Essay Archive - An Education in Escape: Madame Bovary and Reading
An Education in Escape: Madame Bovary and Reading
A theme throughout Flaubert's Madame Bovary is escape versus
confinement. In the novel Emma Bovary attempts again and again to escape the
ordinariness of her life by reading novels, having affairs, day dreaming, moving
from town to town, and buying luxuries items. It is Emma's early education
described for an entire chapter by Flaubert that awakens in Emma a struggle
against what she perceives as confinement. Emma's education at the convent is
perhaps the most significant development ....
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