's Madame Bovary revolve around the preoccupation with love,
             marriage and, above all, the issue of adultery and how others perceive it.
             In particular, the theme of adultery begins to question the nature and role
             of women in a patriarchal society. The French Revolution "was seminal for
             its questioning of authority (man's over woman's, for instance)â€"the roots
             of the suffragette movement can be traced back to this time as a resultâ€"
             (Rippon 1). In this culture as in most others, men could divorce their
             wives for infidelity, and she could even serve time in prison or be
             physically punished. However, a husband was immune from these laws; not
             until 1893 were women given some civil rights and although divorce was
             legalized in 1792, the Napoleonic Code prohibited it until 1884.
             The 19th century is viewed through the perspective of the person
             telling the tale and the way in which events are witnessed in order to
             demonstrate that the judgments made upon the erring wives stem from the
             ethics of hypocritical societies. Through the works of art, adultery is
             recognized to be neither an escape nor a liberation for women but an
             ailment caused by their arranged marriages, romantic ideals, and lack of
             Flaubert's Madame Bovary, for instance, portrays the romantic pining
             of Emma Bovary. She must "come to terms with the implacable mediocrity of
             French provincial life in general and Charles Bovary in particular"
             ...