Who She Is
The daughter of Emma Bovary and Charles Bovary. She appears in few scenes: the birth and baptism in Chapter 3 of Part II, the mother's push in Chapter 6 of Part II, Emma's agony in Chapter 8 of Part III, and the father's death and her final fate in Chapter 11 of Part III.
Trajectory
In Chapter 3 of Part II she is born a girl, and Emma, who wanted a son, faints at the news.
She wanted a boy; he would be strong and dark, he would be called Georges, and this idea of having a male child was a kind of revenge for all her past frustrations. A man, at least, is free; he can explore every passion and every land, overcome obstacles, taste the joys of the most distant pleasures. But a woman is continually hindered in everything.
The name comes from a young woman whom Emma heard the marquise call by that name at La Vaubyessard. At the baptism, the grandfather Bovary pours champagne over the child's head and the Abbé Bournisien nearly leaves.
In Chapter 6 of Part II, when Emma returns from the church, the girl clings to her knees; Emma pushes her away with her elbow, Berthe falls against the chest of drawers and cuts her cheek, and the mother tells Charles she fell while playing. Watching over her sleep, Emma thinks of her this way:
"It is a strange thing," Emma thought, "how ugly this child is!"
In the same chapter, at Léon's departure for Paris, Léon asks to kiss her.
In Chapter 8 of Part III, in the agony of the poisoning, Emma asks for her daughter to be brought. Berthe arrives half asleep, looks for her New Year's presents and is startled by her mother's wide eyes, pallor, and sweat.
- I'm scared! said the little girl, stepping back.
In Chapter 11 of Part III, after Emma's death, no one tells her what happened.
She asked for Mama. They told her she was away and that she would bring her toys.
She is the one who finds her father dead in the garden, believing he is playing.
And, believing he was playing, she pushed him lightly. He fell to the ground. He was dead.
She is sent to her grandmother, who dies the same year, and then to a poor aunt.
That aunt is poor and sends the little girl to work in a spinning mill to earn her living.
Themes Embodied
The moments in which Emma recognizes her daughter can be read as signs of regret, and in Chapters 7 to 11 of Part III there appears the moralizing reading according to which Berthe pays for her parents' sins, a reading that does not explain Rodolphe Boulanger or Léon.
Berthe begins and ends the novel at two social extremes: the name, heard from a marquise's mouth at the ball at the castle, and the last record of her, a spinning mill.
Relationships
- Emma Bovary: the mother, who wanted a son, who pushes her away in Chapter 6 of Part II and who calls for her in the agony.
- Charles Bovary: the father, whom she finds dead.
- Léon: asks to kiss her at the farewell.
- Abbé Bournisien: the priest of the baptism.
- Symbol linked to her: La Vaubyessard, from which her name comes.