Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary

The male who conquers and protects his territory, the representative a whole social class: the bourgeoisie, the predator and the opportunist, this is how the pharmacist of Yonville, Homais, one of the most despicable characters in Flaubert's novel, Mme Bovary, can be described in short.

As the best suited character for a battle between classes, Homais triumphs over everything. With Homais, Flaubert succeeded to create the essence of what his most famous protagonist, Emma Bovary, hated along her entire existence.

Homais is the central figure in a hall of shame of human existence. He is the man who does not hesitate to harm others for his own sake, the man who seeks glory without having the slightest shred of worthiness in himself, the man who walks on dead bodies on his was to an undeserved glory. Flaubert makes us of his incisive irony until the last words of his novel. In the end, Homais reigns on the ruins of human misery, untouched and more successful then ever. He has earned his long dreamed Medal of Honor and feeds on the undeserved merits brought by his notoriety and public appreciation.

Homais' aspirations of greatness are far from making them harmless. He turns against every potential obstacle in his way, taking advantage of his manipulative qualities and using public opinion as he pleases. In the last pages of the novel, the narrator describes the image of a parasite organism that attached itself on the host body. The host body itself, in this novel's case, the Bovary family, is not healthy, but it still has the resources to recover. Homais, as the parasite, slowly drains all these resources out and uses them to his best advantage before letting go and attaching to the next potential source of nourishment.

The best tool Flaubert's genius uses to present Homais in all his ugliness is irony. This irony he made use of throughout his entire book peaks at the end in Homais' destiny. The reader sees Homais not allowing his children to play with little Berthe anymore, because of "such social inequality" (Mme Bovary, p. 317). The daughter of a doctor and a woman who died dreaming of living a great adventurous aristocratic life, away from the small town of Yonville and of the boring no line on the horizon bourgeois life means is ironically denied the company of the pharmacists' children. The hierarchies are reversed and the pharmacist Homais comes out victorious. He takes his destiny into his own hands and overcomes common sense and reasoning.

Homais' own explanatory support for the reasons he should be awarded the Medal of Honor are presented in an even more ironic manner. The only thing related to this profoundly amoral character that deserves admiration is his stubbornness to get that medal. The medal is the symbol of his complete success, the recognition of his life achievements that although highly questionable, are nonetheless worthy of praise in his own eyes. He deceives himself and the whole public opinion he relies on for his success to the point where he even gets the Medal of Honor. This is the biggest irony of all since that medal should be awarded for bravery, for outstanding merits outside the line of duty, for exceptional capacities and for exceptional deeds.