In Some Corner of the World - The Women I Want To Depict, by Yukio Mishima
"Flaubert may have written Madame Bovary as an act of rebellion against his own inability to resist the allure of the worthlessness of women in general."
In Some Corner of the World - The Women I Want To Depict
Yukio Mishima
According to popular opinion, the women that an author wants to depict are his ideal women and the lovers whom he should have had. The editors’ demand that I write about “the women I want to depict” doubtless has such an aim. But the female protagonist of a novel is often nothing like the author’s ideal woman. Naomi1 and Yukiko2 are certainly Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s ideal women at each respective age. However, when it comes to Madame Emma Bovary, she was unmistakably the woman whom Flaubert wanted to depict, but she was by no means his ideal woman. At the very least, Flaubert likely did not want to marry Emma. Nevertheless, it is likely that the author was captivated by the charm that Emma has for most men. In which case, Flaubert may have written Madame Bovary as an act of rebellion against his own inability to resist the allure of the worthlessness3 of women in general (I insist on freedom of speech even in a woman’s magazine). Incidentally, ideals are born of and supported by rebellion. In which case perhaps one could say that Emma was Flaubert’s ideal woman. Here also things are made such that popular opinion attains the ultimate victory.