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The elder Madame Bovary
Emma and Charles’s daughter, a sweet, affectionate toddler. Emma generally ignores her or treats her cruelly, though the little girl obviously wants her attention very badly. Charles adores her, plays with her, and tries to teach her to read. After her parents die, she ends up living with a poor relation and working in a mill.
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Berthe Bovary Character Timeline in Madame Bovary
The timeline below shows where the character Berthe Bovary appears in Madame Bovary. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2, Chapter 3
However, Emma gives birth to a girl. After long deliberation she names her Berthe, after some aristocratic young woman at the Vaubyessard ball. After a rowdy christening party, she...
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...and the nurse appears with a very sickly child at her side. Emma picks up Berthe from a cradle on the floor, and just as Léon is admiring her incongruous delicate...
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Part 2, Chapter 5
...From that moment on, Emma really does put all her energies into homemaking. She takes Berthe from the wet nurse, and displays the child to all her visitors like a mother...
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Part 2, Chapter 6
When Emma comes home, Berthe tries to play with her, but Emma pushes her away so meanly that the little...
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Part 3, Chapter 6
Charles tries to teach Berthe to read, and plays with her when she misses her mother. Emma ignores her child...
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Part 3, Chapter 11
...the house, but he tries to behave and dress as Emma had wanted him to. Berthe becomes very ragged, but Charles loves watching her and playing with her.
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...of himself; he no longer sees patients and rarely leaves the house. Sometimes he takes Berthe to Emma’s grave.
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Not long afterwards, Berthe finds Charles dead in the garden. Berthe is sent, penniless, to her grandmother. Soon the...
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