Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is a realist novel written in 1856 that tells the story of a married couple, Emma and Charles Bovary. In particular, Emma’s constant emotional struggles with her social position and status as well as her frustration with her banal life drive her to commit adulterous affairs. Within the novel, Flaubert utilizes food to showcase distinctions between middle and upper social class as well as Emma’s discontent with her current life and desire to live the life of the upper social class through Emma and Charles’s wedding, their experience at the ball, and Emma’s affair with Leon at the hotel.
Flaubert uses food at Charles and Emma’s wedding to depict the emptiness of Emma’s current life as well as the distinctions …show more content…
Descriptions of the food from Emma’s perspective represent her upper-class taste, showing how she feels she is a superior who wound up in the wrong place: “The red claws of lobsters overshot the dishes; fat fruits in openwork baskets climbed in tiers from a moss bed; the quails had kept their feathers, vapours rose…” (45). The use of personification in “fat fruits climbed in tiers” and “quails had kept their feathers” brings the food to life and emphasizes how extravagant they are in Emma’s point of view. Emma romanticizes her experiences with the food at the ball, stemmed from the romantic stories that she reads as well as her desires to be a part of the upper class. The ball provides her the chance to derive pleasure from reality, rather than from her fantastical stories. Contrasted with the wedding scene where the main meats were veal and chicken, the food served at the ball contained truffles and lobster. The food at the ball is of much better quality and of greater value, showing the distinctions between middle and upper class. The overabundance of excellence goes to show the extent to which Emma wishes to be a part of this class. This is continued as Emma enjoys food that she has never experienced before: “Emma’s whole body quivered when she felt the cold in her mouth. She had never seen pomegranates nor eaten pineapple. Even the powdered sugar seemed to her whiter and finer than elsewhere.” (46). The new tastes and luxuries seem to be better than anything else. Because Emma has not experienced these before, she describes it as fresh and satisfying as her “whole body quivered”, providing a sexual connotation and emphasizing her glory of being at the ball and a part of the upper class. Not only this, powdered sugar is served at the richest banquets everywhere. At this ball, because she is able
Flaubert uses food at Charles and Emma’s wedding to depict the emptiness of Emma’s current life as well as the distinctions …show more content…
Descriptions of the food from Emma’s perspective represent her upper-class taste, showing how she feels she is a superior who wound up in the wrong place: “The red claws of lobsters overshot the dishes; fat fruits in openwork baskets climbed in tiers from a moss bed; the quails had kept their feathers, vapours rose…” (45). The use of personification in “fat fruits climbed in tiers” and “quails had kept their feathers” brings the food to life and emphasizes how extravagant they are in Emma’s point of view. Emma romanticizes her experiences with the food at the ball, stemmed from the romantic stories that she reads as well as her desires to be a part of the upper class. The ball provides her the chance to derive pleasure from reality, rather than from her fantastical stories. Contrasted with the wedding scene where the main meats were veal and chicken, the food served at the ball contained truffles and lobster. The food at the ball is of much better quality and of greater value, showing the distinctions between middle and upper class. The overabundance of excellence goes to show the extent to which Emma wishes to be a part of this class. This is continued as Emma enjoys food that she has never experienced before: “Emma’s whole body quivered when she felt the cold in her mouth. She had never seen pomegranates nor eaten pineapple. Even the powdered sugar seemed to her whiter and finer than elsewhere.” (46). The new tastes and luxuries seem to be better than anything else. Because Emma has not experienced these before, she describes it as fresh and satisfying as her “whole body quivered”, providing a sexual connotation and emphasizing her glory of being at the ball and a part of the upper class. Not only this, powdered sugar is served at the richest banquets everywhere. At this ball, because she is able