looking for the right word...

Man I'm really raking my brain on this one, this lack of sleep is killing me :sick:. Anyway I'm writing a paper on Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and I'm looking for the right way to describe Emma Bovary. Specifically, I'm looking for a literary allusion. Madame Bovary is a character who has an insatiable desire for the romantic, which, without trying to spoil the novel for anyone, ruins her. I'm looking for another famous character in literature I can allude to, who's want for something destroys them. To be even more specific I'm trying to fill this blank "...[Emma Bovary] finds only passing emotions and no true, sustainable happiness in a _______ dream world." It's still an early rough draft and by the end I'll probably change it completely, but for now trying to explain Emma in that sentence is really bugging me. Any help?

As to literary allusion, perhaps you might make something of a parallel with Don Quiote. Perhaps on word might be quixotic.

ha, I was just about to post the same thing, quixotic. Finally came to me when I moved on to another paragraph. It's exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks for the help! I hate when you know something, but just can't get it out of your mind.

Great minds think alike. ;) Glad I could help.

I was thinking that the description you seek is somewhat that of Anna Karinnena(sp)

How about Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray?

And to me, the term 'quixotic' has a somewhat positive connotation, with the implication that the deeds are committed in a chivalric, idealistic, romantic and/or noble fashion, which is the ultimate contradiction of both Emma Bovary's and Becky Sharp's actions: both these characters are driven by their selfish ambitions and desires, making them the perfect epitome of human greed and selfishness; a far cry of from any sort of romantic or idealistic action.

It is noteworthy that both novels were published in mid 1800s.

I'll second that thought Scher.

Don Quixote and Madame Bovary share the theme of an idealized view of the world in which the lead characters both meet the realities of life.

Here are a few internet (mostly from Wiki) on the similarites.

Quote:

---

Emma is the novel's protagonist and is the main source of the novel's title (although Charles's mother and his former wife are also referred to as Madame Bovary). She has a highly romanticized view of the world and craves beauty, wealth, passion and high society. It is the disparity between these romantic ideals and the realities of her country life that drive most of the novel, most notably leading her into two extra-marital love affairs as well as causing her to accrue an insurmountable amount of debt that eventually leads to her suicide.

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Bovary

Quote:

---

The title character of the novel, Don Quixote is a gaunt, middle-aged gentleman who, having gone mad from reading too many books about chivalrous knights, determines to set off on a great adventure to win honor and glory in the name of his invented ladylove, Dulcinea. Don Quixote longs for a sense of purpose and beauty—two things he believes the world lacks—and hopes to bring order to a tumultuous world by reinstating the chivalric code of the knights-errant. Initially, Don Qui-xote’s good intentions do only harm to those he meets, since he is largely unable to see the world as it really is.

---

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/donquixote/canalysis.html

Quote:

---

Anti-Romantic novel with underlying Romantic impulses; simultaneous criticism and admiration of Emma Bovary; Emma as base and materialistic but also unfulfilled dreamer, failed Romantic hero, a sort of female Don Quixote; "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" ("Madame Bovary, that's me") (Flaubert);

---

http://fajardo-acosta.com/worldlit/flaubert/bovary.htm

Quote:

---

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is often attributed as a retelling of Don Quixote

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote

Of course there are differences too.

wow thanks for all the info virgil, really helped me out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Scheherazade

How about Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray?

And to me, the term 'quixotic' has a somewhat positive connotation, with the implication that the deeds are committed in a chivalric, idealistic, romantic and/or noble fashion, which is the ultimate contradiction of both Emma Bovary's and Becky Sharp's actions: both these characters are driven by their selfish ambitions and desires, making them the perfect epitome of human greed and selfishness; a far cry of from any sort of romantic or idealistic action.

It is noteworthy that both novels were published in mid 1800s.

---

I agree with Becky Sharpe. There Are many similarities between the two leading women.

Thomas Hardy's Eustacia Vye has things in common with Emma Bovary...