“ The more things change, the more they remain the same”
This is the crux of the novel ‘ Madame Bovary’ by Gustave Flaubert. The book brings in different thoughts to my mind, thoughts of love, sex, adultery, understanding, compatibility and many more. I probed beneath the superficial façade of the characters and introspected their psyche. The novel is full of flesh and blood characters (could be any one of us).
The protagonist, Emma doesn’t know what she wants in life. That is the dilemma we are in. Though we feel that we are focused and goal-oriented but it all leads to nothingness. Emma looks for thrill in her marriage. In spite of having a doting husband and child she goes astray. So trying to find recourse elsewhere is a defensive technique. The assurances that the two men, Leon and Rudolph give Emma all accentuate the void in her life. Her life is like a phantasmagoria with so many changing sequences of illusion and reality but not leading anywhere. Eventually she is stifled in the vortex of space less existence and she chooses to die by consuming arsenic.
“ Life for her was like a bus, she knew that she ultimately had to get off at the last stop then why not a stop before”
{Hey I am not glorifying suicide}
She wanted the best out of her relationships failing to recognize the good things those relationships had to offer. Life could be like a game of bridge (I like bridge) It is not about having a good hand but playing effectively with a poor hand. The trump card is in there but we fail to recognize it.
This is not a mushy romance with larger than life characters but believable ones and their impact on the reader’s minds. You may expect something significant to come out of it but the way Emma lived her life is irrevocable. In the quest of a spiritual and an elevated life Emma finds only self-destruction. That is why I feel,
“ The more things change, the more they remain the same”
I haven’t revealed the story at all because I want you to discover it yourself. Predictability is passe and moreover very few things in life are worth waiting for.Nothing about promiscuity in my write-up. Well an idea sells . Just do it! I mean just grab the book.