The Theme in the Work
Emma Bovary meets love through books before she meets it in life. In Chapter 6 of Part I, the disturbance of novelty, when Charles Bovary appears at Bertaux, is enough to convince her that she feels the passion she saw in novels; in Chapter 5, the happiness that this love was supposed to bring does not come, and she concludes she was mistaken; in Chapter 7, she tries to love her husband by reciting verses to the moon and feels nothing.
In Part II, love has two faces. With Léon, it is born from tastes shared at dinner in Chapter 2, is defined in Chapter 4 as a storm that must fall from the heavens, is recognized by Emma in Chapter 5 and repressed in virtue, and ends in Chapter 6 with an English handshake. With Rodolphe Boulanger, it is a courtship at the agricultural show in Chapter 8, a surrender in the forest in Chapter 9, a river that recedes until it shows the mud in Chapter 10, a plan of flight in Chapter 12, and a letter of rupture in 13. In Chapter 14 Emma addresses God with the lover's words, and in 15, at the opera, she meets Léon again.
In Part III, Léon takes her from the cathedral to the cab in Chapter 1, and the three days of Chapter 3 are a honeymoon. In Chapter 5 the roles are reversed, and it is Léon who behaves as her lover; in 6, the two are tired of each other, and Emma finds in adultery all the insipidity of marriage. In Chapter 8, Rodolphe refuses the money that would have saved Emma, and she, already dying, gives the crucifix the greatest kiss of love of her life. What remains are those who loved her without her seeing it: in Chapter 10, Charles tries to throw himself into the grave and Justin weeps at night over the tomb; in 11, Charles writes, in the congratulations for Léon's wedding, that the poor woman would have been happy, and dies holding a lock of her hair.
The book has two loves that never meet. Emma's is a form in search of content: she changes men and keeps the vocabulary, and that is why none of the three satisfies her. Charles's has no vocabulary at all and does not change its object, not even after he discovers the letters. Flaubert gives the most constant love to the man least able to say it, and it is precisely this one Emma never sees.
Where It Appears
- Part I, Chapter 5: Emma concludes she was wrong to think herself in love, because the happiness that should result from love did not come after marrying Charles.
- Part I, Chapter 6: Emma, who at the convent never distinguished devotion from romance, takes the disturbance of novelty, when Charles appears at Bertaux, for the passion she saw in books.
- Part I, Chapter 7: Emma tries to love Charles by theory, reciting verses to the moon, and discovers that the will to feel does not produce the feeling.
- Part II, Chapter 2: During two and a half hours of dinner at the Golden Lion, Emma and Léon discover the same tastes, while Homais describes the inhabitants of Yonville to Charles.
- Part II, Chapter 4: Emma believes love should arise suddenly, with great tumult, like a storm from the heavens that overturns life and tears wills away like leaves.
- Part II, Chapter 5: Alone one night, Emma realizes that she loves Léon, and in the following days she lives as an exemplary wife and mother, admired in Yonville.
- Part II, Chapter 6: Léon leaves for Paris, and Emma, without saying what she feels, closes the restrained farewell with an English handshake, forcing herself to laugh.
- Part II, Chapter 8: At the agricultural show, Rodolphe courts Emma while the councillor gives his speech and the jury proclaims the cattle prizes, until he takes her hand.
- Part II, Chapter 9: Emma resists Rodolphe but yields to him in the forest, at the beginning of October, when the two ride together.
- Part II, Chapter 10: Rodolphe, certain of being loved, stops restraining himself, and Emma feels the great love between them diminish like the water of a river that uncovers the mud.
- Part II, Chapter 12: Emma showers Rodolphe with gifts, begs him to take her away, and arranges the flight for September 4, but he alone decides he will not leave.
- Part II, Chapter 13: Emma reads Rodolphe's letter of rupture, runs to the attic and thinks of ending everything, until Charles's voice stops her.
- Part II, Chapter 14: Emma, convalescent, kneels at the Gothic prie-dieu and addresses the Lord with the same tender words she murmured to her lover during the adultery.
- Part II, Chapter 15: At the opera in Rouen, Emma thinks «Carry me off, take me away, let us flee!» before the tenor Lagardy, and at the interval Charles brings Léon to the box.
- Part III, Chapter 1: Léon declares himself to Emma in Rouen and, after finding her in the cathedral, takes her to a cab with lowered blinds that circles the city until six in the evening.
- Part III, Chapter 3: Emma and Léon spend three days at the Hotel de Boulogne, with shutters closed, and in the afternoon go by boat to dine on an island.
- Part III, Chapter 5: Emma goes to the hotel in Rouen every Thursday, and Léon, who already copies sonnets to please her, starts to behave like the couple's mistress.
- Part III, Chapter 6: Emma and Léon are bored with each other, and she finds in adultery all the insipidity of marriage.
- Part III, Chapter 8: Emma goes to ask Rodolphe for money, and he refuses with perfect calm.
- Part III, Chapter 10: Charles tries to throw himself into Emma's grave and is taken away, and at night young Justin weeps over the tomb until Lestiboudois catches him climbing the wall.
- Part III, Chapter 11: Charles tells Rodolphe he bears him no ill will and, the next day, dies in the arbor holding a lock of Emma's hair.
Passages
The love Emma expects comes from books, and takes the form of a storm.
love, she believed, ought to arise suddenly, with great tumult and flashes [...] a storm from the heavens that falls upon life and overturns it, tears wills away like leaves and carries the whole heart off into the abyss.
With Rodolphe, love sinks until it shows the bottom.
the great love existing between them, in which she lived immersed, seemed to diminish at her feet, like the water of a river absorbed by its own bed, uncovering the mud.
With Léon, the roles are reversed.
he was really the one who behaved as if he were a mistress
The request for money is the proof that Rodolphe's love cannot bear.
because a request for money is the coldest and most devastating of all the storms that can fall upon love.
Charles's love speaks without knowing what it says.
How happy my poor wife would have been!