1. Dowry (pg. 46): the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to a man in marriage.
2. The novel begins on Charles Bovary's first day of school at a village school. The author reveals to us characteristics of his personality, such as the fact that he is not very hard working and merely an average child. This becomes evident when he fails his exam to get in to medical school several times before passing and getting a job in Tostes that his mother arranged for him. His mother also arranged a marriage to an old, supposedly rich widow who is very overbearing and protective when she finds out about Emma - the daughter of one of his patients that lives in another town. Charles becomes immediately infatuated with Emma, and despite the fact that his wife forbid him to see her, he pays many visits to her home. Soon after this, the old widow died a sudden death and Charles barely had time to grieve before asking her father for her hand in marriage. The wedding was held at Emma's farm, and guests were preocupied with the clothes they were not used to wearing and the rudeness of their hosts. When Emma arrives at Charles' place, Charles is clearly very happy with the marriage, while Emma is worried about making improvements to the home and she realizes that she only thought she was in love before she got married, but that their relationship is lacking the passion that she reads about in books.
3. I find it interesting how Flaubert portrays the relationship between love and marriage in these first few chapters. Charles' first marriage was to Heloise, an old widow who supposedly had a rather large fortune to her name. And for this reason, Charles' mother decides that she is suitable for her son. Although there was love in this marriage, it was unrequited. At times the old widow was overbearing and jealous, but even so, she loved Charles very much. After reading about the relationship between Charles and Heloise I find that the author is almost suggesting that at these times, love was not necessary in a marriage. Also, that men and women were merely settling for each other, regardless of how they felt about each other.
As I read more about the newly married couple Charles and Emma, I started to discover that Charles' love for Emma is also unrequited. Page 55 says: "Before she had married she thought she was in love. But the happiness that should have resulted from this love had not come; she must have deceived herself, she thought. Emma sought to learn what was really meant in life by the words " happiness," "passion," and "intoxication" -- words that had seemed so beautiful to her in books. Since Emma learned most of what she knows about love from books, she is comparing her marriage with Charles to those in the novels she reads. Because of her desire to live the rich life and have a perfect, passionate marriage, she will never be able to love Charles the way that he loves her.
4. a) I have to wonder why the author switches the point of view, in the very beginning it is told from the perspective of a classmate of Charles' and it switches to a random outsider. Is there a reason for this?
b) Although Charles loves Emma, I am thinking that he loves her for the wrong reasons. Does he truly have romantic love for her, or is he only in love with her because of the excitement she brings or her physical attractiveness?
c) Why did Flaubert write about the wedding for so long? As I was reading it, I almost got a little bored, did we really have to know every little detail about it?
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