Nature of Love in Madame Bovary - Literature review Example

"Love" and "Madame Bovary" Morgan Scott Peck was a renowned American psychiatrist and a novelist. He is famous for his bestselling book entitled The Road Less Travelled that was published in the year 1978. Peck was born in the year 1936 and died in 2005 (Peck 35). In Gustave Flauberts great love novel titled Madame Bovary, the author uses different characters in portraying the main theme of love. These characters include Charles Bovary who is the husband to Emma Bovary, Leon Dupuis, Rodoplphe Boulanger, Monsieurs Homais, and Lhereux. The author used the northern province of France as his setting near a town called Rouen in Normandy. To start with Charles Bovary is portrayed to had a humble beginning but struggled against all odds to a second rate medical degree where he later became an officier de santé in the department of the Public Health Service. He married Heloise Dubuc who was a rich widow and his mother’s choice, Charles decided to practice in a small village called Toste. In this book, he defined love as an activity and an investment but not a feeling. He further claimed that love is an individual will to extend himself/herself with an intention of nurturing spiritual growth. Therefore, Peck concluded that love is all about activities geared towards nurturing one another’s spiritual growth. He further drew distinction between love and cathexis, where he claimed that, cathexis is that which defines sexual attraction as well as that responsible for affectionate actions such as cuddling pets together with pinching of the cheeks of babies. However, he asserted that cathexis has nothing to do with love (Peck 85). Furthermore, he proposed that isolation is not a recipe for initiation of true love but agreed that cathexis in sufficient amount is needed to achieve true love. After cathexis stage, love begins to thrive, meaning that it comprises of the activities that the parties involved performs to one another but not necessarily the feeling itself (Manning 11). This is in agreement with what Pecks say in his book where he claims, “Love is as love does” (Peck 86). Up to this point, it is true to say that love is all about providing yourself together with the other individual with the basic requirements needed for growth. This requires the parties involved to fully understand and know one another (Morrison 22). Charles met his future wife Emma Rouault during his visit to the local farm to set the Emma’s father broken leg. At that point, Emma was beautiful and attractive with good education; however, she was yearning for luxury and romance that she learnt from the novels she was reading. Instantly, Charles fell in love with her and increased the frequency of his visit Emma’s father with the excuse of attending to his patient leg. His wife Heloise learnt of this and became jealous, consequently, Charles had to stop his visit to Emma’s place. However, Heloise later died and Charles rekindled his relationship with Emma, which progressed to marriage following her father’s consent (Flaubert 76). From the character of Charles, it is possible to argue that Peck idea of love is correct. This is because; the love between Charles and Emma began with a mere cathexis. Charles was attracted with the beauty of Emma, he was ready to defy all odds including increasing the frequency of his visit to Emma’s home as well as becoming unfaithful to his wife Heloise. This clearly shows that love is more than just feelings but the sacrifices the parties involved are ready to take for the sake of those they love. In addition, Charles proved his love for Emma by marrying her immediately after the demise of his wife. Peck is right by claiming in his book that falling in love is a temporary escape route to loneliness, he attributes this to fact that romance always fades irrespective of effort made by the partners involved to rescue their relationship. This is evident in the marriage between Emma and Charles, this is because after sometime of marriage life, Emma became disillusioned with the life of marriage that made her to become dull and listless (Flaubert 177-89). This made Charles to be worried and he thought that a change in environment could salvage the situation; consequently, they relocated to the larger environment of market town, Yon Ville. At the market town, the couples were blessed with a daughter and they named her Berthe. As later learnt, Emma became disappointed with motherhood and her marriage with Charles. As we learn from the book, Emma became infatuated with Leon Dupuis who was among the first intelligent young men she encountered at market town of Yon Ville (Flaubert 301). Leon Dupuis was a law student and shared common taste of “good life” with Emma, Emma could not reveal her love for Leon because of fear of shame. Therefore, she pretended to be a loving mother and a devoted wife, which is a testimony to the Peck’s idea of love that says that love is not just feelings but what an individual is ready to do for those they love. Unfortunately, Leon Dupuis decided to relocate to Paris purposefully with the aim escaping Emma’s ever-growing love for him (Flaubert 306). As Lauren Slater, whom is the author of an essay titled "Love" put it that, the dopamine always fades and the serotonin levels always rise. In addition to this, Peck in his book believes that the myth of romantic love is "a dreadful lie," because it is responsible for the ghastly confusion and sufferings to those involved, which is true in the Madame Bovary. In ideal situation, marriage life should be a fulfilling one where the couples lead a happy life full enjoyment but it is not the case for the situation in the novel Madame Bovary. The case of Emma Bovary is a classic example of the claim. Emma met with Leon when the couples attended opera in the nearby Rouen. Leon attended and immediately their old flame started burning again. At this time, Leon had finished his law training and was practicing at Rouen. Emma lied to her husband Charles that she was attending piano lesson but in reality, she was travelling to the city to meet with her love, Leon. This, she did weekly where they got a costumed of meeting in the same hotel at the same room in each occasion. At the beginning, their unlawful relationship was magnificent, and then gradually became less romantic then finally; Leon became bored with Emma with the excuse of her excess emotions. In return, Emma became ambivalent on his lover Leon. This resulted to Emma becoming like a mistress to Leone where she rated her very poorly to Rodolphe who was very dominating and rakish (Flaubert 376). Emma reduced to nothing decided to acquire luxury items but on credit from the Lheureux who was a crafty merchant. The merchant even organized Emma to acquire power of attorney to control Charles estate. Consequently, this resulted to elevation their debts. Unfortunately, when Emma tried to seek for financial support from her lover Leone and Rodolphe following Lheureux call on the Bovary debt, none of them was ready to asset her. This made Emma to despair forcing her to commit suicide by swallowing arsenic where she died a painful and agonistic death (Flaubert 477). From this story, it is true with the Peck’s claim that that romantic love fades (Peck 87). This is evident from various relationships featured in this novel, for instant, the marriage between Emma and Charles. At the beginning, Emma and Charles were happily married but along the way, Emma became fade up with marriage life and even Charles efforts of changing scenery never helped but just aggravated the situation because from there, Emma was able to meet with Leon where they initiated their romance. The romantic love between Emma and Leon also support the Peck’s claim that romantic love fade. This is because at first their relationship was ecstatic but gradually faded to appoint that she be reduced to the level of a mistress. The hallmark of it all was the point when Leon declined to offer her financial assistance at the point when she badly needed it. This fading of love resulted to Emma becoming very desperate and frustrated to a point that she committed suicide (Fisher, 56). According to this novel, love is actually a dreadful lie. Right from the marriage between Charles and Heloise, Charles pretended to love his wife Heloise but in the actual sense, he was in love with Emma because immediately after the death of Heloise, Charles courted Emma and eventually married her. The second instance is the romantic relationship between Emma and Charles, from the time when Emma met Leon, their marriage as well as their love was nothing but a dreadful lie. This is because Emma pretended to be a devoted wife and mother but in reality was madly in love with Leon. The third scenario is the romantic relationship between Leon and Emma. According to Emma, Leon was her true love; she was ready to sacrifice her marriage to be able to be with him. However, as the story unfold, their relationship was just a dreadful lie because Leon was fed up with her to appoint that he reduced her to just a mistress. As fate may have it, Leon even refused to offer her financial assistance at the time of need, this contributed to her dead. There are many instances of confusions and sufferings in the novel of Madame Bovary; the striking fact about all of them is that they result from romantic love. The first instance is the suffering of Charles after the death of his wife Emma. It is reported in the novel that Charles was heartbroken and abandoned himself in grief; he preserved Emma’s room as a shrine with the aim of keeping her memories alive. His sufferings escalated when he discovered the love letters from Leone and Rodolphe. When he could not take the sufferings any more, he stopped working sold nearly all of his possessions and finally died a poor and dejected man. Second instance is the sufferings of Emma, her romantic love for Leon made her to suffer a great deal. Right from her marriage, she was unhappy, pretentious, and lonely. At the end she discovered that Leon love for him was not real because he considered her to just a mistress. Leone could not help her at the time of need. Her sufferings ultimately led her to her early grave because we learn that she took arsenic and died an agonic death. In conclusion, there is nothing good that comes from love in Madame Bovary, this is because, all the examples of the romantic loves featured in this novel has unhappy ending with both Emma and Charles dying. There is no single genuine love in this story in each case; feelings take better part of the concerned parties, which supports the Pick’s claims that love is not just feelings but also an activity as well as an investment. Work cited Fisher, Helen E.. Why we love the nature and chemistry of romantic love. New York: H. Holt, 2004. Print. Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Ed. digital. ed. Buenos Aires: Ambrosía, 2002. Print. Manning, Michael. Cathexis. New York: Amerotica, 1997. Print. Morrison, Toni. Love. New York: Knopf :, 2003. Print. Peck, M. Scott. Further along the road less traveled: the unending journey toward spiritual growth : the edited lectures. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. Print. Slater, Lauren. "Love". New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. Print. Read More