Jealousy In Madame Bovary

Three characters fall in love with Emma in the novel Madame Bovary. However, not all of them were jealous lovers. For this paper, I will consider the term jealousy to refer to intense lust driven by the impatient and aggressive sexual desire to have another person be yours. Out of all these characters, the most jealous one is Rodolphe. The least jealous is the naïve and foolish Charles, Emma’s husband. However, it seems that Charles, the least jealous lover, is most in love with Emma. Charles goes to great lengths to please Emma and make her happy. He does this at his expense, regardless of Emma’s dismissive and destructive demeanor. Indeed, the decaying economic situation that Charles was in towards the end of the novel was all due to Emma’s reckless, inconsiderate borrowing of money – all of which went towards maintaining her feeble affairs. On the other hand, Rodolphe is an entirely different character. While being more passionate and aggressive in approaching Emma in their affair, Rodolphe is nowhere nearly as dedicated or caring as Charles …show more content…
The contrary is observed for Rodolphe in Madame Bovary, however. A natural conclusion from this observation is that jealousy is not a necessary component of love in Madame Bovary. This point is further supported by the relationship that Charles had with Emma. From Charles’s behavior we learn that a true lover does not have to be a jealous one. Charles is used as way to demonstrate that the seemingly paradoxical lack of jealousy and great intensity of love can coexist. The book conveys the duality of intense love and lack of jealousy through ridiculing Charles by portraying him as a foolish, inept lover. The fact that the surrounding community started becoming suspicious of Emma Bovary due to her inconspicuous meetings with Leon and Rodolphe, whereas Charles did not is a testimony to his inept