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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
Madame Bovary was written during a transition period between romanticism and realism and was particularly written in response to the critique of his novel The Temptation of Saint Anthony by his friends, who requested that he write in a more realistic style. The novel abides by the genre of realism through its frank descriptions of gruesome matters, such as the operation on Hippolyte’s club foot, and its exploration of the tedium of Emma’s everyday life.
Furthermore, the novel follows a logical and slow-paced plot that demonstrates how actions have consequences, primarily shown by Emma’s slowly accumulating debt ruining her family. Flaubert uses realism to directly critique the bourgeoisie through realistic depictions of immoral bourgeois characters and their shallow lifestyles. Furthermore, the novel explores other social issues, such as the limitations on female agency in contemporary French society.
However, Flaubert is a romantic at heart and includes some elements of the genre within the novel through Emma’s romantic ideals, which contrast with her more realistic setting. The tragic contrast between Emma, who tries to fashion her life after the romantic novels she idealizes, and the genre she is written in presents a cynical view of the real world as often disappointing. The novel’s use of Emma to display this contrast and critique of romanticism and realism mirrors Don Quixote, which Flaubert was heavily inspired by, and likewise satirizes the fading chivalric romance genre while simultaneously disdaining realism.
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