ind, does she finally regain her health. Emma attends a theatre performance with Charles and re-encounters Leon. Emma and Leon’s love rekindles itself, and they begin the second stage of their affair. Despite their love affair and declarations of love for one another, these two were happier in a fantasy world instead of reality. They both had unrealistic expectations about how love should be. Eventually, this leads them searching for a way out of their relationship. “She was satiated with him as he was tired of her” (p. 251). As a final point, Emma relationship with Berthe’s, her daughter, was doomed simply because Berthe was born a girl. “A man, at least, is free; he can explore the whole range of the passions…” (p. 76). Throughout the novel, Berthe’s existence is rarely mentioned, except when she is portrayed as a nuisance to her mother: “ ‘Leave me alone!’ Emma repeated angrily. The look on her face frightened the child and she began to shriek. ‘I told you to leave me alone!’ said Emma, shoving her away with her elbow” (p. 100). The fantasy world in which Emma constantly lives in prevents her from loving her daughter the way that a mother should. Emma goes through life being selfish, obsessive, and unloving. In her search for passion, love and sensuality, she destroys the lives of her husband, Charles, and her daughter, Berthe. Sadly, Emma honestly believes she would find passion, bliss, and the love spoken about in the romantic novels she read. If she stopped searching for her fantasy life, and accepted her reality life with Charles and Berthe then she could have found happiness within those two relationships....
