Madame Bovary

by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary: Flashbacks 1 key example

Part 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Emma's Childhood:

In Part 1, Chapter 6, following Emma’s realization that she doesn’t love Charles and her newfound goal of finding the happiness she read about in books, the audience is brought into a flashback to Emma’s childhood and time in the convent. This chapter provides context for her outlook on life and humanizes Emma, who has felt distant to readers until this point. Due to the novel’s focus on Charles, the reader has only been given a reductive and flat understanding of Emma. For example, in Part 1, Chapter 3:

But never could he [Charles] imagine her [Emma], other than as he had first seen her, or exactly as he had just left her. 

Part 1, Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Emma's Childhood:

In Part 1, Chapter 6, following Emma’s realization that she doesn’t love Charles and her newfound goal of finding the happiness she read about in books, the audience is brought into a flashback to Emma’s childhood and time in the convent. This chapter provides context for her outlook on life and humanizes Emma, who has felt distant to readers until this point. Due to the novel’s focus on Charles, the reader has only been given a reductive and flat understanding of Emma. For example, in Part 1, Chapter 3:

But never could he [Charles] imagine her [Emma], other than as he had first seen her, or exactly as he had just left her. 

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