Victim of greedSay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"?Get the original essayFlaubert, a novelist with a seething contempt for the bourgeois way of life, uses his works to illustrate the flaws he sees in society, and more particularly the flaws he sees in this new materialist middle class. In his novel Madame Bovary, Flaubert follows the life of the eponymous character, Madame Emma Bovary, in her quest for romantic and passionate love - her efforts being interrupted and ultimately rendered fatal due to an unsatisfactory marriage, female servitude dictated by society and the destructive habits of the bourgeois way of life. Understanding that these troubling topics are extremely important to the author, many readers assume that Emma herself is the most subjugated character in the text; representing a woman oppressed by society, and destroyed by the greed perpetuated by this new middle class. This is largely true. However, by observing the narrator's perspectives and the interactions between the characters, it becomes very clear that another character bears the heaviest weight of manipulation and subjugation: Charles Bovary. Emma's husband, Charles has always been a victim of the greed (both for wealth and flesh) of those around him; becoming a means for Flaubert to illustrate how the evils of the Bourgeois harm everyone. In the following paragraphs, I will examine why Charles Bovary is the most oppressed character and how Flaubert uses Charles's subjugation to illustrate the widespread damage caused by the bourgeois lifestyle. Looking first at the points of view taken by the novel, it becomes clear that Charles is a victim of the greed of those around him. Madame Bovary begins with a brief and relatively sad account of Charles's education. In early readings, this information dump seems to empower and humanize Charles; However, upon analyzing the text more closely, it illustrates the nature of his lifelong manipulation. Schoolboy Days, written in the first person plural, illustrates how the schoolchildren make Charles a stereotypical peasant in order to eagerly differentiate “them” from “him”; use the "we" to unify and label him, among other things, as a "country boy" and "like a village choirboy" (3) in order to artificially elevate their social status - an aspiration and quality that Flaubert frequently attributes the materialist class to the environment. The flashback then jumps to Charles' pre-school life, adopting the third-person omniscient point of view. Looking into his heartbroken mother's mind, the narrator recounts how she manipulates Charles's as well. “Living in such isolation, she placed on this childish head all her scattered and broken vanities. She dreamed of high office…” (7). Again, both in content and in the fact that it is his mother's point of view, Charles is made to be a tool for the greed of others rather than an acting body; illustrating the negative effects of bourgeois sensibility on individuals and relationships. These allusions to storytelling continue in Charles's first romance. Jumping briefly into a third-person narrative that includes his thoughts, the reader learns that Charles sincerely and idealistically believed that love could bring him happiness and a kind of freedom; hoping that marriage would be “the advent of a better life…(where) he would be more free and capable of having his own person and his own money.” (11) But as the text quickly refutes: “But his wife was the mistress.” This feeling, hardand undeniably true, is reflected in the rapid transition from the short, Charles-centered third-person narration to the wife-centered third-person narration. By keeping the point of view as far away from Charles as possible, Flaubert effectively paints Charles as an object to be manipulated rather than as an individual. Diving deeper into the stories these views tell regarding Charles' life and relationship with Emma, ​​this truth becomes even more striking. When Charles first met Emma, ​​he was struck by a well-controlled but undeniably strong hope for what their potential romance might bring: "a better life... (and) freedom" (11) from manipulative and greedy people who had ruled his life before. Blinded by his possible love for her, Charles quickly enters a relationship marked by deception, greed, and outright manipulation - punishments meted out to him solely because of his simplicity. Beyond her infidelity, Emma, ​​the facilitator of said manipulation, embodies the faults of the Bourgeois: greedy, materialistic and upwardly mobile. As their relationship continues to deteriorate, Emma's actions become more and more manipulative. When they venture to the ball, an invitation earned through Charles' work, Emma's thirst for increased social status - a distinctly bourgeois quality - trumps any loyalty to her husband. " - These ankle straps are going to be awkward for dancing, he said - Dancing? Said Emma - You must be crazy! They'd make fun of you. You stay seated. Anyway, it's more appropriate for a doctor, she added Charles said nothing (46) The degree to which Emma, ​​fueled by a greedy desire for increased social status, controls Charles is astonishing: he says nothing to her biting comments. , and is content to follow his orders until exile from a poker table. This isolated incident indicates much more than an unhappy evening, it foreshadows the aggravating manipulations to come as Emma grows in boldness in the face. to the excitement of extramarital affairs, she becomes increasingly bourgeois in her lifestyle Obsessed with material goods (yet another bourgeois quality), she develops a dangerous relationship with Lheureux: a local creditor turned thirsty loan shark. of gifts for herself and her lovers, she takes over and ends up bankrupting her husband's estate. »-And your power of attorney? » he said. This sentence came to him like a breath of fresh air. -Leave me the bill, Emma said. … (at this news) there was a ringing in his ears as if gold coins, coming out of their bags, were ringing around his feet. " (254) Blinded by her bourgeois focus on money and material goods, Emma willingly and enthusiastically steals from the man who loves her more than life itself; illustrating the fact that Charles is the greatest victim of novel and supporting Flaubert's broader assertion that the bourgeois way of life is detrimental to the well-being of society. These harsh realities and experiences culminate in an incredibly cruel and calculated action: Charles Avid's distortion of reality. of excess, both in terms of flesh and material goods, Emma transforms Charles' confidence into her network of lies until they are inseparable. Wanting to escape with Léon, she finds an excuse to come every week. to Rouen for “piano lessons”. The ploy continues unhindered until one day, Charles meets his supposed teacher “-Well, I saw her recently… (and) I mentioned your. name; and she's never heard of you. It was like a clap of thunder. However, she replied in a natural voice: -Oh, I guess she must have forgotten who I am... But I have receipts. Look. HAS.