The Contradictions of Emma Bovary: A Study of Human Nature

　　The most important thing in “Madame Bovary” is of course the female image of Emma. At the beginning, the author did not narrate her as a key character. It felt like she was hiding behind Mr. Charles Bovary and suddenly jumped out. After jumping out, the light kept shining on her.
　　Bovary met Emma for the first time when he was helping the farmer to repair his broken leg. The opportunity and events of the encounter between the characters are not worth saying, but what is impressive is that Emma uses her “hands” Appearance: “Her nails were so white that Charles was surprised. They were shiny, with slender fingertips, cut into an oval shape, and were cleaner than Dieppe’s ivory. But her hands were not beautiful, maybe not soft enough.” Then. Emma’s “eyes” appear: “She has a pair of beautiful big eyes. The brown eyes turn black due to the eyelashes. Her gaze glances at you, bold and frank, innocent.” I want
　　Fulou Mr. Bye did not intend for Emma’s hand to become a metaphor for a story, but the description of that hand can somewhat reveal a shadow: What kind of fate will Emma’s hand create for herself and Mr. Bovary?
　　The character of Emma is full of suspense as soon as she appears. Mr. Flaubert highlights Emma’s contradictory character with just a few strokes. He said that Emma likes the church because she likes the flowers outside the church, likes music because she likes the lyrics about love between you and me, and likes literature because she actually likes the romance and excitement of literature. These few strokes not only explain vanity, but also express this. The woman’s contradictory and restless heart is outlined. Emma entered a monastery as a girl, where others served God, but she read a lot of romantic and wonderful novels. She grew up in such a rebellious undercurrent. This nature made her want to be a good wife and mother. However, she eventually became the famous Madame Bovary.

　　Judging from the whole novel, Emma’s tragic fate is snowballing in this well-matched marriage, getting bigger and bigger. Initially, in this peaceful newlywed life, Emma only got a feeling of peace, but Mr. Bovary, the so-called infatuated man, felt differently. Flaubert wrote a very wonderful sentence: “For Charles, no matter how big the world is, it is not bigger than Emma’s silk petticoat.” A woman has such an important position in her husband’s heart, and such a relationship between men and women is asymmetrical. It is also the soil where the crisis occurs.
　　The novel describes the carriage “Swallow”, which travels between Yongzhen and Rouen again and again, between quiet and dull towns and big cities. Emma’s path of depravity is also like this carriage, taking its time and traveling between families. between lovers. Emma’s inner world gradually became turbulent as marriage showed its boring nature. Before arriving in Rongzhen, Emma was not tired of her life, and her courage had not yet been cultivated by herself and men. But Emma’s restless heart is destined to look for storms, just waiting for the corresponding weather; on the other hand, the two men, Leon and Rodolphe, are also waiting for such weather, and when they meet Emma, ​​they meet a storm.
　　In the novel “Madame Bovary”, there are always men lingering in front of and behind Emma around Emma. Judging from the arrangement of the relationship between the characters, the relationship between Emma and Mr. Bovary is the skeleton from beginning to end, so Mr. Bovary is always the man lingering behind her; while Léon and Rodolphe pass in front of her People, their comings and goings, each time promote the development of the story, and also change the color of Emma’s emotional world. Sometimes it is sunshine, sometimes it is darkness. Of course, what is more important is the coming and going of the two men in the end. It’s to take Emma into the abyss.
　　Emma’s hands are no longer mentioned later in the novel, but we seem to see countless hands pulling her into an abyss of no return. From a financial perspective, the hands of the businessman Mr. Leheure are the darkest: he keeps tempting Emma with the luxurious clothes, curtains, and lace that Emma likes, and gives her credit. For profit, he takes a small-town doctor. His wife became a shopaholic. Judging from the emotional indicators, the hands of the two lovers are cold and deadly: Although Leon’s hand was still holding Emma, ​​he pushed it away after asking for it; Rodolphe witnessed Emma’s hand Depraved, he simply put his hands in his pockets and adopted a stand-by policy. The most noteworthy thing is M. Bovary’s hand. Whether and what role those hands played in Emma’s tragedy can be discussed from the beginning.
　　Mr. Bovary is a mediocre man. As Emma’s husband, he has never understood his wife. In other words, even the readers understand Mrs. Bovary better than Mr. Bovary. He first enters the novel from the beginning, and then slowly retreats from the back, always lingering behind Emma like a ghost. He and Emma are a couple, but they form a strange relationship that shadows each other.
　　Readers are often surprised by Mr. Bovary’s extraordinary tolerance for Emma, ​​but please note that that kind of indulgence and tolerance is also a burden for Emma. There is a sentence mentioned in the novel: When Emma looked at Mr. Bovary, she always felt that his eyes were so innocent and he loved her so much that she felt like a whip was hitting her. So I say that M. Bovary’s hand was also stretched out to Emma, ​​”with a whip” to whip Emma in the name of love and kindness. It can also be said that this hand’s letting Emma go is very subtle. After Emma’s death, Mr. Bovary finally died in the garden, and his hand appeared again, still holding Emma’s hair when he died. We can say that he held on to his love for his wife, right? Can it be said that what he is holding on to is his own property?
　　Of course, it is more convincing to say that there is so much evil in other people’s hands than to say that Emma’s own hands are a pair of self-destructive hands. There is no need to conceal that as the story progresses, Emma, ​​a woman, gradually becomes hateful. If we try to summarize Emma’s character and qualities, we can draw the following conclusions: romance, vanity, selfishness, rebellion, unwillingness mediocre. All this seems to apply to all women (including men) and is a normal part of human nature. It should not be so deadly or evil. However, what Mr. Flaubert describes is that under appropriate social conditions, all the flowers of human nature are in full bloom. Open, including the flower of evil, it can also bloom as much as it wants. Therefore, the most shocking thing about the image of Madame Bovary is that we see an ordinary tree of humanity, but on this tree are unusual flowers of evil!
　　At the end of the novel, many people actually hold daggers across Emma’s head. The ending of the novel should be clear to everyone. Madame Bovary’s family went bankrupt and was heavily in debt, and she finally chose to commit suicide. Finally Emma took arsenic. I think this is the only way to go in a situation where a sword pierces the heart, a woman asks endlessly from the world, finds nothing in return, and is heavily in debt, and finally takes her own life. Giving your life is to escape and to repent. After Emma died, the tombstone set by Mr. Bovary for her was very evocative. The tombstone said: “Don’t trample on a good wife!” I think this is not an ironic ending set by the author on the tombstone. In fact, Mr. Flaubert has become Madame Bovary. Ask him to summarize Emma’s life. I’m afraid what he summarizes is a pair of endless contradictions: Emma is an endless contradiction and an endless life. difficult problem.
　　I think the greatness of this work does not lie in the greatness of Emma as a character, nor in the greatness of this story. In fact, what is great is that Mr. Flaubert wrote a book about the contradictions of human nature a hundred years ago. Book. The Book of Contradictions of Human Nature is also an encyclopedia of human nature.