Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Death and Illness
There are many disturbing references to death and illness
in Madame Bovary, and the novel can seem very morbid.
These references emphasize Flaubert’s realistic, unflinching description
of the world, and also act as physical manifestations of Emma’s
moral decay. For example, Lestiboudois grows potatoes in the graveyard because
the decomposing bodies help them grow, and Homais keeps fetuses
in jars. Similarly, Hippolyte loses his leg to gangrene, the blind
beggar with festering skin follows the carriage to and from Rouen,
and, when Emma faints in Part Two, Chapter XIII,
Homais wakes her up with smelling salts, saying, “this thing would
resuscitate a corpse!” Such excessive corruption is a comment on
the physical state of the world. Flaubert constantly reminds us
that death and decay lurk beneath the surface of everyday life,
and that innocence is often coupled very closely with corruption.
This focus on the negative aspects of life is part of Flaubert’s
realism.
Windows
Windows are frequently associated with Emma. We often
see her looking out of them, or we glimpse her through them from
the street as she waves goodbye to Charles or Leon. For Emma, these
windows represent the possibility of escape. A shutter bangs open
to announce her engagement, and she contemplates jumping out the attic
window to commit suicide. But Emma never manages to really escape.
She stays inside the window, looking out at the world and imagining
a freedom that she never can obtain. Windows also serve to take
Emma back to the past. At the ball, when the servant breaks the
window and Emma sees the peasants outside, she is suddenly reminded
of her simple childhood. Such a retreat to childhood also could
be a kind of escape for Emma, who would surely be much happier if
she stopped striving to escape that simple life. But, again, she
ignores the possibility of escape, trapping herself within her own desires
for romantic ideals of wealth she can’t obtain.
Eating
The quantity of food consumed in Madame Bovary could
feed an army for a week. From Emma’s wedding feast to the Bovarys’
daily dinner, Flaubert’s characters are frequently eating, and the
way they eat reveals important character traits. Charles’s atrocious
table manners, magnified through Emma’s disgust, reveal him to be
boorish and lacking in sophistication. When Emma is shown sucking
her fingers or licking out the bottom of a glass, we see a base
animal sensuality and a lust for physical satisfaction in her that
all her pretensions to refinement cannot conceal. Finally, when
Emma goes to the ball, the exquisite table manners of the nobles
and the fine foods they consume signify the refinement and sophistication
of their class. In each of these cases, what one eats or how one
eats is an indicator of social class.
