Madame Bovary · Chapter
IX explained
Emma begins a passionate, secret affair with Rodolphe Boulanger.
What happens
Emma begins a passionate, secret affair with Rodolphe Boulanger. She visits him at his estate, La Huchette, and they embark on a series of trysts. Rodolphe, after a calculated absence, returns to deepen their relationship, manipulating Emma with romantic declarations. He suggests horseback rides as a pretext for their meetings, which Charles naively encourages. Emma is transformed by the affair, experiencing a sense of triumphant passion and fulfillment of her romantic fantasies, seeing herself as one of the heroines from her novels.
Themes in this chapter
Romanticism vs. Reality
Emma's affair is experienced by her as the ultimate romantic fulfillment—'passion, ecstasy, delirium'—and she explicitly identifies with the 'heroines of the books that she had read.' This stands in stark contrast to Rodolphe's calculated, mundane reality.
Illusion and Self-Deception
Emma is completely transfigured by the illusion of love, seeing herself in the mirror as changed. She delights in the idea 'I have a lover!' while remaining blind to Rodolphe's self-interested manipulation and the impending consequences.
Characters to notice
- Emma Bovary
Embraces her affair with Rodolphe with passionate intensity, seeing it as the fulfillment of her romantic dreams and a triumphant revenge on her dull life.
- Rodolphe Boulanger
Calculatingly pursues Emma, using flattery and manufactured passion to seduce her, while already showing signs of viewing her visits as an imprudent burden.
- Charles Bovary
Remains utterly oblivious, even encouraging Emma's rides with Rodolphe, concerned only for her health and pleased to buy her a horse.
Key passages
“She became herself, as it were, an actual part of these imaginings, and realised the love-dream of her youth as she saw herself in this type of amorous women whom she had so envied.”
Emma finally lives out the romantic fantasies she cultivated through novels, becoming the adulterous heroine she always admired.
Highlights the direct link between her literary consumption and her real-life actions.
“Rodolphe, laughing, drew her to him, and pressed her to his breast. Then she examined the apartment, opened the drawers of the tables, combed her hair with his comb, and looked at herself in his shaving-glass.”
After their intimate moment, Emma intimately explores Rodolphe's private space, symbolically claiming it and him as her own.
Shows her desire for total possession and immersion in the lover's world.
“"Ah! you see," replied he in a melancholy voice, "that I was right not to come back; for this name, this name that fills my whole soul, and that escaped me, you forbid me to use! Madame Bovary! why all the world calls you thus! Besides, it is not your name; it is the name of another!"”
Rodolphe theatrically laments that he must call her 'Madame Bovary,' a name he claims belongs to another man, not to her true self.
A manipulative tactic to flatter Emma and undermine her marriage, painting Charles as an interloper.