Madame Bovary Personal Response

In part two of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert we see Emma’s development as a character in a negative way. Emma’s development is seen as she embarks on a path to moral and financial corruption all for a search of love and passion. The passion and love Emma seeks cannot be found in the reality of that time causing her to feel imprisoned in society with Charles whom she has no passion or lust for. To Emma love is defined as lustful, spontaneous action which she only reads about in her romance novels. SHe learns to fulfill this inner lust by undertaking in adultery with different men. Throughout this section of the novel we see the emotions Emma encounters, guilt, anger, lust, passion and spiritual longing.

“The more Emma became aware of her love, the more she suppressed it. She would have liked Leon to guess at it...” [p. 86] This quote shows the change is Emma’s character from part one due to the fact that in part one she only longed for such a relationship and what she read in books and took pity on herself while now she has taken action by committing adultery. When Emma first meets Leon there is a spark and common interests emerge unlike between Emma and Charles. This is seen in the quote “Their Eyes indeed were full of more serious conversation; and, while they were struggling in search of banal phrases, each felt assailed by the same langour; it was like a murmur from the soul...” [p.88] Emma’s Lust for Leon is an example of the commencement of her thoughts of adultery actions, once Leon leaves she becomes even less satisfied by Charles than before and continues to seek for that same love she had for Leon. She goes to such extremes with love due to her idea of love coming from novels, this is seen when she considers ruining after Leo after he had left for Paris. This part of the novel is seen as Emma’s attempt at filling an empty gap in her hear in search of romance that she has always longer for yet never grasped. She seems to do this by committing such