Who He Is
The pharmacist of Yonville, neighbor of the Bovarys, already summoned once before the king's prosecutor in Rouen for illegally practicing medicine, who writes articles for the Fanal de Rouen. His pharmacy, opposite the Golden Lion inn, and not the church, is what most catches the eye in the village, with his name in gold letters on the sign and repeated over the laboratory door.
And the sign, which fills the whole width of the shop, says in gold letters: Homais, pharmacist.
Trajectory
In Chapter 1 of Part II it is he who first speaks of religion, accusing Abbé Bournisien of hypocrisy as soon as the priest leaves the inn. In Chapter 3 of Part II he cultivates Charles Bovary as an ally, to ensure silence should he again overstep the limits of the law; in Chapter 4 of Part II, he receives Emma Bovary and Léon in the evenings at his house and repeats every day the same "good night to all." At the show in Chapter 8 of Part II he calls "fanaticism" the gesture of Catherine Leroux in giving the medal to the parish priest.
In Chapter 11 of Part II he convinces Charles to operate on the club foot of Hippolyte through the newspaper article, and attacks the vanity of Hippolyte himself, who yields only to the village's conspiracy and because it costs him no money.
Are you not a man, for heaven's sake? What would you do if you had to serve in the army and fight for your country?
On the night of the operation he reads aloud the article he is going to send to the newspaper.
Despite the prejudices that still cover part of the face of Europe like a net, light nonetheless begins to penetrate our fields.
The leg gangrenes and is amputated, and he emerges from the episode unharmed. During Emma's convalescence, in Chapter 14 of Part II, it is he who suggests the theater trip to Rouen, where she meets Léon again.
In Chapter 2 of Part III, when giving the news of Charles's father's death, he first shouts about arsenic and about a forbidden book that Justin was hiding. In Chapter 6 of Part III he accepts the invitation that Léon, out of courtesy, extends to him in return for the dinners at his house; he goes to Rouen and drags him around for hours while Emma waits.
In Chapter 8 of Part III Emma eats the arsenic from the blue flask in his laboratory. In Chapter 9 of Part III, right after her death, he goes home to write letters and an article for the Fanal; later, before the corpse, he says he is not afraid, because "we made punch in the dissection amphitheater." At the wake he argues with Bournisien.
Read Voltaire! [...] Read Holbach, read the Encyclopédie!
The scene is the most economical portrait in the novel of what Homais and Bournisien have in common: neither of the two is speaking to the other; both are quoting in order to win.
At the burial, in Chapter 10 of Part III, he regrets not having prepared "a few words." In Chapter 11 of Part III he tries to compose the epitaph from "Sta viator," does not complete the classical phrase, and ends with "Amabilem conjugem calcas." He makes the beggar's blindness a personal campaign of revenge. The book's last line is about him.
He has just received the Legion of Honor.
Themes Embodied
The standard theme running through him is Religion. In Chapters 7 to 11 of Part III, one reading looks at what the ending says through him:
The novel does not end with a condemnation of Emma's passion. It ends with a broader and colder condemnation: that of a world in which prudent mediocrity (Homais) survives and prospers, and love, both the illicit (Rodolphe, Léon) and the lawful (Charles), is discarded or destroyed, each in its own way.
Homais's path through the novel goes from one text about himself to another: the name in gold letters on the pharmacy sign, when the Bovary family arrives in Yonville; the article he writes himself and reads aloud on the night of the operation; and the Legion of Honor recorded in the last line.
Relationships
- Charles Bovary: the doctor he cultivates as an ally and leads to the operation.
- Emma Bovary: the neighbor, whom he suggests the opera to and who dies with the arsenic from his laboratory.
- Léon: the regular at the evenings, whom he drags around Rouen.
- Abbé Bournisien: his religious opponent, from the inn to the wake.
- Hippolyte: the operation patient whom he promotes.
- Symbol linked to him: Yonville.