Madame Bovary Part Two, Chapters 1 - 8
The narrator describes the town of Yonville with beautiful yet damning descriptions. He explains that it is a small town close to Rouen, built along a riverside, with a few small businesses that include the apothecary of a pompous and well-spoken man, Monsieur Homais. The first chapter of Part Two focuses on the local Inn, where the busy innkeeper and Homais await the arrival of the Bovarys. Homais gossips about the other residents of Lonville that frequent the inn, but kindly Innkeeper does not speak ill of any of her customers. Homais gossips about the odd habits of the local tax officer, Binet, as well as the priest, but he speaks kindly of the young Leon, who happens to be a lodger at his house. The Bovarys are delayed in reaching Yonville, because Emma loses her greyhound, and the wagon has to be halted as they attempt to retrieve the dog. However, they fail to find the greyhound, and Emma blames Charles for this loss. Upon their arrival at Inn, Homais, and Leon join the Bovarys for dinner.
Leon is a young clerk working with the local lawyer, and studying Law from a university in Paris. Leon and Emma seem to be kindred souls, they bond over interests like books, plays, music, and the world of high society. They both prefer books that move their passion and dislike anything that resembles common life. Meanwhile, Homais informs Charles of the conditions of Yonville and provides him with gossip about the most important citizens of their small town. The Bovarys go then to their new abode, and Emma sets about getting their new household in order. In this pursuit, Homais behaves like the perfect neighbor but his actions are motivated by his desire to ingratiate himself with Charles, the new Doctor of the town. Charles becomes depressed due to the lack of patients in the new town, but his spirits are buoyed by Emma’s ever-growing pregnancy. Her joy in the matter is rather limited as she could not afford the things she liked to glamorize her pregnancy, and so her excitement over the matter faded. She decided that she wanted to have a son, who would not be limited by his gender to explore the world and society, like she had been limited by her gender as a woman. To her disappointment, she birthed a daughter, and after much discussion christened her daughter Berthe, a name that she had heard about at the Marquis’ Ball.
A few days after the birth of her daughter, Emma set out to visit her child, who was being cared for by the wet nurse. She felt weak just as soon as she left her house and ran into Leon. She then walked to the wet nurse with Leon, and the whole of Yomville heard of how Leon was seen to be supporting her along the path. They felt a great deal of pleasure in each other's company but did not speak much. At the squalid house of the wet nurse, Emma felt embarrassed and hurried the visit to quickly extricate herself from all signs of poverty. The wet nurse begs Emma to send her some coffee, and brandy. Leon escorts her back to the house and then returns out into the countryside. Leon feels utterly bored of Yonville, and Emma seems so utterly desirable to him, yet he felt that a great distance lay between them.
Slowly but surely, the Bovarys settled into life at Yonville, where Homais was a regular dinner guest, and the Bovarys returned this social gesture with weekly visits to his house. Through these dinners, Leon and Emma became especially close. They would browse fashion magazines together, Emma would ask Leon to recite her poetry, and they often traded books with one another. None of this bothered Charles, but Leon was restless and desired to confess his true feelings of attraction to Emma but he worried about the consequences. So he never quite managed to express his true feelings to her. Emma never thought she loved Leon, for she believed that love had to be a sudden and violent storm that came unsuspected. Yet, Emma soon realized that Leon had intense romantic feelings for her. On a walk with Homais, and Leon, Emma observed the difference in appearance between Leon and her husband. She dwelled on this image later, and as she was wondering about his love life, she soon realized that he loved her very deeply. This piece of information worked a miraculous change in Madame Bovary. She resumed her old ways of managing the household, those that she had abandoned upon being disillusioned by married life. She even refused to indulge her desires for fancy goods when she turned away, Monsieur Lhereux, who mentioned that he also worked as a money lender.
She became a better wife, and a better mother in the eyes of everyone including Charles, and most wondrously, her behavior changed with Leon. She always acted as if she were too consumed by her roles as a wife, and mother. Leon began to think that Emma had gone yet further away from him. On the contrary, Emma had become deeply obsessed with Leon and took all opportunities to observe him. She spent hours fantasizing about Leon and tried to get to know everything about him. Furthermore, she continued to feel intense hatred for their poverty and hated that Charles did not understand her anguish. The maid would sometimes find her crying all by herself.
In her restlessness, Emma attempts to find peace in religion as she visits the church and attempts to converse with the priest. However, the priest is far too occupied with his children, and whenever Emma makes mention of suffering, his thoughts always turn to the pains of the poor folk. She returns home disappointed and hurts Berthe by pushing her away when the child attempts to seek her mother’s affection. Berthe receives a small cut on her face and becomes very upset. The cut on the child’s face is small, and Charles treats Berthe with the utmost kindness, all the while telling Emma that she needn’t be upset about the small injury. He visits the apothecary and spends a little time discussing the incident with Homais. He returns to find Emma still standing near the sleeping Berthe and assumes that she is upset about the injury, but Emma had been thinking about how ugly her daughter looked.
Leon grows restless and bored with Yonville, so he decides to make the move to Paris ahead of time. In his last meeting with Madame Bovary, they seem on the point of confessing their feelings, but part with just a small touch of the hand. Emma is stricken with sadness during the dinner, and she barely hears Homais informing them that an important agricultural fair is going to be held at Yonville
Following Leon’s departure, Emma descended into depression once again and even her health began to suffer as she coughed up blood one morning. Emma seemed not to care for her health but Charles became intensely worried for her and called his mother for aid. The old Madame Bovary did her best to get Emma back to taking care of her household, but she only managed marginal success. On the day she was leaving the Bovarys, Monsieur Rodolphe walked in with his servant. Rodolphe was a rich bachelor with a handsome income, who had recently purchased land in the region. Madame Bovary made a severe impression on him with her beauty and Parisian charm. He was obsessed with women, and delighted by the beauty and manners of Emma. After leaving the doctor’s house, Rodolphe thought only of how he wanted to have her and knew he could have her with three little words. He believed that she was depressed with her life and looking for a way to experience more excitement. He was held back by one difficulty, he wasn’t quite sure how he would get rid of her after he had become her lover. He stops thinking about the exit and focuses on beginning his affair with her through the agricultural fair.
On the final day of the show, Rodolphe spends nearly the whole day talking to her and flirting with her quite openly. They seclude themselves on another level during the award ceremony and begins to confess his love for her. He charms her and flirts with her constantly, while begins to link him to the Viscount and Leon. They hold each others’ hands and talk of pursuing passion even if it may intervene against the public’s perception of morality. After the ceremony, Rodolphe drops her home, and obsessively thinks of her during the following days even as he avoids going to see her.
Analysis
Emma’s boredom drives a lot of the action of the play, and as such it is one of the major themes of the novel. This focus on boredom is another characteristic of realist literature Flaubert actively fought against the romanticism movement by focusing on the mundane aspects of life that were generally avoided by Romantic writers of his time. In this section of the novel, readers begin to understand the deeper sentiments of Madame Bovary as she contends with the conditions of marriage and motherhood. Her materialistic outlook on the world is made evident through her disinterest in her pregnancy because she cannot afford to buy the glamorous paraphernalia of pregnancy. More importantly, this section involving Emma’s pregnancy anticipates a lot of the feminist ideas that are commonly understood in the contemporary world. Emma expresses her desire for a son because she wants her child to have the power that she has lacked in her life. This powerlessness becomes all the more evident as the plot progresses. Flaubert suggests that women during this time in history only could exert power in the world by means of their sexual potential. Emma desires a better living, but she is powerless, and can only rely on men around her to provide for her. She finds passion in the arms of her lovers, yet both of her lovers have the freedom to leave, while Emma cannot help but depend on them for her happiness.
On the other hand, the author skilfully helps the reader understand the greater context of Emma’s character through the other characters in the village. Her interactions with the villagers allow the reader to appreciate Emma’s socioeconomic condition to be comfortable. Her conversation with the wet nurse indicates that Emma has access to commodities that her neighbors and peers do not, yet she remains discontented. Emma begins to act like a devoted mother after she concludes that Leon is in love with her. This role of a dutiful wife is her means of playing the romantic role of the martyr, but the reality of her characters comes to the fore with how she injures Berthe, and how she views the injured child when Charles finds her. Emma is saved from infidelity by Leon’s decision to move away from Yonville, and not through her desire to remain loyal to Charles.
