I must say that I, too, did not find Madame Bovary to be a relatable character. While the novel itself I admire for its ability to balance the banality of bourgeois culture with an elegant and consistently appealing writing style, I found Emma Bovary to be nothing more than a spoiled brat lost in a world she's not ready to fully understand. 'Bourgeois culture', or at least the kind Emma desires/lives, seems more of a last-ditch illusion created to escape the boredom and small-minded life that Emma treats with such hostility. But throughout the whole novel, Emma's desire for escape is so self-centered, and so ignorant, that I cannot even begin to understand her worldview. "#whitegirlproblems with a dash of first-world-problems.com" much? (Sorry, I had to).
What surprised me (or, to better describe it, amused me) most about the novel was how relevant it is to today's outlook on economy and means of living. How much can we distance ourselves from the life Emma Bovary leads when we use credit cards to pay off credit cards, take multiple mortgages out on houses, and become so entangled in debt that it becomes a national crisis? If anything, we're right where Emma is...or was...but with a slightly better moral compass. Or at least we seem to think we have a better moral compass. Flaubert's critical vision of bourgeois culture seems spot on. The only difference is that now everyone's (hyperbole) living it, just at different levels.
Regardless, as much as I despise Emma Bovary, I do think that Flaubert's work would have no purpose if she was a strictly-likable character, with no room for argument. I'm interested to see how the class discussion pans out with regards to the opinion of Madame Bovary.
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