Emma's empowerment and subjugation in her affair with Rodolphe

Madame Bovary

Explication and Analysis of Emma and Rodolphe's Initial Tryst in Flaubert's Madame Bovary

It is at approximately the midpoint of the action of the novel when Emma Bovary first -- and rather quickly -- succumbs to the seductions of Rodolphe Boulanger, and it is also at this point that the tale of Madame Bovary takes an explicit and, at the time of the novel's publication, a highly controversial turn. This scene begins Emma's descent into the depravity and debauchery that ultimately ends with her taking her own life, and is the first instance where the titular heroine (of sorts) seems to take a truly full enjoyment and engagement in her chosen activity. It is perhaps ironic, then, that she demurs at Rodolphe's initial invitations to ride, and even argues against riding with her husband, Charles. Ultimately, Emma becomes very enamored with…riding…with Rodolphe, taking an active and conscious concern in the direction of her life and the fulfillment of her desires.

At the same time, though Emma is clearly a willing participant in the sexual activity and reflects on her first encounter with great joy and a new self-awareness, it is clear the Rodolphe is the dominant partner in this scene as well as in their overall relationship throughout the novel. This juxtaposition of empowerment and dominance is one of the essential ambiguities that Flaubert deals with in Madame Bovary; the protagonist is at once internally empowered and externally dominated due to her femininity, and evidence of both forces is clear in the action, imagery, and narration of this scene.

The Act of Empowerment

The very act of sexual infidelity as engaged in by Emma and Rodolphe contains a high degree of seemingly paradoxical juxtaposition. It is clear at this point in the story that in addition to -- or perhaps as a result of -- her boredom, Emma has come to enjoy disagreeing with her husband, though she rarely directly disobeys him. In explaining her initial refusal to go riding with Rodolphe, "She made a sulky face, gave every kind of excuse…" (Flaubert, Madame Bovary, pp. 145). She continues to argue with him about the riding until he purchases here a new riding outfit; she has learned to use disagreement and protestation as a means of achieving her desires. In her interactions with Rodolphe, however, she is directly transgressing against her husband, and though she is initially resistant to this idea she feels no remorse but rather a thrill of enjoyment once it is accomplished.

At the same time as Emma is freeing herself from her obedience to her husband, however, she is making herself obedient to Rodolphe. It is through a series of missteps and refusals that Rodolphe eventually wears Emma down, and ultimately he commands and controls her to the point that she gives in: "Oh! Not yet, said Rodolphe. We're not going yet! Stay!" (149). Though he is being seductive, there is also no doubt that there is a command in Rodolphe's voice, and his physical actions are no less dominating until he eventually wins Emma over. Though there are textual indications that she was prepared to give in all along, it is important to note that Emma is controlled into making her descent into infidelity.

At the end of this scene, Emma learns from her husband that they are now the owners of a horse, intended for her to continue to ride in order to promote her health. Charles rather puppyishly asks, "was that a good idea? Do tell me" (150). Emma nods her ascent, no longer disagreeing with Charles but brimming over with the secret of her much deeper transgression. Charles' buying of the horse, of course, facilitates her continued infidelity with Rodolphe, as though he, too, has become subservient to Rodolphe's desires. This makes him also subservient to his wife, and so Emma Bovary's position has certainly and significantly changed: she is now, albeit clandestinely and in a limited fashion, served by her husband rather than vice versa, but at the same time this power only came to her through her "service" to another man, leaving her still largely without true power.

The Broader View of the Narrator

An examination of the narrative style and point-of-view of this scene is less certain in its determination of what powers exist and dominate in the natural world and in the world of Madame Bovary. The perspective is primarily that of Emma's, though Rodolphe's inner and untold thoughts are exposed form time to time, and the various places in the scene at which this point-of-view shifts as well as some of the specific delivery of certain pieces of information by the narrator create a much more mixed balance of power between the feminine and the masculine at work in this scene, calling into question the exact nature of dominance and submission generally and as they specifically relate to this scene in Emma Bovary's self-awakening and growing self-awareness.

Rodolphe does not turn immediately to aggressive seduction, and several of the narrator's insights into his inner thinking demonstrate a seeming acknowledgment of respect for the feminine power that Emma possesses: "He did not frighten her off with compliments. He was calm, serious, melancholy" and "immediately he became respectful, caressing, timid" (148, 149). Though both of these glimpses could be read as simple manipulations on Rodolphe's part in his attempt to seduce Emma, the fact that the narrator chooses these moments to offer up Rodolphe's perspective could indicate that a deeper resonance and truth is at work in his sentiments and actions, if only for brief and relatively infrequent moments. There is a feminine side to his masculinity, that is, and this passage shows that Emma has an equal share in this dichotomy.

Hours after she is back at home, after Charles has left her alone in the house to attend to something, Emma shuts herself in her room to contemplate her experience and her joy. It is here that the realization of her own feminine power, and the active and "masculine" side that it possess, comes fully and explicitly to light: "when she looked in the mirror, she was startled by her own face. Never had she had eyes so large, so black, so mysterious. Something subtle, transfiguring, was surging through her" (150). The blackness and mysteriousness associated with her face through the narrator's description of her thoughts is highly symbolic of the feminine receptiveness, while the force "surging through her" is more evocative of masculine entrance and movement. The fact that this understanding comes from a third-person narrator makes the feeling all the more palpable, enabling the reader to perceive a dichotomy of submissiveness and dominant power in Madame Bovary's attitude and self-appraisal following her quasi-liberating tryst.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Madame Bovary proves to be slef-destructive, and it is largely through her sexuality -- one specific aspect of her femininity -- that she is led down the path of destruction. It is her awakening to her own sexuality and feminine power in this scene, then, that ultimately and directly leads to her downfall. It is impossible to tell, however, whether or not her own feminine power would have proved so destructive had the restrictions of masculinity, as evidenced through imagery and the real-world politics and issues of Flaubert's world and the world in Madame Bovary, not been as present or as aggressive a force.