Femininity In Madame Bovary

The status of women changes periodically. In the 19th century, woman faced tough and perplexing problems because of what society offered to them as their status and identity. Emma from the novel “Madame Bovary” was unlucky enough to be a woman in this time period where women were limited to the home which means that they must pay close attention to their marriage and motherhood. However, Emma did not adhere to the ideal of femininity that the society had where she breached society ideal and developed her own ideal of femininity.
Gustave Flaubert presented Emma as a woman who can’t seems to fit in correctly with life. Although she had agreed to married Charles Bovary, she is not amazed by her marriage because it was not what she had expected. …show more content…
It appears that she is developing romantic love for Leon that she could not even create for her husband. “Leon walked up and down the room; it seemed strange to him to see this beautiful woman in her silk dress in the midst of all this poverty. Madame Bovary blushed...” (p.78) To blush is a physical sign of like or love that a person may have for another person. This shows that Emma might be able to fulfill of what she could not fulfil in her marriage. Charles has brought nothing on the table that could entice Emma but Emma has find it in Leon. This quote clarifies it: “While she was considering thus [Charles], savoring her irritation with a sort of depraved pleasure, Leon made a step forward.”(p.85) Unfortunately for Emma, Leon had to leave for Paris. This was very depressing for Emma but this setback did not stop her from achieving her goal of …show more content…
Emma gave birth to Berthe in the novel but she does not build a connection like a mother should with her. Throughout the novel, she paid more attention to lovers more than how she pays attention to Berthe. Her need for self-satisfaction over her child began during moments of her pregnancy when she states “Thus she did not amuse herself with those preparation that stimulate the tenderness of mothers, and so her affection was perhaps impaired from the start.” It is troubling that Emma is eagerly happy to commit adultery and to experience romanticism but not excited in such form for the nurturing of her own child. This has highlight her ideal of feminism and her way of breaking society’s ideal of taking emphasis in motherhood. When Emma spent the night with Leon instead of attending to her child, it has caused the child to “refusing to go to bed without her mamma, sobbed as through her heart would break.” Again, this clearly shows her preference as a woman and what she demand for in life. Emma’s motherhood attitudes are at odds with society’s requirement of women to devote themselves to their children. Perhaps, Emma did not care about pleasing society but more of pleasing and seeing what she could get out of