Madame Bovary

enlightenment ultimately seems to triumph over romanticism, it is not portrayed in more ingratiating lines. Virginia Woolf, in a characteristically Flaubertian moment of anxiety, said that we go to novelists not for sentences but for chapters, and "Madame Bovary," of course, holds together wonderfully. The details, the thousands of details, are stunning in their exactitude, their lyricism, their comedy, and yet they also make a perfect whole. How comic it is, for instance, when Flaubert reveals…

I.E: Dmitri Gurov’s embrace of the world’s “utter indifference to the life and death of each of us” is validated Ivan Illych’s suffering. Illych dies of something very trivial, falling off a stepladder and hitting a window frame on his side; his extreme suffering and death is a reminder of inescapable mortality. Gurov’s view comes from a very different place compared to Illych’s. Though Illych suffers a great deal of pain before his death, he also partakes in a deep human interaction with his…

journey through the Spanish textbook. Kugelmass is trapped inside the textbook being chased by the verb “tener”, which satirically translates into “to have”. The humor kicks in right at the end. Kugelmass is determined to have an affair with Madame Bovary, when ironically the “to have” verb is determined to have him. The reader is forced to laugh out loud at the ironic twist. This twist is an example of situational irony, because the end was definitely not what Kugelmass expected. The ending…

The very beginning of Their Eyes Were Watching God is a powerful statement which signifies the control that women have over their dreams and fantasies. More importantly, it empowers women by stating that they have the capability to act accordingly and make those dreams come true, whereas men have their fantasies “mocked to death by Time” (1). The importance of this quote relies on its foreshadowing of Janie’s constant, passionate struggle to have her most desired fantasy fulfilled – a fantasy of…

Even if Nora has a nurse taking care of her children, she still tries to have that special quality time and even plays games like Hide and Seek or just dance. Nora concludes, “Deprave my little children? Poison my home? It's not true. It can't possibly be true.” ( 71) She starts feeling guilty that she is poisoning her children with this secret of the loan when Torvald talks about Krogstad being a liar and mentions that almost all criminals have had lying mothers. Nora should not feel…

Overview of Midlife Crises With examples from “The Kugelmass Episode” By Woody Allen A midlife crisis is a common occurrence that influences countless adults every year. Many experience this, but might not be aware of the symptoms. People also might not know why this crisis happens. A midlife crisis often has many effects that people do not realize, either. Sydney Kugelmass from Woody Allen’s story, “The Kugelmass Episode,” failed to understand these things and consequently, ruined his life,…

Gender Roles and Feminism Why are women lives based on the men around them? These stories engaged in women lacking empowerment and men consistently having the dominant role. Throughout the stories and poems read in literature, a few have came in common with this theory. Before women received more rights, they highly dependent on their marriage, which made theirs lives limiting and confining. The gender roles were very stereotyped, meaning women stayed at home being controlled by the men, and…

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is one of the first feminists in literature. She has committed adultery and is sentenced to wearing a scarlet ‘A,’ signifying her sin, as her punishment. This ‘A’ brings her shame and judgment from the community, allowing everyone to know of her illegitimate relations. However, as a feminist figure, she accepts this punishment as one from herself. She understands what she has done, and by accepting it, she becomes a strong willed, free…

substitute mothers. From reading Rich’s article you can observe Rich focusing on Bronte's biography, like biographical criticism. She considers how the text is like other Romance and gothic texts such as Persuasion, Middlemarch, and Jude the Obscure, Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, The Portrait of a Lady, and Wuthering Heights (469). Rich emphasizes Jane Eyre pursuit for love, but more so, her pursuit for a awareness of being appreciated, of fitting-in more so than romantic love. Therefore Jane…

position. Some classical examples would include Iago from William Shakespeare's Othello, or Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Another character that is most well known for their deception of others would be Emma Bovary from Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Throughout the novel Emma manipulates everyone around her whether it be Homais’ teenage servant Justin or the merchant L’Heureux. However the person most manipulate by Emma would have to be her gullible husband Charles.…