Fate in Madame Bovary Fate

Fate in Madame Bovary

Fate may be the same thing as destiny but with heavily negative connotations. For some reason even though fate can be positive too, in literature it has mostly been used as an evil naturalistic force that is cruel and doesn't help the characters involved. The word fate is frequently used in Gustave Flaubert's masterpiece, Madame Bovary. The novel is a classic with few known works to match its stature but it is as much influenced by the times in which it was written as any other.

Fate had probably been considered a very heavy influence because that is what we see in many novels of the Romantic age. Fate is considered cruel force which is out there to attack and hurt others. The truth however may be very different for someone who reads the work today. It can be clearly seen that Emma's inability to stay satisfied with her husband and her need for affairs were the cause of her downfall. Why did she have to blame fate and likewise why would everyone else blame fate when clearly their own actions have been anything but commendable. Fate is actually used as an easy scapegoat to hold responsible for one's own selfish actions.

This is clearly indicated by the scene when Rodolphe plans to leave Emma for he is not as committed to her as she would want him to be. He knows there are many women out there and he doesn't want to settle down just yet. In a selfishly written letter, Rodolphe blames fate for why their separation. It is clear how easily Rodolphe has dumped everything on fate as if ridiculing the very force:

shall not forget you, oh believe it; and I shall ever have a profound devotion for you; but some day, sooner or later, this ardour (such is the fate of human things) would have grown less, no doubt. Lassitude would have come to us, and who knows if I should not even have had the atrocious pain of witnessing your remorse, of sharing it myself, since I should have been its cause? The mere idea of the grief that would come to you tortures me, Emma. Forget me! Why did I ever know you? Why were you so beautiful? Is it my fault? O. my God! No, no! Accuse only fate."

Interestingly there are some strange ways in which Fate has appeared in the Madame Bovary. At times it may almost seem comical. For instance when Emma goes to theatre to watch Edgar, she is completely absorbed by everything surrounding this man. She is totally in love with him and blames fate for them never meeting:

All her small fault-findings faded before the poetry of the part that absorbed her; and, drawn towards this man by the illusion of the character, she tried to imagine to herself his life -- that life resonant, extraordinary, splendid, and that might have been hers if fate had willed it. They would have known one another, loved one another."

The last lines are almost comical. One would think they had known each other but failed to become one. However that was never the case, Emma is blaming fate for they had never met because of it. In any case, fate has sadly a very negative air about it in Madame Bovary.

The most important use of Fate is acknowledged by the narrator in the novel. It is when Charles says that Fate is to blame for it had willed it this way. "[Charles] even made a phrase, the only one he'd ever made: 'Fate willed it this way'" (Flaubert 255). Flaubert's emphasis on the use of fate makes our assertion about role of fate even more certain. Fate acts as the force that brings Falubert's characters to their roots and doesn't let them break free. Thibaudet discusses the use of fate in the novel:

The development of the action, in Madame Bovary, does not occur by a simple succession of events but by the concentric expansion of a theme [...] the process reflects the very motion of fate. We call 'fated' a development that was already contained in a previous situation but without being apparent. We have a feeling of fatality when we feel that life was not worth living, because we have come back to exactly the same point from which we started, and discovered that the road which was to be one of discovery turns out to be the circular path of our prison walls (De Man 375).

The circle in which the characters travel is also indicative of the heavy influence of fate in the lives of people. Emma can never go where she wants; her life begins and ends with Charles even though she tries very hard to break free. It is indeed the circularity which makes you notice the role of fate. Why doesn't Emma end up with one of her lovers instead of the boring Charles? The fate must have had something to do with it. The fatefulness of the incidents is clear in the way Emma is always thrown back to her dull and dreary life and then the only way she can break free is by killing herself and ridding herself of the fated circularity of fate. Her need for breaking free of the circle is often very pronounced in the novel. For example at one point during her illness, she looks for signs of hope from heavens above: