The Doctor’s Wife: Emma's Status in Madame Bovary Anonymous 12th Grade

Published in 1856, the novel Madame Bovary is one of the first to explore the issue of women’s disempowerment in a pointedly modern fashion. As a woman, the protagonist Emma experiences a number of obstacles that prevent her from reaching what she desires the most. Emma is viewed as a valuable asset, rather than as an individual; her prestige depends on her husband’s social status, which makes her a mere “attachment” to another person. Thus, Emma doesn’t posses the power she needs to reach her ambitions and learns that men cannot help her in obtaining what she wishes, too.

In the novel, Emma stands not as an independent person, but as a valuable commodity to be traded. After realizing Charles’s intentions towards his daughter, old Rouault considers not Emma’s feelings, but possible personal financial gain from a potential marriage, “When, therefore, he perceived that Charles’s cheeks grew red if near his daughter, which meant that he would propose for her one of these days, he chewed the cud of the matter beforehand. He certainly thought him a little meager, and not quite the son-in-law he would have liked, but he was said to be well brought-up, economical, very learned, and no doubt would not make too many difficulties about...