3 posts tagged “class”
The fascinating thing about Madame Bovary is, well, Madame Bovary. Is she a sympathetic but flawed character, or is she a cruel and selfish woman?
Emma Bovary's main problem is that she believes money will end all her problems. But then most people today hold that same false belief.
I think how a person relates to this character says a lot about who he/she is.
It's sort of a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't kind of question though.
On one hand, if you sympathize with her you have to admit that you understand such a heightened level of egoism and self-delusion.
But if you don't sympathize with her it feels a bit sexist since it was a repressive, patriarchal class structure that undoubtedly created women similar to this fictional woman.
I'm still trying to figure out what I think of the character of Madame Bovary, but what I found particularly engaging about this book was its narrative form. I bet one could take a whole class on what Flaubert did with the narrative in just this one book.
One thing I can say with certainty is that my heart has never broken so much for a character as it did for the equally flawed Charles Bovary. I wonder what that says about me?
Emma Bovary's main problem is that she believes money will end all her problems. But then most people today hold that same false belief.
I think how a person relates to this character says a lot about who he/she is.
It's sort of a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't kind of question though.
On one hand, if you sympathize with her you have to admit that you understand such a heightened level of egoism and self-delusion.
But if you don't sympathize with her it feels a bit sexist since it was a repressive, patriarchal class structure that undoubtedly created women similar to this fictional woman.
I'm still trying to figure out what I think of the character of Madame Bovary, but what I found particularly engaging about this book was its narrative form. I bet one could take a whole class on what Flaubert did with the narrative in just this one book.
One thing I can say with certainty is that my heart has never broken so much for a character as it did for the equally flawed Charles Bovary. I wonder what that says about me?
It seems most people read this book in high school. After I finished it, I could not decide if it would have been better to read it fifteen years ago or not.
Part of me would have gotten more out of it at the age of eighteen. Now, it's hard to believe that there is a place where children play outdoors, listen to their parents, and everyone is wise.
Except on the topics of race and class, that is--
which is one reason this book is so poignant.
Telling the story through the eyes of a child is a powerful tool. It reminds the reader that everyone was young once. Everyone saw the world without the contemptuous of adulthood at one time.
Living in a very jaded place for the last eight years, I can really relate to the message. I fight to keep the cynicism and animosity at bay. But I know some of it has crept in over the years. In some ways it seems like the South has made more progress in the last hundred years than many places in the North. Where I am living the class struggle might as well be given a name that holds the same weight as racist does. Because it's no less ugly and no less harmful.
In high school I would not have known any of this. I was living in the rural Midwest, perhaps one of the most sheltered places in the U.S. I would have just thought this was a nice story about how kindness will win out in the end and if you get to know people you'll find they're basically good. Now I know it's a lot more complicated than that.
Part of me would have gotten more out of it at the age of eighteen. Now, it's hard to believe that there is a place where children play outdoors, listen to their parents, and everyone is wise.
Except on the topics of race and class, that is--
which is one reason this book is so poignant.
Telling the story through the eyes of a child is a powerful tool. It reminds the reader that everyone was young once. Everyone saw the world without the contemptuous of adulthood at one time.
Living in a very jaded place for the last eight years, I can really relate to the message. I fight to keep the cynicism and animosity at bay. But I know some of it has crept in over the years. In some ways it seems like the South has made more progress in the last hundred years than many places in the North. Where I am living the class struggle might as well be given a name that holds the same weight as racist does. Because it's no less ugly and no less harmful.
In high school I would not have known any of this. I was living in the rural Midwest, perhaps one of the most sheltered places in the U.S. I would have just thought this was a nice story about how kindness will win out in the end and if you get to know people you'll find they're basically good. Now I know it's a lot more complicated than that.
There is so much that can be said about Middlemarch it is hard to know where to begin. I could start by saying that I finally get this genre thanks to George Eliot. Here are a few other observations:
On the surface the novel is about Victorian provincial life. Middlemarch, the name of the town where the characters reside, is also a character in the book.
The mastery of this novel is that Eliot creates a horde of characters, gets inside all their heads, makes them all seem real and sympathetic.
She masterly describes what made life at this time challenging and even terrifying. Marriage, culture, the economy, politics, family can all be seen with clarity. Reading this book it is impossible to say marriage was what held women back. Or that men liked being in a position of authority over women. It was just way more complicated than that.
Not to mention that there are about a dozen main characters, at least as many supporting characters, and a host of townspeople. Somehow it didn't get confusing and it stayed interesting. That is a feat in itself. This novel is one of the closest things to perfection that I've ever read.
Victorian times were in many ways like being at a high school where no one ever graduates. So there is a bit of comedy, a bit of horror, and a whole lot of gossip--all rolled into one.
On the surface the novel is about Victorian provincial life. Middlemarch, the name of the town where the characters reside, is also a character in the book.
The mastery of this novel is that Eliot creates a horde of characters, gets inside all their heads, makes them all seem real and sympathetic.
She masterly describes what made life at this time challenging and even terrifying. Marriage, culture, the economy, politics, family can all be seen with clarity. Reading this book it is impossible to say marriage was what held women back. Or that men liked being in a position of authority over women. It was just way more complicated than that.
Not to mention that there are about a dozen main characters, at least as many supporting characters, and a host of townspeople. Somehow it didn't get confusing and it stayed interesting. That is a feat in itself. This novel is one of the closest things to perfection that I've ever read.
Victorian times were in many ways like being at a high school where no one ever graduates. So there is a bit of comedy, a bit of horror, and a whole lot of gossip--all rolled into one.
