Madame Bovary

In an 1850s Paris courtroom, author Gustave Flaubert attempts to prevent the banning of his novel Madame Bovary. His accusers have described the book's title character as shocking and immoral. Flaubert counters with a narration of Bovary's story from his own realist perspective. Thus, we are introduced to 20-year-old Emma, a lonely woman who fantasizes a perfect life for herself. She falls in love with Dr. Charles Bovary. The two are married and move into a small house in Normandy. Emma re-decorates it lavishly, incurring much debt. Bemoaning her lack of social status, Emma tells Charles she wants a baby boy, someone not confined in accordance with Second French Empire’s repressive cultural norms. Instead, Emma gives birth to a girl, Berthe. She soon tires of her role as mother and leaves Berthe's upbringing to her nanny. Unhappy with her life, Emma embarks on a relationship with Leon Dupuis, but his mother induces him to move to Paris and enroll in law school.