Emma = Self-Destruction

I've essentially trashed Emma Bovary as a character every chance I've gotten since we've started reading Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and I'm not going to pass this chance up either.  In fact, I'd like to continue Wednesday's class discussion.  Now, I realize that Emma is a prisoner to a chauvinistically saturated time, and I do not agree with the the policies of the time in regards to women, and I am by NO means a sexist.  Having said that, Emma - in my eyes - the manifestation of all that encompasses weakness and irresponsibility.  Regardless of the fact that, to this point, Emma has not acted physically on any of her thoughts, and that we get the story from her perspective - allowing for a much more personal view into Emma's thoughts and urges - she still manages to garner my disdain.  My father always taught me that being tough wasn't necessarily about your outward appearance or the stories you could tell, but about your ability to control your own fear and destructive thoughts inside your mind.  Emma continually undermines everything she tries so desperately hold together by allowing her thoughts to consume her.  She makes the conscious decision to invest beyond her means in the desires that come to dismantle her life, piece by piece.  And I wholeheartedly believe that if Emma's character existed in any later time in history she would still be as empty, cold, and confused as she is now, because that is who she is at her core, and that is how she has come to understand herself.