The Timeless Truth of Madame BovaryWritten in 1857, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert has become a literary classic. Emma Bovary is a bourgeois peasant who has a taste for rich things; she marries a doctor and has a little daughter. Her husband, Charles, adores her and thinks she can do nothing wrong. He overlooks the sign of her adultery, telling himself that her misfortune is due to her poor health, and forgives her for her excessive spending. Madame Bovary's excessive desires seem to come from her excessive reading of novels in which life seemed perfect to her. She “tried to discover what exactly was meant in life by the words felicity, passion, rapture, which had seemed so beautiful to her in books” (45). Through Emma, ​​Flaubert illustrates that not being satisfied with what one is given in life leads to heartbreak. Shortly after Emma marries Charles, she discovers that she is unhappy with her new life, due to Charles' lack of romantics. Emma said to herself very early in the marriage: “Shouldn't a man… know everything, excel in multiple activities, initiate you into the energies of passion, the refinements of life, all the mysteries? But this one [Charles] taught nothing, knew nothing, wanted nothing. He found her [Emma] happy and she resented this calm, this serene heaviness, the very happiness that it gave him” (54). Her need for Charles to be more romantic and her ignorance of his feelings leads her to despise him. After a few years of marriage, Emma is so bored with her life that she makes herself sick with need. Her boredom is so great that she wishes she could speak to her servant, “but a feeling of shame held her back” (81). She stood above everyone, so isolates herself... middle of paper ...... and does Emma realize that the best things in life are family and the happiness that she can bring. The selfishness that had governed his life was nothing now, all the things that were bothersome before are no longer bothersome now. The things she bought and the lovers she was with are no longer with her now. Only Charles and his little daughter, the ones she had tried to run away from, are now with her. The simple truth portrayed in Madame Bovary still stands today, selfishness will lead to a life of discontent. Flaubert's illustration of the unhappiness that thinking only about oneself can bring to others is still visible in today's world. This is why Madame Bovary has stood the test of time as a novel full of timeless truth.Works citedFlaubert, Gustave. Mrs. Bovery. Translated by Marx-Aveling, Eleanor. Grolier Incorporated, New York. ND.