Women in the 19th Century France

Introduction

The role of the 19th century woman in France would by todays standard be almost non-existent. To give woman during this period a title of managing a household could be regarded as an arbitrary title. That is, the title itself is sort of arbitrary in the sense that there was no real self-empowerment. For example, Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household management gives instruction on how to select servants. Although that instructions on how to select servants. Although that instruction may have been pertinent at the time , by feminist standards it would have been an exercise in futility, which would mean to give credit or to assign a duty to selecting servants and to call it management is incredibly patronizing. This dynamic is a criticism that Flaubert no doubt was frustrated by.

Thesis Statement

The Novel Madam Bovary depicts the suffering and oppression of the Women in the 19th Century France.

Madam Bovary

Emma, the country girl, married Charles Bovary, a poor doctor. She expected her life to be perfect, similar to stories in the romantic novels she has read. When everything cannot be like her dream, Emma is dissatisfied with her marriage and struggles away from her family. She has affairs with a young law student and a wealthy local man. Emma falls into debt by purchasing luxurious items. She begs many people for money including her lovers, but no one will help her. Emma decides to kill herself by swallowing arsenic to escape everything(Gans 87). 

Madame Bovary had hopes that she would have a son, one who would enjoy the freedoms that she herself could not have herself. Her response when she finds out that she is going to have a daughter is connotative of disinterest in her child, a far cry from one of joy as one should have for having a child. She had hopes that her hopes and dreams could be lived vicariously through her son, a strong statement that hopes and dreams when one is female are limited or do not exist. Emma faints when she finds out that she is going to have a daughter. This is indicative of her exhaustion of the plight of women—a faint, a sigh, of disgust or exasperation that one's life is pre-determined based on sex. Emma's aloofness towards her daughter is considered contrary to nature by the status quo at the time. Her lack of tenderness is considered striking and dismaying. ...