Just as I thought!
The current Mrs. Bovary cannot be the protagonist because...
Dr. Charles Bovary starts helping a farmer with his ailment and falls in love with his daughter!
Rodney feels your pain Charles.
Emma is her name and being adorable is her game.
Charles is immediately taken in by Mademoiselle Emma Rouault and frequents her home to "check in" on her father.
The present Madam Bovary hears about Emma and instinctively dislikes her but, as luck would have it, Madam Bovary dies!
Charles is not all too saddened by the event, though he feels some twinges of sentimentality,
When everything was over at the cemetery, Charles returned to the house. There was no one downstairs, and he went up to the bedroom. One of her dresses was still hanging in the alcove. He stayed there until dark, leaning against the writing desk, his mind full of sad thoughts. Poor thing! She had loved him, after all. (Flaubert, 23).When authors introduce characters and kill them off so quickly, I always wonder what that dead character's purpose was. Why have Mme. Bovary at all if she is going to die within two chapters anyway? What purpose did she serve to the plot? Why did Flaubert feel the need to include her at all?
But he did. Flaubert introduced her for some specific reason, we just don't know it yet. Despite her brief and uneventful appearance, Mme. Bovary the First must serve as some anchor or comparison for the later wife. "Poor thing! She had loved him, after all." Despite all her follies, she had been a loyal and loving wife. Maybe the next one won't be...
Chapter 3
Charles' sadness quickly dissipates.
He though of her less and less as he grew used to living alone. The novelty and pleasure of being independent soon made solitude more bearable. Now he could change his meal hours at will, come and go without explanation, stretch out across the bed if he was particularly tired. (Flaubert, 24).Doesn't sound like he's missing his wife too much. Charles is enjoying his freedom. He likes being a bachelor, yet he still pursues Emma. He continues to go to her house, "Now he went to Les Berteaux (Emma's home) whenever he pleased. He was aware of a feeling of hope" (Flaubert, 24). The funny thing is, it doesn't sound like they have a very deep connection to one another. When they talk, it is briefly. There's no deep intellectual or emotionally connection that they have. So it is slightly impulsive of him to ask Mr. Rouault for his daughter's hand in marriage.
Some background on Rouault. He sounds just like Charles' father.
He never lifted a finger if he could help it, and never spared any expense in matters of daily living: he insisted on good good, a good fire, and a good bed. he like his cider hard, hi leg of mutton rare, his coffee well laced with brandy. (Flaubert, 27).Mr. Rouault is lazy and quick to spend money. Which is why he's rather relieved when Charles proposes. Rouault owes a bit of money and seeing as how Charles is well-educated and reliable (and won't haggle over the dowry) Rouault believes Charles is a great match for his daughter.
Reading this is just another example of how marriage and match-making are very political, with the match-makers working under selfish motives.
Anyway, Emma, and her father, accept the proposal, but one slight detail delayed the wedding ever so slightly.
"There was plenty of tine, since the wedding couldn't decently take place before the end of Charles's mourning - that is, toward the spring of the next year" (Flaubert, 28-29).
Let me state that again,
"Since the wedding couldn't decently take place before the end of Charles's mourning-."
Charles really didn't beat around the bush in getting another wife. In fact, he was so quick to get another one that it wasn't even socially proper for him to marry. Yeesh!
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