Flaubert's Madame Bovar
A theme throughout Flaubert's Madame Bovary is escape versus confinement. In the novel Emma Bovary attempts again and again to escape the ordinariness of her life by reading novels, having affairs, day dreaming, moving from town to town, and buying luxuries items. It is Emma's early education described for an entire chapter by Flaubert that awakens in Emma a struggle against what she perceives as confinement. Emma's education at the convent is perhaps the most significant development of the dichotomy in the novel between confinement and escape. The convent is Emma's earliest confinement, and it is the few solicitations from the outside world that intrigue Emma, the books smuggled in to the convent or the sound of a far away cab rolling along boulevards. The chapter mirrors the structure of the book it starts as we see a satisfied women content with her confinement and conformity at the convent. At first far from being boredom the convent, she enjoyed the company of the nuns, who, to amuse her, would take her into the chapel by way of a long corridor leading from the dining hall. She played very little during the recreation period and knew her catechism well. (Flaubert 30.)Footnote1 The chapter is also filled with images o
Her secessions are used by Ibsen to show faults of society. But Emma although bored with her fantasy refuses to admit it and she starts to revolt against the confines of the convent until the Mother Superior was glad to see her go. She is something to please him and used for show. She knows what society expects of her and continues to do what she feels is right despite them. Her decision to leave was the exclamation point on his critical view of society. ) Emma's dreams by this point are chaotic with both palms and pines mixed together with lions and tigers. But these are merely visual images and even these images are either religious in nature or of similarly confined people. She proved herself not to be helpless like Torvald implied: "you poor helpless little creature!" Nora's second secession from society was shown by her decision to leave Torvald and her children. " She also found interest in the sea but only because it was stormy. In the first secession Ibsen illustrates that despite Nora doing the right thing it is deemed wrong and not allowed by society because she is a woman. " She is almost considered to be property of his: "Mayn't I look at my dearest treasure? At all the beauty that belongs to no one but me -that's all my very own?" By walking out she takes a position equal to her husband and brakes society's expectations. Nora's first secession from society was when she broke the law and decided to borrow money to pay for her husbands treatment. No longer are the images of precise people or event but instead they become more fuzzy and chaotic. Nora secessions are very deliberate and thought out.
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Acceptance Essays
