Emma Bovary

Emma Bovary is the protagonist and the main hero of the story. She is a nice woman though she is also irresponsible and immature. Also, we see that in some situations she is a neurotic woman with a lot of problems. She is simply unable to face the realities of life.

Talking about her early life, she was born in a village and being at very young age; she marries Charles Bovary. She completely understands that he isn’t her soulmate and it was a stupid thing to marry him in such an early age.

She is very beautiful, as we can tell by the way several men fall in love with her, but she is morally corrupt and unable to accept and appreciate the realities of her life. She always dreamt about romantic relationships full of love and respect; she wanted to have a sophisticated and passionate life. That feeling of lost life which she imagined made from her a depressed and boredom woman.

Also, she has a daughter Berthe, what is strange is that she doesn’t have any feelings to her. She feels completely okay to leave her child raised by the house help.

Nothing can be so bad, an occasional sense of guilt or memories of her simple childhood and kind father cause Emma, rarely, to re-evaluate her life. Emma always believed in God and felt like He is her only saviour, that is why she grows religious and starts becoming a better wife and mother. But all those struggles are described very short too as her desire to have romantics in her life is stronger.

In this book, she has affairs with both Rodolphe and Leon and thus develops massive debts against her husband's property. When she realizes she cannot escape her dishonesty and financial problems, Emma commits suicide; she prefers death over coming to terms with how she chose to live her life.