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Plot Overview
Madame Bovary begins when Charles
Bovary is a young boy, unable to fit in at his new school and
ridiculed by his new classmates. As a child, and later when he
grows into a young man, Charles is mediocre and dull. He fails
his first medical exam and only barely manages to become a second-rate
country doctor. His mother marries him off to a widow who dies
soon afterward, leaving Charles much less money than he expected.
Charles soon falls in love with Emma, the daughter of a patient,
and the two decide to marry. After an elaborate wedding, they
set up house in Tostes, where Charles has his practice. But marriage
doesn't live up to Emma's romantic expectations. Ever since she
lived in a convent as a young girl, she has dreamed of love and
marriage as a solution to all her problems. After she attends
an extravagant ball at the home of a wealthy nobleman, she begins
to dream constantly of a more sophisticated life. She grows bored
and depressed when she compares her fantasies to the humdrum
reality of village life, and eventually her listlessness makes
her ill. When Emma becomes pregnant, Charles decides to move
to a different town in hopes of reviving her health.
In the new town of Yonville, the Bovarys meet Homais, the town
pharmacist, a pompous windbag who loves to hear himself speak.
Emma also meets Leon, a law clerk, who, like her, is bored with
rural life and loves to escape through romantic novels. When
Emma gives birth to her daughter Berthe, motherhood disappoints
her-she had desired a son-and she continues to be despondent.
Romantic feelings blossom between Emma and Leon. However, when
Emma realizes that Leon loves her, she feels guilty and throws
herself into the role of a dutiful wife. Leon grows tired of
waiting and, believing that he can never possess Emma, departs
to study law in Paris. His departure makes Emma miserable.
Soon, at an agricultural fair, a wealthy neighbor named Rodolphe,
who is attracted by Emma's beauty, declares his love to her.
He seduces her, and they begin having a passionate affair. Emma
is often indiscreet, and the townspeople all gossip about her.
Charles, however, suspects nothing. His adoration for his wife
and his stupidity combine to blind him to her indiscretions.
His professional reputation, meanwhile, suffers a severe blow
when he and Homais attempt an experimental surgical technique
to treat a club-footed man named Hippolyte and end up having
to call in another doctor to amputate the leg. Disgusted with
her husband's incompetence, Emma throws herself even more passionately
into her affair with Rodolphe. She borrows money to buy him gifts
and suggests that they run off together and take little Berthe
with them. Soon enough, though, the jaded and worldly Rodolphe
has grown bored of Emma's demanding affections. Refusing to elope
with her, he leaves her. Heartbroken, Emma grows desperately
ill and nearly dies.
By the time Emma recovers, Charles is in financial trouble from
having to borrow money to pay off Emma's debts and to pay for
her treatment. Still, he decides to take Emma to the opera in
the nearby city of Rouen. There, they encounter Leon. This meeting
rekindles the old romantic flame between Emma and Leon, and this
time the two embark on a love affair. As Emma continues sneaking
off to Rouen to meet Leon, she also grows deeper and deeper in
debt to the moneylender Lheureux, who lends her more and more
money at exaggerated interest rates. She grows increasingly careless
in conducting her affair with Leon. As a result, on several occasions,
her acquaintances nearly discover her infidelity.
Over time, Emma grows bored with Leon. Not knowing how to abandon
him, she instead becomes increasingly demanding. Meanwhile, her
debts mount daily. Eventually, Lheureux orders the seizure of
Emma's property to compensate for the debt she has accumulated.
Terrified of Charles finding out, she frantically tries to raise
the money that she needs, appealing to Leon and to all the town's
businessmen. Eventually, she even attempts to prostitute herself
by offering to get back together with Rodolphe if he will give
her the money she needs. He refuses, and, driven to despair,
she commits suicide by eating arsenic. She dies in horrible agony.
For a while, Charles idealizes the memory of his wife. Eventually,
though, he finds her letters from Rodolphe and Leon, and he is
forced to confront the truth. He dies alone in his garden, and
Berthe is sent off to work in a cotton mill.
From: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bovary/summary.html
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