This is interesting, because as Paris notes: It has become a commentary on his own work. As such, this commentary about Emma’s romanticism becomes much more than a commentary about a realist author against the romantic novel. In fact, his work at times becomes so romantic that his friends jeered him and demanded he write something real (Chang). It is worthwhile to note though that Flaubert’s early work is stereotypical romantic literature. She is only concerned with her image, as she openly admits that she continues “out of vanity” to appear the mourning heroine.
She let herself meander along the Lamartine, listened to harps on lakes, to all the songs of dying swans…She soon grew tired but wouldn’t admit it, continued from habit first, then out of vanity, and at last was surprised to feel herself consoled, and with no more sadness at heart than wrinkles on her brow ( Bovary 34).Įmma is in fact pleased at herself for the quality of her mourning, emotions that run only as deep as her skin, as evidenced by the comment about the wrinkles on her brow. When her mother died she cried much the first few days…Emma was pleased that she had reached at a first attempt the rare ideal of delicate lives, never attained by mediocre hearts. Emma spends all of her childhood reading romantic novels and, from a young age has a very definite image of the way the world is supposed to work:
It is at once playing up the romantic form but is also condescending and critical about those who read it. One point of conversion between Flaubert’s life and this novel is the attitude the novel takes towards Romanticism.
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