The Mystery Play in 'Madame Bovary: mœurs de province' (review)

Flaubert placed his early work Smar under the heading 'vieux mystère'. The present volume argues that Flaubert's first published text can be read in similar vein: as a mystery play. Peter Rogers's study of religious and theatrical elements in Madame Bovary takes as its impetus a snippet of dialogue exchanged between Homais and the priest Bournisien at the end of Part 11 of the novel. Homais responds to the priest's insistence that the theatre is a place of temptation by recalling the tradition of the mystery play, backing up his argument with the revelation that he also finds indecency in religious texts. In the Bible, according to Homais, there is 'plus d'un detail... piquant'. Rogers traces the reference to 'piquant' as a double-edged, spicy/piercing allusion to the body of Christ, the reference to the theatre, and a debate surrounding morality. He argues that structures and motifs within Madame Bovary can be read as a form of (often parodic) mystery play. Taking examples of such medieval plays as the Mystère de la Passion and the Jeu d'Adam, Rogers draws on a range of biblical and iconographic sources to suggest possible links between Flaubert's text and Christian doctrine. Charles Bovary's blood-letting of Rodolphe's manservant is seen as a variant of the Passion of Christ; Homais, recipient of the croix d'honneur, plays the role of Jesus with an infernal band led by the blind man behind him; a network of threads in the novel — from the those that dangle from Emma's wedding bouquet to the 'filature' in which Berthe Bovary is sent to work — are perceived as 'virgin's threads' connecting Emma and the Virgin Mary. Theatrical dimensions of the novel are also explored: chapters are devoted to 'scenes' against which biblical references are played out, or to 'props of temptation', such as the trees and fallen fruit that lie in the background of the consummation scene between Emma and Rodolphe. At times, the arrangement of the material in this study is confusing, so that the central concern — the link between Madame Bovary and a mystery play — does not always emerge clearly enough. There are also a number of typographical errors (including several references to 'Adrienne', rather than Adrianne, Tooke's work on Flaubert and the pictorial arts). That said, a great deal of material comes under examination here, and Rogers highlights some compelling details, reinforcing once again the prominence of religious imagery in Flaubert's nineteenth-century Normandy-based novel.