Madame Bovary 3/Kugelmass 1

How does the last section of Madame Bovary further reveal Emma’s conceitedness?

            Emma’s conceitedness is revealed to the audience throughout the entire story, but it is even further revealed in the last section.  Throughout the story, it is made obvious that Emma is only concerned with her own feelings and is not happy with her own marriage; because she is not happy with her own marriage, she tries to find this happiness elsewhere by having affairs.  In Part Two, Chapter XV Emma sees Léon when she and Charles are at the theater and she instantly became not so interested with the theater.  For example, it says “from that moment on Emma no longer listened to the music,” she instead “recalled the card games at the pharmacist’s and the walk to the wet nurse’s, their readings under the arbor, the tête-à-têtes beside the fire – the whole poor story their love, so quiet and so long, so discreet, so tender, and yet discarded from her memory” (1225). This reveals that she is only concerned with herself because instead of focusing on the play that her husband brought her to, she is only concerned with the thought of Léon and the love that they shared.  Also in Part Three, Chapter IV Emma seems to become “intensely musical,” but she believes she is not good enough and needs lessons that they cannot afford (1245).  Eventually Charles tells Emma that he thinks she could be able to take lessons every now and then, but she insists that they will not be worth taking unless she takes them regularly; Charles gives in her wishes.  The piano lessons reveal her self-centeredness because she does not really want the piano lessons that Charles will be paying for, she instead just wants to be able to travel to the city once a week so she could see Léon (1246).  In Part Three, Chapter VI Emma becomes infuriated that Léon was late to their “appointment,” so when Léon finally went to meet her she was gone and she suddenly saw him as someone negative (1259).  This shows that she is only worried about herself because when things did not go her way and Léon did not show up on time she instantly became infuriated and focused only on his flaws.  She also appears self-centered in Part Three, Chapter VII when she drinks the poison (1279); this makes her appear conceited because she is committing suicide ultimately because she is not satisfied.  The last section of Madame Bovary reveals even further Emma’s sense of conceitedness.

How does the last section of Madame Bovary show that Charles is blind to what is happening in his own marriage?

            Charles has been blind to what is truly happening in his own marriage throughout the entire story, but it seems as if he is even further blinded in the last section.  In Part Three, Chapter II, Emma is persuaded by Lheureux to become Charles’s power of attorney in order to settle her debts, and of course, Charles agrees (1242).  Charles agrees to let her do so because he does not know what is truly going on.  In Part Three, Chapter IV when Emma “obtained her husband’s permission to go to the city once a week” because he believes that she is going to take piano lessons that he is paying for, but in reality she is not, she is going to see Léon (1246).  This shows that Charles is blind to what is really going on because he is paying for her to go to the city once a week and she is simply just using his money as an excuse to have an affair with Léon.  In Part Three, Chapter V Charles tells Emma that he spoke with her piano teacher, but that she did not even know Emma, but Emma insists that she must have just forgotten her name.  Charles, once again being blind to what is truly going on, instantly thinks of other possibilities, like there might be “more than one Mademoiselle Lempereur in Rouen who teaches piano” (1251).  Emma also says that she has her receipts, which are forged, and Charles instantly believes her lies.  Throughout the last section of Madame Bovary, Emma is consistently using Charles’s money for her and Léon although they are in debt, to the point that she is selling many of Charles’s items in order to attempt to pay off this debt she has created.  In Part Three, Chapter VI Emma is also sending bills to Charles’s patients so that she can obtain their money to put toward paying off her debt (1262).  Charles is unaware that she is doing that and also at how in debt they are.  In Part Three, Chapter XI Charles found the letter in the attic that Rodolphe had written her, but he makes himself believe that “they only loved each other platonically” (1296).  Therefore, he was blinded to the truth, even though the truth was right before his eyes.  His blindness to his own marriage left him with many responsibilities; for example, he was now responsible for all the debts she caused him to have.  Because of his inability to realize what was truly going on in his marriage, he becomes severely depressed when he finds out the truth after Emma died, which leads to his own death.

How are the motifs and ideas of “The Kugelmass Episode” similar to the motifs and ideas of Madame Bovary?

            Both Kugelmass and Emma appear to have similar character traits, although they are from different time periods.  Both Kugelmass and Emma display the motif of unhappiness.  Both characters appear to be unhappy with their own marriage, so they have the idea that they must find romance and love elsewhere.  Because of their idea of “love,” it leads them to both revealing the motif of adultery; both characters have multiple affairs.  For example, in “The Kugelmass Episode” Kugelmass has an affair with Emma and then goes back to Persky because he wants to have another affair, and in Madame Bovary Emma has affairs with Rodolphe and Léon.  The affairs that Kugelmass and Emma have in the stories lead to them having the idea that they must be secretive and deceitful so no one will find out what they are truly doing; they lie to their spouse of where they are going, when they are truly going to be with their lover.  Both Kugelmass’s wife and Emma’s husband both suspect that they are acting different, but they both lie and assure them that they are doing nothing wrong.  In both “The Kugelmass Episode” and Madame Bovary, Emma and Kugelmass have the idea that the affairs are their reality of happiness and they believe that spending endless amounts of money in their affairs made them happy, which, in return, makes both characters obtain a debt to a certain extent.  Also, in both stories they believe they hold the idea that novels depict the perfect love.  For example, in “The Kugelmass Episode” Kugelmass wants to have an affair with a character in a novel because he believes that will bring him happiness.  Also, in Madame Bovary, Emma has unrealistic ideas about love because she constantly wants to find a love like the ones she reads about in novels.  Therefore, both “The Kugelmass Episode” and Madame Bovary reveal the motif of unrealistic expectations.  By reading both stories, it is revealed that “The Kugelmass Episode” and Madame Bovary share many of the same central motifs and ideas that are crucial to both stories plot.