Madame Bovary: The Tragedy of Emma Bovary's Relationships with Herself and Others.

             Madame Bovary is a narrative which compels the reader to keep turning the pages once he has begun reading. There are no screaming car chases, no resourceful detectives, no horrifying surprises, and no terrifying secrets to capture the reader's attention and rivet him to the page: There is only a tragic, well-written, delightfully descriptive narrative about a woman who was raised in the convent, her life, her scandalous conduct, and her untimely death. The narrative is compelling in its concentration on the relationships between the characters in the novel. The tragedies of the novel are based on these relationships, especially the relationship of Emma to herself, to the men in her life, and to the peripheral characters in her life such as her daughter, Berthe, Monsieur Lheureux, the proprietor of the local dry-goods store, and Justin, the pharmacist's assistant.

             One of the tragedies of Emma Bovary's relationship with herself was that she never really understood herself. Emma did not realize that the yearning she had for an exciting lover who would romance her amidst the trappings of luxury was engendered by her reading of silly, sentimental stories while she was growing up. Because Emma was raised in a convent and had little exposure to life beyond the convent or her home farm, she had unrealistic expectations of ife–- expectations garnered from the foolish books she read. Emma seemed to believe that her perception of how life should be was the correct one and that people like her husband who never seemed to want anything more were "boobies." Emma never really understood herself enough to know that she was shallow, deceitful, sensuous, lustful, and totally corrupted by her desires. Emma's whole focus in life was pleasing herself; yet, she never really knew who she was.

             Another tragedy in Emma's relationship with herself was that she was never really honest with herself.