The Powerlessness of Emma Bovary Brendan Bottcher November 30/2008 Throughout the novel, Emma shows that she is powerless in society. Flaubert shows his understanding of the misfortune women had throughout the novel. Firstly, one of the most significant parts of the novel, which demonstrate Emma’s misfortune is when she gets pregnant. She wants the child to be a boy because she does not want a girl to have to go through the same problems as she went through. She shows this when she says “a woman is always hampered in life”. As well Emma continues to say: “...and this idea of having a male child was like an expected revenge for all of her impotence of the past”. “She has against her the weakness of the flesh and the inequity of the law.” This is explaining the powerlessness that she continually deals with both in society, and her romantic life because she is female. Women throughout the time that Madame Bovary lived were expected to be loyal to their fathers, and after marriage, their husbands. Although Madame Bovary was asked whether she wanted to marry Charles or not, her father probably influenced her to marry him because couldn’t pay a dowry to another man, as he was in debt. After she has married Charles, she is expected to be loyal to him, and help him live a
