Madame Bovary: Romantic to Realist Conflict

Emma Ovary is a very complex character with multiple changing aspects to her personality which creates conflict. She begins as a romantic illusion but then morphs into a realist idea. Gustavo Flatter focuses on objectivity more than subjectivity in order to render Judgment to the reader. He reveals the mall conflict through key character elements and dominant symbols; each haltingly the Ironic and romantic illusions of the novel, helping to complete the author’s purpose. Utilizing Enema’s appearance, past, psychological and emotional elements, Flatter charts the conflict f her romantic illusions versus her reality through the first major emphasis, key character elements, revealing the undercurrents of irony that flows throughout the novel. “But a knife was wanted; Charles offered his. ‘Ah! ‘ she said to herself, ‘he carried a knife in his pocket like a Peasant” (88). Here, Charles is referred to as a peasant to show her ties to the country-like background that she wants to escape from. In “Madame Ovary: Beauty out of Place”, R.
P Blackman explains: “We also see how the great illusion of life to come is part of her revolt against society, and how it wows as a force working outside her-self. Her Vapors’ persuade Charles to give up his success-full practice at Totes and go to Honeywell, Into the unknown as If a new routine might provide Emma the force to work out her Illusion Into reality. It Is only Emma who cannot know that It would have made no difference” (484). These attempts are also seen when Flatter writes “Charles was surprised at the whiteness of her nails.
They were shiny, delicate at the tips, more polished than the ivory of Dipped, and almond-shaped” (14). Enema’s hands and fingernails seem polished and manicured; however, the hands of a farm girl would be more like those described later on of a girl from the agriculture fair- “And from the sleeves of her red Jacket looked out two large hands with knotty Joints, the dust of barns, the potash of wash- inning the grease of wools had so encrusted, roughened, hardened these that they seemed dirty… ” (127). The two sets of hands have obvious contrasting details that yet again bring attention to Emma Ovary’s efforts.

Not only are they displayed through ere past and physical appearance, but they are also seen through her mental and Inner elements when, during the carriage ride episode, Flatter states “a bared hand passed be-neat the small blinds of yellow canvas, and threw out some scraps of paper that scattered in the wind, and farther off lighted like white butter-flies on a field of red clover all in bloom” (205). Emma had written in the letter that she could not be Loon’s mistress, but she gave in before he read it, and ripped the letter into pieces.
In addition to characterization, the symbolism further conveys the undercutting of he illusory ideas that the work has through the dominate examples that portray the way her thinking alters from illusions to a sordidness especially in the story of the wedding bouquets, Hypothesis leg, and the beggar’s song. “The orange blossoms were yellow with dust and the silver bordered satin ribbons frayed at the edges. She threw It Into the fire. It flared up more quickly than dry straw. Then It was, Like a red bush In the cinders, slowly devoured. She watched It burn” (58).
This finding of her old wedding bouquet symbolizes the disappointment and unhappiness of her f her own bouquet died, and then later on she ends up dying. “Then Homage represented to him how much Jollier and brisker he would feel afterwards, and even gave him to understand that he would be more likely to please the women; and the stable-boy began to smile heavily’ (148). Here, they try to convince Hippest that amputating his leg would be a good idea, but in reality, it was extremely painful and unnatural because he had already become accustomed to the limp.
Also discussing this topic, Robert Stableman writes “Nor is Homage, the apothecary, without illusions- namely, his faith in Progress, a faith which he shared with his century. And, finally, there are the illusions of the bourgeois (their faith in religion, science, government), which are summed up for them in the speech of the councilor at the cornices escaroles” (Three Meanings of Symbolism, 198). To foreshadow Enema’s fate, the blind beggar wrote a song about the transformation of her life from a romantic illusion to a sordid idea. ‘”The wind is strong this summer day, Her petticoat has flown away. She fell back upon the mattress in a convulsion. They all drew near. She was dead” (271). The end of the song exposes her and the new realist illusion as her petticoat flies away and she falls to the bed and dies. Throughout the novel Enema’s character is transforming from one thing to the next. Beginning as a romantic and ending as a realist in order to give the reader more of their own opinion. All in all, Gustavo Flatter gives away the central conflict through devices such as key character elements and dominant symbolism to emphasize the different illusions.