1. immaculate (page 161) : having no stain or blemish: pure. Also, containing no flaw or error.
2. In this part of the novel, Rodolphe leaves Emma for six weeks thinking that it will make her miss him even more, when he returns she is at first angry with him and then she gives in to his charm and they are romantic with each other. Rodolphe offers her a horse to ride, Charles urges her to accept his offer because he thinks it will be good for her health. Emma does not want to, but again she gives in and they ride off together and Rodolphe again confesses his love for her. However, Rodolphe soon grows tired of her and stays with her merely because he thinks she is beautiful. The town definitely knows of their affair so they try to be more careful with it. Meanwhile, Homais and Emma convince Charles to preform a surgery in an attempt to correct the clubfoot of Hippolyte, a servant. Charles fails to correct his deformity and Emma again deems him incompetent and is very embarassed of him. Emma is hinting to Rodolphe that she would like to leave Charles and because of her carelessness when Charles' mother comes to visit, she knows that Emma is having an affair. The two of them argue and this pushes Emma farther away from Charles and she and Rodolphe decide to runaway together and take Berthe with them. However, after one of their "secret" meetings Rodolphe decides that he does not want to go. Rodolphe writes Emma a letter full of lies saying that it is his fault that they could not run away together and he really does love her. Emma is heartbroken and contemplates throwing herself out of the attic window. Charles unknowingly stops her from killing herself as he calls to her to come downstairs. She faints when she sees Rodolphe leaving town and becomes ill for the next few months, Charles calls in doctors from all over to try and cure her, but there is no luck.
3. Whenever Emma is looking out of the window in the attic she sees Binet working in his lathe. At first, I did not think anything of it. But then I realized that Flaubert was trying to show us the irony of Emma seeing Binet working. The author intends to show us that while Binet is working at his life, Emma's is destructing. Also, he again shows how Emma is far too dramatic in his descriptions of this scene, for example, page 200 says: " She could see him in front of her, hear him; she was wrapping her arms around him. Her heart was pounding like a sledgehammer, furiously, irregularly, constantly accelerating. She looked all around her, hoping that the earth would crumble. Why not end it all? Who was keeping her back?"
Also, when Emma looks out the window she sees that the world is going about their usual business, she is very disappointed. I found it interesting that the author would include these over the top emotions in a realistic part in the novel. In a classic romantic novel the main character would never be contemplating suicide.
4. a) Emma seems to have a pattern of destruction, she becomes infatuated with a man, then it goes wrong, then she wallows in self-pity, then decides to be a better wife and go to church. Then, after doing this, she repeats it. Is she incapable of learning from her mistakes or does she just want to lead a very dramatic life?
b) Why did Charles, Emma, and Homais decide to fix Hippolyte's foot? I know that he had a club foot, but he wasn't complaining about it and was still able to do his daily work.
c) In the end of this section Rodolphe breaks Emma's heart and she wishes to commit suicide. Since Charles prevents her from doing so, she is overcome with misery. Is Rodolphe to blame for Emma's corruption?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment