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Madame Bovary, Part III (Chapters 1-4)

Madame Bovary, Part III (Chapters 1-4). The Cathedral Scene Example of Flaubert’s “contrapuntal” method? Note change in Leon/Emma (200, 201) Who is in charge here? Cathedral = “boudoir” (207) Perverted Wedding? (followed by Ch. 3, “Honeymoon Days”) Physical vs. Spiritual

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Madame Bovary, Part III (Chapters 1-4)

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  1. Madame Bovary, Part III (Chapters 1-4) The Cathedral Scene • Example of Flaubert’s “contrapuntal” method? • Note change in Leon/Emma (200, 201) • Who is in charge here? • Cathedral = “boudoir” (207) • Perverted Wedding? (followed by Ch. 3, “Honeymoon Days”) • Physical vs. Spiritual • Significance of verger’s tour, religious scenes? (“The spire!”) • “Everybody does it in Paris!” (210)

  2. The Cab Ride • “Rocking like a ship” (211) • Effect of narrative? • Why are we outside of the cab? • Why the list of street names, places (211)? • Compare to I, 7 (pp. 34-5) & II, 12 (p. 169)

  3. Ch. 5-6 • Tapping • Verger (210) • Hippolyte(163, 217) • Caulker’s mallets (221) • Leon knocks on door (223) • Emma’s foot (226) • Blind Beggar’s stick! • Symbolism? • Significance of song? (230)

  4. Emma’s growing Power • With Charles (primarily financially) • Significance of Power of Attorney? • Lheureux confusing her (235-6) • Charles “had to beg her many times before she would consent to accept a power of attorney again” (237-8) • “‘I can’t feel free if I know you’re going to get upset like this whenever I’m the slightest bit late.’ It was her way to giving herself permission to indulge in her escapades without restraint. She used it freely and fully” (239). • With Leon (sexually) • “[S]he gave him such precise instructions with regard to the double envelopes he was to use that he greatly admired her amorous guile” (222). • “Furthermore, was she not a ‘lady’ and a married woman – in short, a real mistress? … She was the amorous heroine of all novels and plays, the vague ‘she’ of all poetry” (229). • “She called him ‘child’: ‘Do you love me, child?’” (229). • “‘He was a sea captain, darling.’ By giving him this answer was she not … placing herself in an exalted position …? The clerk now felt the lowliness of his own position” (232). • “He never argued against her ideas; he accepted all her tastes; he was becoming her mistress more than she was his” (240).

  5. Emma’s Depravity/Decay • Setting: short cuts through “dark alleys … lower end … theater district … taverns and prostitutes .. a smell of absinthe, cigars, and oysters” (227). • Lying: (piano lessons/receipt) “From then on her whole life was a tissue of lies which she wrapped around her love like a veil, to hide it. Lying became a need, a mania, a pleasure” (233). • Epiphany that Romance ≠ Reality (245) • Description of Sex (244) – sordid, depraved, almost diabolical • Garden: “overgrown with tall grass and weeds” (249) • Books: “lurid novels full of orgiastic scenes and bloody deeds” (249-250) • Leon (vs. Ideal): 251 • Company: “There was a clerk, two medical students and a salesman – what company for her! As for the women, she quickly realized, from the sound of their voices, that most of them must be from the lower classes” (252). • Increasing financial problems, mortgaging PAST (father’s wedding gift) and FUTURE (promissory notes)

  6. Madame Bovary, Part ThreeCh. 7-8 • Emma & Prostitution: • Lheureux (254) • Leon (257) • Guillamin – notary (262-3) • regret/Binet (264-5) • Rodolphe (267) • Love + Money (269) • Merging visions of cathedral & viscount (258) • Binet lost in “bliss” of lathe work (264-5) – like Catherine Leroux? (130) • Back to Rodolphe!

  7. Emma’s final descent (271) • Emma’s Romantic suicide and deathbed scene (acting): • Stoical (273) • Serenely mysterious (274) • Forgiving (275) • Affectionate (276-7) • Religious (280-1)

  8. Canivet, then Dr. Lariviere (“god-like” – 277, 279) • What does Flaubert honor/praise/respect? (371) • Last rites (280-1) = sensual, passionate – she again “surrenders herself” (281) • Dying image? “The blind man!” (282)

  9. Part III, Ch. 9-11 (Post-Emma) • Why not end with Emma’s death? (p. 282 = effective ending, no?) • Emma’s corpse, like suicide (and her life!), is neither Romantic nor Beautiful, but rather is corrupt and revolting • Emma influences Charles, etc., from beyond the grave (295-6) • Town = static, controlled by: Homais, Lheureux

  10. Funeral service: • Parallels wedding procession • 294: Rodolphe, Leon asleep • Justin awake! (also p. 272) • Grave inscription: • “Stand, traveler. You are treading/trampling on a loved/lovable wife” • “Stop, traveler. A wife worthy of love lies beneath your feet.” • Homais/Science/“audacity” vs. Bournisien/Religion/ “stupidity”: • 285, 286, 287, 288, & 289 • Sig. of Homais vs. Beggar? (297-8) • Legion of Honor vs. Lariviere, “disdainful of decorations” (277)

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