Dullness Versus Vivacity: A Study of Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary

Abstract

An ideal marriage is a state of being equal in every way which is built on a healthy dose of admiration, on understanding, dedication, trust and loyalty. French novelist Gustave Flaubert has raised the same issue in his most discussed work Madame Bovary. Flaubert was most notable for being the leading exponent of literary realism in French literature. There were writers before Flaubert who tried their hands at realism but not all of them, as was the case in the work of Flaubert. The fiction Madame Bovary is a dedication to its heroine’s sentiments. Though she has been tagged, adulterous, a failed wife and failed mother, we feel pity for her. She really demands our sympathy since she was unable to achieve that eternal pleasure throughout her whole life. Her mere guilt was her sensible nature which shattered all her dreams. The present paper is an attempt to study her innocence by analysing her nature, sentiments and imagination in depth.