Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Strong-willed, intelligent, and motivated are only some of the words we can use to describe Betty Friedan. Credited as being the mother of the second wave of feminism, Friedan was an influential women’s right activist during the twentieth century but her legacy has continued to strive well into the twenty-first century. Friedan is the author of a variety of books including The Feminine Mystique, which became a phenomenon because of its powerful message to women for self-exploration outside their traditional roles. This book helped to define Friedan’s role in the fight for women empowerment and equality. It evoked emotions in many women who agreed that they did not want to fulfil traditional roles, creating an atmosphere of change. She was also the cofounder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), serving as its first president and also helped to create the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws and the National Women’s Political Caucus. With these organizations, Friedan became the face of the women’s movement and encouraged women to take a stand against the pathological idealization of women by creating a sense of community

Though at first glance, Emma appears to be a generic romantic novel about virtue and ladyhood, Austen actually challenges what the meaning of “ladyhood” is to the reader. We view Emma’s follies, trials, and triumphs through the eyes of the omnipotent narrator who first describes Emma as a stereotypical, wealthy young lady who is “handsome, clever…with…a happy disposition” (1). Through the use of irony, Austen employs a series of situations in which Emma, a “lady” of high standing within her community, challenges conventional thinking of what it means to be a young woman in the early nineteenth century, particularly her ideas concerning marriage and

In this one sentence Flaubert not only gives example of how the works are repetitive, with similar plots, and dying horses "on every page," but he also manages to capture the clichéd, melodramatic style of romance novels that makes them all seem the same. The repetitiveness extends into real life as well, as Emma’s love affairs constantly lose their fire and begin to become routine, or, as Rodolphe notes, "the charm of novelty, falling down slowly like a dress, expose[s] only the eternal monotony of passion, always the same forms and the same language (154).

In Madame Bovary, Emma creates conspicuous goals based off romantic novels she reads. In reaching her goals, she requires a level of

Simone De Beauvoir in The Second Sex suggests that to resolve the tension between bad faith and authenticity, people must regard women as subjects and not objects. They must also collectively fight against the idea of womanhood in order to remain authentic to themselves.

The poem “A Martyr” by Charles Baudelaire is a poem depicting a gruesome painting, by an unknown artist, of a woman lying headless on a bed. The poem begins by referencing a “cadaver” lying on a bed that is only explicitly identified as a female in the 24th line of the poem, only being referenced before that as “a headless cadaver” and “the nude torso” (Baudelaire). As we try to uncover the circumstances in which this mysterious woman ended up in such a peculiar predicament. The first thing that peaked my interest when reading the different translations of the poem was the variations in the titles. The first poem, a more literal translation of the original french poem keeps the “A Martyr,” which can lead to the interpretation that the woman has died a heroic death for a cause or possibly killed because of her beliefs. Interestingly, however, two other translations, “Murdered Woman” (Edna St. Vincent Millay) and “A Martyred Woman,” (Geoffrey Wagner) share a common message, that the woman

The Scarlet Letter (Figure 1) painted by Hugues Merle in 1861 depicts the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. Hester Prynne, an adulteress forced to wear the letter “A” upon her bosom forever, becomes an outcast from the community with her daughter, Pearl. Merle was often known for painting scenes of mothers and children. He illustrates the scene of Hester and Pearl sitting in the town square as part of her punishment. The townspeople walk by, pointing fingers and making shrewd remarks. Merle’s painting, his biography, and other renditions of the novel and painting will be later discussed.

This image and atmosphere of mundane imperfection is a far cry from what Emma expects after reading the romantic novels she smuggled in at the convent. From those foppish texts she gathers the impression that ladies such as she should be “lolling on carriages” or “dreaming on sofas,” or perhaps embracing some dashing “young man in a short cloak” (Flaubert 32). Yet such is not the reality in which she lives.

In the writing “Therese Raquin” Therese, the main character, encountered many ups and downs throughout her lifetime. During her childhood, she was kept confined and resented by her family. Emile Zola, the writer, mentions that:

Madame Bovary is a novel by author Gustave Flaubert in which one woman’s provincial bourgeois life becomes an expansive commentary on class, gender, and social roles in nineteenth-century France. Emma Bovary is the novel’s eponymous antiheroine who uses deviant behavior and willful acts of indiscretion to reject a lifestyle imposed upon her by an oppressive patriarchal society. Madame Bovary’s struggle to circumvent and overthrow social roles reflects both a cultural and an existential critique of gender and class boundaries, and her unwillingness to tolerate the banalities of domestic life in a predetermined caste culminates in several distinct means of defiance. Emma Bovary exploits traditional cultural values such as marriage,

The dramatic monologue “My Last Duchess” was penned down by Robert Browning. In this poem, the narrator is the Duke of Ferrara, and the listener is the count’s agent, through whom the Duke is arranging the proposed marriage to a second duchess. The poem is ironical and reveals its rhetorical sense, gradually. In the later part of the poem, the Duke claims that he does not have a skill in speech, but his monologue is a masterpiece of subtle rhetoric. While supposedly entertaining the listener by showing his wife’s portrait, he clearly reveals his character. Through his formalized tone of rhyme, he reveals his egoistic and jealous attitude.

Art is not just a form of beauty but also a form of power. In it lies deep meaning and value and often tells a story. Robert Browning’s poem “The Last Duchess” portrays this power of art, which is evident in how the Duke captures more than just the image of his former wife in the painting. To him the painting represents his control and power and tells the tale of his former wife in the way he speaks of the painting. An analysis of the poem “My Last Duchess” will reveal how the Duke uses art to further the narrative of this poem through symbolism, reveal the relationship with his former wife and control others.

In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir commenced the development of second-wave feminism. The publication of her theoretical work, The Second Sex, issued a fervent response to gender-based oppression during the twentieth century. However, the philosophy that de Beauvoir espoused in The Second Sex still proves relevant to contemporary women. In the United States, conservative politicians have sought to eliminate legalized abortion, thereby limiting the reproductive freedom of women. The enforcement of the gender pay-gap has led to economic inequality. Additionally, a practice of sexual shaming, known as "slut-shaming", has originated within popular culture to denounce women for their sexual choices. Ultimately, The Second Sex uncovers the timeless "myth de la femme", through an analysis of the economic and social liberation of women. Through her analysis, de Beauvoir highlights the importance of reproductive freedom, economic liberation, and sexual freedom.

Through all of his affairs with women, Flaubert began to make "a series of maxims about women" in general (Bart 258). He even tried to explain these ideas to Louise. Flaubert believed all women "were never frank with themselves, because they would never admit the purely physical aspect of attraction and must always deny the existence of evil or vice in their loved ones" (Bart 258). "In reality [women] longed in everything for the eternal spouse and always dreamed of the great love of a lifetime" (Bart 258). Eventually, Flaubert would make this "Emma's confusion" (Bart 258). Emma imagined a man:

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James is a heartfelt story about a naive American named Isabel Archer, who experienced love and heartbreak.