Rodolphe Boulanger Character Analysis in Madame Bovary

A free-spirited, relatively wealthy landowner and womanizer. Emma falls for him because of his stylish green coat and his title, and he desires her because she seems like an easy conquest, and because she is prettier than his present mistress. Rodolphe is a cynical, calculating man who habitually feigns love and sweetness to seduce credulous women. At first Emma is very happy with him, because he faithfully copies the manners of fictional lovers, but gradually he grows tired of the charade and begins to act like himself – like a ruthless, cold, rapacious man. Emma becomes unhappy, but she does not understand why: she is not in the habit of evaluating character. Rodolphe abandons Emma the day they plan to elope together. He is indifferent in the face of her desperation and financial ruin, and he does not mourn her death.

Rodolphe Boulanger Quotes in Madame Bovary

The Madame Bovary quotes below are all either spoken by Rodolphe Boulanger or refer to Rodolphe Boulanger. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Abstraction, Fantasy, and Experience Theme Icon

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Penguin Classics edition of Madame Bovary published in 2002.

It was that mingling of the everyday and the exotic, which the vulgar, usually, take for the symptom of an eccentric existence, of unruly feeling, of the tyranny of art, always with a certain scorn for social conventions which they find seductive or exasperating.

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Page Number and Citation: 128

Explanation and Analysis:

Emma was just like any other mistress; and the charm of novelty, falling down slowly like a dress, exposed only the eternal monotony of passion, always the same forms and the same language. He did not distinguish, this man of such great expertise, the differences of sentiment beneath the sameness of their expression.

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Page Number and Citation: 177

Explanation and Analysis:

And yet, in the immensity of this future that she conjured for herself, nothing specific stood out: the days, each one magnificent, were as near alike as waves are.

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Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 182

Explanation and Analysis:

Rodolphe Boulanger Character Timeline in Madame Bovary

The timeline below shows where the character Rodolphe Boulanger appears in Madame Bovary. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Causes, Appearances, and Boredom Theme Icon

...in a green velvet coat walking through the square. She overhears his name – Monsieur Rodolphe Boulanger de la Huchette – and concludes that he is a nobleman. He has come... (full context)

Rodolphe talks to Emma a little bit afterwards. She tells him that she has never had... (full context)

Truth, Rhetoric, and Hypocrisy Theme Icon

...the town is in a pleasant tumult. Emma is walking arm in arm with Monsieur Rodolphe, who is admiring her inscrutable profile. They walk though a meadow, busy with people, goods,... (full context)

A councillor arrives to say that the county prefect will not be attending the show. Rodolphe takes Emma to the empty town hall, so that they can observe the festivities in... (full context)

Rodolphe continues to talk imploringly of love. As Emma looks at him, noting the color of... (full context)

...her care. She is stunned by the crowd, and barely manages to receive her award. Rodolphe takes Emma home, thinking intensely about her beauty and charm. The town celebrates the end... (full context)

Rodolphe keeps away from Emma for six weeks, to stoke her interest. Finally he comes to... (full context)

Charles walks in, and Rodolphe suggests that horseback-riding might improve Emma’s health. Charles readily agrees, and Rodolphe offers Emma one... (full context)

Emma and Rodolphe go riding the following day. They ride through the countryside and into the forest, where... (full context)

Emma and Rodolphe begin to see one another on a regular basis, meeting in a hut in the... (full context)

...not because she cares about the townspeople’s opinions, but because she is afraid of forfeiting Rodolphe’s love. An accidental morning encounter with Binet nearly exposes her secret. Emma and Rodolphe think... (full context)

Since Emma is already so obviously devoted to him, Rodolphe stops taking care to woo and flatter her, and she begins to fear that he... (full context)

...to her with tearful love – all very unusual for her. She quarrels slightly with Rodolphe, and begins to wish that she loved Charles instead, though there’s very little about him... (full context)

...and affection – a kiss – and she refuses in disgust. That night, she and Rodolphe reunite. (full context)

From then on, Emma and Rodolphe are more closely bound than ever before. One day, she mentions that he might rescue... (full context)

...pairs of boots she ruins running through the mud to La Huchette. She even buys Rodolphe an expensive riding-whip, along with other fine presents. She gets most of these things from... (full context)

Meanwhile, she becomes ever more dramatic and demanding with Rodolphe. He dislikes her expressions of love, because they seem to him exactly like those of... (full context)

One evening, she is especially childish and despairing. She gives Rodolphe a sign to come to the house, and begs him run away with her; somehow,... (full context)

Rodolphe keeps pushing back their departure date, but several months later it finally arrives. The night... (full context)

At home, Rodolphe looks for some memento of Emma. He keeps a tin full of old love-letters and... (full context)

...angry and delirious, and nearly throws herself out a window. Over dinner, Charles himself mentions Rodolphe’s departure, which is all over town. Just then, Emma sees Rodolphe’s carriage pass through the... (full context)

...stirred by sentimental religious books full of “the finest Catholic melancholy.” She thinks often of Rodolphe, and she prays to God as she once spoke to her lover. She soon realizes... (full context)

...handsome “charlatan” and heartbreaker. In his stormy seduction of the heroine, he reminds her of Rodolphe. Charles is bored and confused by the story, and doesn’t understand why the man is... (full context)

...by a womanizer with a name he cannot remember – but it is something like Rodolphe. Before Emma goes home, she and Léon agree that they will write each other through... (full context)

...the money, but he refuses. Finally she decides to try to get the money from Rodolphe, “oblivious from first to last of her prostitution.” (full context)

Emma rushes over to La Huchette, and finds Rodolphe sitting by the fire. He is moderately pleased to see her, and talks to her... (full context)

...everyone who will listen. Emma’s father leaves after the funeral, deep in grief. Léon and Rodolphe are sleeping peacefully in their beds, but Justin sits crying at Emma’s grave. (full context)

Some time later Charles finds Rodolphe’s last letter to Emma, but he forces himself to interpret it as a letter of... (full context)

...compartment in Emma’s desk. He finds a large stack of love letters from Léon and Rodolphe. He stops taking care of himself; he no longer sees patients and rarely leaves the... (full context)