Madame Bovary
...eroine is glorified: Flaubert, a naturalist, never meant to portray Emma in the conventional expression of tragedy: She was intended to represent realistic behaviors instead of tragic events, and this is demonstrated through most of her affairs with men. One example of this is presented in Emma’s sexual affair with Rodolphe: When the wealthy and handsome man attempts to seduce her, the two of them were watching a county woman win an award for raising a prized pig. Through the use of symbolism, Flaubert demonstrates that to Emma pigs and men were a similar event. In addition to this, Emma simply does not conform to the traditional definition of a tragic hero of heroine. The conventional example is that of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a man who sacrifices himself for duty and familial obligations. (Vargas: 35) Hamlet allows himself to be brought low through his tragic flaw, which is honor. In contrast, Emma cannot be seen as a tragic heroine as she has no tragic flaws. Indeed, while the woman seems to be composed of nothing but flaws, there is no one specific flaw that brings her to her end. The reader might argue that her affairs for men were her tragic flaw, but this cannot be the case as Emma does not truly see men to be anything more that an amusement. The reader might argue that Emma’s quest for love was her tragic flaw, but again there is no evidence of this as her life seemed charted around the quest for love without her ever truly coming to terms with what love actually was. It is therefore difficult to justify the actions of Emma as tragic where they appear so much more foolish than anything else. Indeed, rather than being presented as a tragic heroine, whose search for the man of her dreams will all come to nothing, the reader would be better prepared through seeing Emma as the best representation of a “modern” heroine. Emma seeks self- gratification at all turns: Emma looks to ignore her husband and children in the pursuit of a goal that has absolutely no merit to anyone save herself. This paints her in the image of a modern literary figure, where the welfare of the individual shines far above ...