 90)
In Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, the protagonist is, by definition, a tragic hero. Emma Bovary has certain character flaws that are driven by passion and she has urges to climb the social ladder. Her desires and so called "needs" consume her youth and, eventually, her life. Flaubert composes the book in a crafty way, meaning that the novel's moral structure requires Emma to assume responsibility for her own actions. Her affairs are brought on at her own will and their failures leave her hopeless. She not only is a slave for love, but a victim. By use of Flaubert's reoccurring themes and motifs, he paints a picture that makes the world of Emma Bovary a tragedy with pathetic traits.
Emma Bovary is trapped confines of her own character flaws and even as a child, these flaws are apparent. In the chapters where the reader learns about Emma's education at the convent, it is clear that she, even as a young teenager, has daydreams of living her life in an enchanted novel. "She had read Paul and Virginia, and had dreamed of the bamboo cabin she dreamed that she, too, had a sweet little brother for a devoted friend, and that he climbed trees to pluck her crimson fruit, and came running barefoot over the sand to bring her a bird's nest."(p. 41) It is clear that she desires things to be brought and presented to her by a man. The so called "brother" that she dreams of is clearly non-existent. This "brother" brings her a bird's nest, as if it was the world on a plate. When the reader meets the father, he arranges the