world lit essay 1

8/2/2019 World Lit Essay 1

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Essay 1

The presentation and significance of marital conflicts in Madame Bovary and Nirmala.

The portrayal of women as victims.

In both Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and Nirmala by Premchand, the idea of sociaproblems proposed by marital conflicts is central to both of their plots. Marriage, whether

directly or indirectly plays a critical role in directing almost all of the endeavors of not only

the main characters, Emma and Nirmala but also of those around them. However, Flauberand Premchand differ immensely in their illustrations of the expectations of married life,how it impacts its participants and its significance in society. At the outset, the readers

either have exaggerated empathy, or lack it for Nirmala and Madame Bovary respectively,

but as the story advances, the readers perspective shifts, and they begin to wonderwhether or not these characters behavior ought to be termed innocent. Both authors usespecific turn of events to depict how incompatible marriage unions only lead to more

destructive situations and are practically doomed to failure.

Madame Bovary is the story of a woman named Emma who betrays her husband, Charlesby having extra marital affairs. Flauberts characterization of Emma is both simple andcomplex at the same time. She desires what most women desire in a marriage to be loved

appreciated and most importantly, not to be taken for granted. However, shes complexwhen it comes to expressing her expectations and needs from her marriage. Instead of

confronting Charles with her dissatisfaction in their relationship, she enacts the role ofordinary wives by hiding all her feelings in the optimism that someone would be able to

read her mind. Flaubert clearly indicates how this passive aggressive communication cannot only lead to unfulfilling marriages but also death and decay. As a child in the convent,

Emma establishes a rather unrealistic semblance to marriage as an everlasting union

between two idyllic couple. Her fervor for romantic novels only adds to this misled notion.Her perception of married life is cluttered with thoughts as lemon trees, villa terraces, an

Swiss chalets (Flaubert 53)and words like bliss, passion and ecstasy. Once married,Emmas life gradually starts to worsen. Suddenly she notices that, the happiness that

should have resulted from that love (marriage), somehow had not come however, ratherthan accepting the reality of life, Emma shrugs it off. Throughout Madame Bovary, no

one seems to discern Emmas inner turmoil, not even Charles and this only intensifies thesuffering Emma endures; it exacerbated her. As the plot progresses, Emma starts to

openly disregard the social codes by flaunting her affair with Leon in public and then laterbestowing yet another man, Rodolphe with gifts. Flaubert makes it clear that Emma is notcompletely at fault because the dullness and limitations of bourgeois life is like a prison. It

confines a woman like Emma into a humdrum lifestyle with entirely no possibility to

escape. In some aspects, both Flaubert and Premchand are not condemning the institutionof marriage but rather the French bourgeois and the Indian male dominant societyrespectively. Marriage, particularly for women proposes the difficulty for escaping. As is th

case with both Emma and Nirmala with no actual possession of money or the means todivorce, women in similar situations would most probably find themselves experiencing th

same vexation, hardships and yearning to breakaway as they did. When told that with awomens marriage her grief and pain is most likely to alleviate, Emma responds by stating

But with me, it didnt come on till I was married (Flaubert 122). Thus, Emma and Nirmaare both victims of society. Their daughters, Bertha and Asha are clearly the greatest

victim of them all all as they are downright left as orphans.


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On the other hand, Premchands Nirmala approaches the issues of child marriage and the

prejudiced dowry system carried out in pre-independent India. Premchand depicts this inform of the victimization of the female protagonist by her parents, husband as well as the

society. Wherein Madame Bovary, even bourgeois women are more or less given respectby the society, in Nirmala we often come across women being treated as mere objects,

inanimate and useless. When Kalyani starts to look out for willing men in marriage forNirmala, she chooses a thirty five year old man who didnt ask for any dowry at all over a

young man from a respectable family who asked for reasonable dowry. She literally

compromises with her own daughters life, unaware of the disastrous consequences thismarriage could lead to.Dowry, which is clearly a male-induced custom, subordinates women. Premchand sheds

light on its characteristics through Bhuwan when he says, Money will conceal all her

defects. Even if she curses me day and night, I wont complain. After all who minds beingkicked by the cow one is milking?.In this context, Premchand aims to alter the readerspresent conventional thinking of marriage. It is no longer the eternal love knot, which

connects two souls; it is more like a corporal infliction on the wife and a lucrative

investment for the husband. Nirmala says, she awaited her (Krishnas) wedding with thesame sense of anticipation that a prisoner awaits an execution. The paucity of money andthe burden to pay dowry to get admitted in a respectable family resulted in Nirmalasmismatched marriage. This ultimately ruined the entire family including Totaram and his

three innocent children. This conclusion is differing from Madame Bovary where the singlemen, Leon and Rodolphe are the only survivors.

Whereas, Flaubert places a particular emphasis on Emmas characterization, Premchand

outlines

It is interesting to note that as the plot progresses, the amount of empathy the reader

holds for Emma and Nirmala is inversely proportional to the amount of destruction that thecharacters cause to those around them. For example, in the beginning the reader is most

likely to sympathize with Nirmala as she is married off to an older man. Similarly, thereader

idealizes marriage with "Before she married, she thought she was in love; but thehappiness that should have resulted from that love, somehow had not come. It seemed toher that she must have made a mistake, have misunderstood in some way or another. An

Emma tried hard to discover what, precisely, it was in life that was denoted by the words

'joy, passion, intoxication', which had always looked so fine to her in books."On his first encounter with Emma, Charles is taken aback by Emmas confidence, shehad an open gaze that met yours with fearless candor (Flaubert, 858) At this point in

time, although Charles had been married to an old widow heThe institution of marriage serves as the driving force behind both the plots.

Madame Bovary and Nirmala have one thing in common they both pursue love. Eventhough this is common in both of them, they take completely different roads to

achieve true love. Jane Eyre seems to try to pursue love but something always came up tstop that from happening. Emma Bovary, on the other hand, is never happy with the love

she has and wants to pursue something that was quite impossible and only seenin romance novels
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Nirmala however, lived a very harsh life. To me, Nirmala had the hardest life of all the

females in the other novels. Her pursuit for love was actually for love itself. It wasntanything materialistic, nor was it a physical attraction.

Flaubert manifests transformation in Emmas character. At first, Emmas pleased andunamused with the proposal but she starts to feel discontented Flaubert tries to garner the

readers support for Emma by demonstrating how circumstances rather than free will drive

her to have these affairs. who is unsatisfied with her rural monotonous life and dreams becoming sophisticated and cosmopolitan. At one point in the book, Gustave attempts togarner the readers support for Charles

two incompetent couples being involved in a marriage andThe situation mirrors domestic within India.

At the beginning we meet a sweet farm girl, Emma. Charles Bovary is married to a horribl

woman and he falls for the lovely girl. After his wife passes away, Charles marries Emma,making her the title Madame Bovary (not to be confused with his first wife or his mother,

both of which are frequently referred to as Madame Bovary).

Emma is infatuated with the idea of love, but neither she, nor her husband, actually

understand what real love is. Emma expects something like the passionate affairs shesread about in books. Charles version of a marriage is a simple relationship with little

interaction beyond basic marital relations and discord. He expects very little from his wifeand in return he gives her very little.

Soon Emma is completely disenchanted with married life. As a newlywed she wonders wha

will happen to her bridal bouquet when she dies. Later, feeling completely numb andemotionally dead, she burns the bouquet herself, demonstrating just how detached shesbecome.

Emma is searching for something to save her from her boredom and she falls for a youngman, Leon, with whom she has wonderful discussions. Soon he leaves, because shesmarried, and she sets her sights on Roldolphe, a local bachelor, instead. He has decided

hell take her as a mistress and sees their relationship as a casual one. She, on the otherhand, sees him as her salvation. Shes miserable and hangs all of her hopes on him. When

they decide to run away together she thinks of her daughter as a mere afterthought, shesso wrapped up in her affair. She becomes more desperate and reckless as she feels her

lover slipping away from her.

The scene at the opera was incredibly poignant to me. Emma watches the love affair unfoon the stage just as her own did, while her husband sits next to her, never comprehending
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what his wife is thinking.

The book begins and ends with Charles, which is fitting. He is completely oblivious to most

of what happens in his wifes life and she passes in and out of his life before he even knowwhat happened. He only lets himself see what he wants to see. He pictures Emma as an

innocent doll, incapable of intentionally doing anyone harm. Hes both a victim and enablein this tragic story. He does love his wife, or at least the idea of her, but he never really

gets to know her, which just increases her isolation.

The real victims in the story are all of the people left behind when Emma is gone. Herdaughters story was particularly sad. Shes no more than a footnote in most of the book

and then at the end, shes orphaned and alone in the world. Her selfish mother was never

willing to put her daughters happiness before her own.

Even though, in the end, Emma proves herself to be self-absorbed and immature, I still

loved the book. It was a wonderful portrait of a woman who begins with a romantic vision

of love in her mind and is heartbroken by its realities. Instead of choosing to find meaningin her relationships and give them depth, she flits to other lovers hoping to find that illusivromance. She looks to wealth, spending money like she can buy happiness. She thriveson lies and the thrill of getting caught. She seeks only momentary pleasure and in doing s

she ruins not only herself, but her whole family. Flauberts talent is obvious, becausedespite all of those things, we still care what happens to her.
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To what extent does Society, in Wonderful Fool and Miramar, choose to stigmatise

outsiders?

olfactory imagery.

The presentation and significance of the theme of alienation

Essay 2

An analysis of the antagonism between man, his society and his surroundings in the novelPerfume.
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