Madame Bovary: Setting and world
13 lenses on setting and world for Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Count lenses are exact for our text. AI lenses are our reading and cite only quotes that passed a word for word check.
Jump to: I1 I2 I3 I4 I5 I6 I7 I8 I9 I10 I11 I12 I13
I1. Places named and how often each appears. Count
Yonville is the place named most, 66 times.
| Place | Mentions | Chapters |
|---|---|---|
| Yonville | 66 | 22 |
| Rouen | 63 | 26 |
| Tostes | 24 | 11 |
| Paris | 24 | 13 |
| Bertaux | 21 | 7 |
| the theatre | 21 | 9 |
| the inn | 15 | 12 |
| Vaubyessard | 13 | 7 |
| the cathedral | 8 | 3 |
| the forest | 6 | 4 |
| the attic | 6 | 5 |
I2. Setting by chapter, as a map. Both
The place named most in each chapter. A rough setting map. (rough estimate from word lists)
| Chapter | Place named most |
|---|---|
| 1 | Tostes |
| 2 | Bertaux |
| 3 | Bertaux |
| 4 | Tostes |
| 5 | the attic |
| 6 | Bertaux |
| 7 | Vaubyessard |
| 8 | Vaubyessard |
| 9 | Tostes |
| 10 | Yonville |
| 11 | Yonville |
| 12 | Yonville |
| 13 | Rouen |
| 14 | Yonville |
Part I: Tostes (chapters 1 to 9), a provincial backwater where Emma's disillusionment begins. Part II: Yonville (10 to 24), a small market town where affairs develop. Part III: Rouen and Yonville (25 to 35), urban temptation and rural ruin. Settings progress from isolation to entrapment.
Chapters: Ch 1, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 35
Yonville-l’Abbaye (so called from an old Capuchin abbey of which not even the ruins remain) is a market-town twenty-four miles from Rouen (Ch 10, para 1)
It is there that they make the worst Neufchâtel cheeses of all the arrondissement (Ch 10, para 4)
I3. Setting shown in blocks or woven into action? AI
Settings are woven into action rather than presented in blocks. Yonville emerges through characters' movements and interactions (10 to 11). The ball at Vaubyessard (8) is experienced through Emma's sensations. Rouen's hotel rooms (25 to 30) are revealed through intimate scenes rather than description.
Chapters: Ch 8, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 25, Ch 29
Emma, on entering, felt herself wrapped round by the warm air, a blending of the perfume of flowers and of the fine linen (Ch 8, para 8)
Yonville-l’Abbaye (so called from an old Capuchin abbey of which not even the ruins remain) is a market-town twenty-four miles from Rouen (Ch 10, para 1)
The bed was large, of mahogany, in the shape of a boat. (Ch 29, para 16)
I4. Weather and light used for mood. Both
Weather and light words: 1.99 per 1,000 words.
Weather and light words, chapter by chapter
Weather and light subtly reinforce mood. Emma's melancholy in Tostes coincides with grey provincial weather (5 to 7). The ball's brilliance (8) contrasts with her dark return home. Rouen's autumn atmosphere (24 to 30) mirrors emotional decline. Rain and darkness accompany financial crisis (29 to 31).
Chapters: Ch 5, Ch 8, Ch 24, Ch 29, Ch 31
Everything seemed to her enveloped in a black atmosphere floating confusedly over the exterior of things (Ch 16, para 1)
she gathered it all up, took everything, and made it all serve as fuel for her melancholy (Ch 16, para 5)
I5. The social world: class, money, rules. AI
Class and money dominate. Emma yearns for aristocratic life glimpsed at Vaubyessard (8). Lheureux exploits her materialism through credit (14, 21, 26, 29 to 31). Charles's medical status offers modest respectability. The novel shows how financial entanglement enforces social rules and moral compromise.
Chapters: Ch 8, Ch 14, Ch 17, Ch 21, Ch 26, Ch 29
A man, at least, is free; he may travel over passions and over countries, overcome obstacles, taste of the most far-away pleasures. But a woman is always hampered. (Ch 12, para 12)
She is gaping after love like a carp after water on a kitchen-table. With three words of gallantry she’d adore one (Ch 16, para 62)
She had profited by Lheureux’s lessons. (Ch 26, para 87)
I6. Rules of the world (magic, science) and when each is shown. AI
Science governs the world: Charles's medical practice, Homais's chemistry, the failed club-foot operation (20). Magic is absent. The novel treats reality as governed by physical laws and social conventions, not supernatural forces. Medicine's failure (20, 32) shows science's limits.
Chapters: Ch 2, Ch 20, Ch 32
For,” said he to Emma, “what risk is there? See--” (and he enumerated on his fingers the advantages of the attempt), “success, almost certain relief and beautifying of the patient, celebrity acquired by the operator. (Ch 20, para 2)
And as at hospitals, near by on a table lay a heap of lint, with waxed thread, many bandages--a pyramid of bandages--every bandage to be found at the druggist’s. (Ch 20, para 17)
I7. Lore: dripped in or dumped? AI
Lore is dripped in rather than dumped. Emma's reading of novels (6) shapes her throughout; specific titles emerge gradually. Agricultural show details (17) emerge through dialogue. Medical terminology appears naturally in operation scene (20). No exposition blocks interrupt narrative flow.
Chapters: Ch 6, Ch 17, Ch 20
She had read “Paul and Virginia,” and she had dreamed of the little bamboo-house, the nigger Domingo, the dog Fidele (Ch 6, para 1)
They were all love, lovers, sweethearts, persecuted ladies fainting in lonely pavilions, postilions killed at every stage (Ch 6, para 9)
Thus a kind of bond was established between them, a constant commerce of books and of romances. (Ch 13, para 16)
I8. Real history used, and how. AI
Real history is minimal. The novel is set in contemporary 1850s France but avoids major historical events. The Legion of Honour (35) is a real institution, marking Homais's social ambition. The book focuses on private lives rather than historical backdrop.
Chapters: Ch 35
I9. Journeys: distance and time taken. Both
Journeys are frequent but short. Tostes to Bertaux farm is repeated (2 to 3). The ball at Vaubyessard is a day trip (8). Rouen is twenty-four miles away (10), reached by carriage in hours. Emma's weekly trips (28 to 30) are routine. No epic journeys; movement is constrained and cyclical.
Chapters: Ch 2, Ch 8, Ch 10, Ch 24, Ch 28, Ch 29
Yonville-l’Abbaye (so called from an old Capuchin abbey of which not even the ruins remain) is a market-town twenty-four miles from Rouen (Ch 10, para 1)
I10. Objects that matter, where they appear. Both
the letter is the object named most.
| Object | Mentions | Chapters |
|---|---|---|
| the letter | 13 | 7 |
| the horse | 4 | 3 |
| the power of attorney | 2 | 2 |
| the cigar case | 1 | 1 |
| the arsenic | 1 | 1 |
Objects carry symbolic weight. The cigar case from the Viscount (9) obsesses Emma. The wedding dress reappears at her funeral (33). Lheureux's goods trap her through debt (14, 21, 26). The blind beggar's image haunts her (29, 32). Letters and power of attorney enable her downfall (21, 26).
Chapters: Ch 9, Ch 14, Ch 21, Ch 26, Ch 29, Ch 32
Whose was it? The Viscount’s? Perhaps it was a present from his mistress. (Ch 9, para 1)
So taking handfuls of the mixed-up letters, he amused himself for some moments with letting them fall in cascades from his right into his left hand. (Ch 22, para 4)
She entered the corridor into which the laboratory door opened. Against the wall was a key labelled Capharnaum. (Ch 32, para 59)
I11. Density of period detail. AI
Period detail is dense but selective. Flaubert includes specific goods (Neufchâtel cheese, 10), medical instruments (20), theatre programmes (24), and social rituals (ball, agricultural show). Details serve character and theme rather than mere historical accuracy. Restraint prevents overwhelming the narrative.
Chapters: Ch 10, Ch 17, Ch 20, Ch 24
It is there that they make the worst Neufchâtel cheeses of all the arrondissement (Ch 10, para 4)
But that which most attracts the eye is opposite the Lion d’Or inn, the chemist’s shop of Monsieur Homais. (Ch 10, para 11)
And as at hospitals, near by on a table lay a heap of lint, with waxed thread, many bandages--a pyramid of bandages--every bandage to be found at the druggist’s. (Ch 20, para 17)
I12. Setting as an enemy. AI
Setting becomes an enemy through entrapment. Yonville's provincial mediocrity traps Emma (10 to 35). Tostes's isolation drives her to despair (5 to 9). Rouen's distance makes meetings difficult (24 to 30). Geography enforces the social rules that destroy her. Escape is always blocked by distance or duty.
Chapters: Ch 5, Ch 10, Ch 24, Ch 29, Ch 31
Everything seemed to her enveloped in a black atmosphere floating confusedly over the exterior of things (Ch 16, para 1)
she gathered it all up, took everything, and made it all serve as fuel for her melancholy (Ch 16, para 5)
I13. Indoors against outdoors. Both
Indoor words outnumber outdoor words 640 to 345. (rough estimate from word lists)
Indoor share %, chapter by chapter
Indoors and outdoors carry symbolic weight. Indoors: confinement, secrecy, domestic duty (Emma's home, Rodolphe's house, hotel rooms). Outdoors: freedom, passion, escape (forest rides, walks, the ball). Yet outdoors also exposes her (the agricultural show, public streets). Neither offers true refuge.
Chapters: Ch 8, Ch 17, Ch 18, Ch 24, Ch 29
Emma, on entering, felt herself wrapped round by the warm air, a blending of the perfume of flowers and of the fine linen (Ch 8, para 8)
Her love grew in the presence of this vastness, and expanded with tumult to the vague murmurings that rose towards her. (Ch 29, para 9)
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