Madame Bovary Characters

So, the book is called Madame Bovary. It’s pretty straightforward. The book really is Madame Bovary; without Emma, it’s nothing. She provides its plot, much of its perspective, and she...

Charles is really just a normal guy. He’s neither good nor bad; his biggest faults are simply that he’s wishy-washy and not so bright. He can’t even conceive of ever being dishone...

Homais is a middle-class businessman at heart, but his ambitions never let him stop climbing the social ladder. He strives to be something more than just middle-class, and he attempts to pose as a...

Rodolphe is another fairly recognizable stock character – he’s a handsome, skilled Casanova, whose only goal in life is to woo women. He decides immediately upon meeting Emma that she s...

When first we meet him, Léon is kind of the male equivalent of Emma. He’s young, attractive, idealistic, and romantic to a fault. He’s also incredibly bored with small-town life in...

Monsieur Lheureux is the closest thing we get to a truly evil creature. He is remorseless and cunning; he knows all along that he will drive Emma to financial ruin, and furthermore, he does it on p...

Berthe doesn’t do anything in particular, except show the faults of her parents. She’s an infant, then a small child in the novel, and she simply is not old enough to act. However, we l...

Madame Homais is barely even a character. She’s another young-ish housewife (she’s in her thirties), but she couldn’t be any more different from Emma. She’s totally devoted...