The Downfall of Madame Bovary Anonymous College

Flaubert utilizes the character of the blind beggar to mirror Emma’s descent into corruption. Typical of Flaubert’s realist style, the beggar is described in detail as a needy, terrifyingly ugly man, which reflects Emma’s inner state. Emma has been needy for “true” love and happiness all her life, and in her search for it her thoughts and actions turn truly ugly. Moreover, she also lacks insight into her own moral behavior, which is mirrored in the blind figure of the beggar. Emma spends herself into debt and poverty without care, the state the beggar occupies. Flaubert purposefully includes the beggar to undoubtedly link Emma and him in the reader’s mind. The beggar seems almost prescient; his foreshadowing presence becomes more prominent in the novel as Emma’s situation becomes more and more uncontrollable. Thus, the blind beggar is Emma’s character foil in Madame Bovary. Yet Homais in many ways is a character analogous to Emma. The blind beggar is his antithesis too, as a diseased outcast whom Homais looks down upon. Homais cannot cure the man’s blindness, which threatens to ruin his reputation and belief in scientific progress. Both Homais and Emma are ignorantly wrapped up in their own lofty ideals and fantasies, and are...