Analysis of Chapters 5-6

Emma's conviction that her happiness is dependent upon the proper surroundings leads her to associate her disgust with the dullness of the landscape and the flax mill with her disgust for Charles.  In this manner she realizes that Léon, who stands apart from the drabness of Yonville, is in love with her.  Shackled by propriety to her marriage she can only suffer as her love for the clerk mounts.  Nevertheless she not only resists the urge to act on her love but she continues to be a responsible wife as evidenced of her refusal to purchase expensive goods from Lheureux.  This is the first appearance of the merchant and his promise to her that he knows what ladies want indicates that he intends to make Emma a regular customer.  Her attempt to find comfort in religion is deterred by the abbe's small-minded failure to appreciate the nature of her crises.  This attitude is in keeping with the nineteenth century conception of women as mere recipients of a man's desires without their own sexual agenda or need for pleasure.  Although Emma is trapped by her gender and marital status, Léon is a single man and he has the choice of escaping to Paris.  This fact is particularly painful to Emma when she hears Homais and her husband, both of whom could have presumably exercised the same freedom at some point in their lives, discuss the clerk's future.  Emma is revealed to be a caring mother when she worries over her daughter following her injury but her observation that her daughter is ugly reveals that she feels no great emotional identification with the child.