Emma Bovary - Searching for Oranges on Apple Trees?

To state that Emma Bovary, the heroine of Flaubert’s epic Madame Bovary, looks for oranges on apple trees and refuses to eat apples is a gross over-simplification. Emma would be no happier with oranges than she would be with apples. In fact, if her taste in fruit is anything like her taste in men, she would probably insist on a fruit with all of her desired qualities - perhaps a cross between the consistency of an apple, the fibre of an orange, the vitamins of a blackcurrant and the taste of a strawberry. In saying this, however, the statement is entirely accurate in that Emma is searching for the wrong things in the wrong places and is bitterly disappointed in not finding them as she desires.

To analyse Emma Bovary is a difficult assignment, due to the very complex and often contradictory nature of her character, and the many opposing critical theories that have been written since her ‘death’ over 150 years ago. Flaubert’s determination to “remain outside of his book and to assume the role of a manipulator of marionettes” adds to this sense of mystery surrounding Emma Bovary, who is essentially a confused young woman, trapped in a stifling society who tries