Madame Bovary - Penn State University

Flaubertand to the support of the state, born of respect for law and But the other, the eternal, that is about us and above, likethe practice of duty—”the landscape that surrounds us, and the blue heavens that“Ah! again!” said Rodolphe. “Always ‘duty.’ I am sick of give us light.”the word. They are a lot of old blockheads in flannel vests Monsieur Lieuvain had just wiped his mouth with a pockethandkerchief.He continued—and of old women with foot-warmers and rosaries who constantlydrone into our ears ‘Duty, duty!’ Ah! by Jove! one’s “And what should I do here gentlemen, pointing out toduty is to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and not you the uses of agriculture? Who supplies our wants? Whoaccept all the conventions of society with the ignominy that provides our means of subsistence? Is it not the agriculturist?it imposes upon us.”The agriculturist, gentlemen, who, sowing with laborious“Yet—yet—” objected Madame Bovary.hand the fertile furrows of the country, brings forth the corn,“No, no! Why cry out against the passions? Are they not which, being ground, is made into a powder by means ofthe one beautiful thing on the earth, the source of heroism, ingenious machinery, comes out thence under the name ofof enthusiasm, of poetry, music, the arts, of everything, in a flour, and from there, transported to our cities, is soon deliveredat the baker’s, who makes it into food for poor and richword?”“But one must,” said Emma, “to some extent bow to the alike. Again, is it not the agriculturist who fattens, for ouropinion of the world and accept its moral code.”clothes, his abundant flocks in the pastures? For how should“Ah! but there are two,” he replied. “The small, the conventional,that of men, that which constantly changes, that culturist? And, gentlemen, is it even necessary to go so far forwe clothe ourselves, how nourish ourselves, without the agri-brays out so loudly, that makes such a commotion here below,of the earth earthly, like the mass of imbeciles you see mentous things that we get out of that modest animal, theexamples? Who has not frequently reflected on all the mo-down there.ornament of poultry-yards, that provides us at once with a125