The Tale of Two Emma’s

Now as often as you’ve heard me voice my distaste for Emma Bovary, I can see she’s a popular character.  While watching I Am Love I felt like I saw a modern portrayal of the very woman, only this time I could feel for her when she came across in the form of Emma Recchi. Let me elaborate why, Tancredi was no Charles Bovary, he was not earnest in his affections towards Emma instead he took her for granted and let her fall to the way side in a marriage where she lacked desire for anything because she was given everything. Her children being out on their own didn’t need her rearing or protection, her husband being busy with business didn’t have time to talk about anything besides the family, money, work, fame, ect and poor Emma Recchi was simply a doll. She was lifeless, bland, without any feeling, and she didn’t do anything for herself until she finally felt that spark of desire with Antonio then all hell broke loose.  Even when a person has no need for anything they should want for something, and if they want for nothing, then they have no drive for life much like in the case of Madame Bovary. Emma Bovary had everything she would need: a house, devoted husband, a well formed child, good looks, and a developed skill set of any woman of that era. Yet she desired for more and went out of her way to fill that desire, Emma Recchi does the exact same thing. She too has the perfect life on paper but she desired a spark to ignite some feeling which was absent from her life, although Emma Bovary voiced her opinions more fluidly, Emma Recchi had no trouble voicing hers once she realized what was lacking all along. This is a common theme that is being repeated and yet we never learn our lesson, Why is that? I think because we are inevitably drawn to this fate, it’s like a train wreck only we are in the conductors’ seat and while we can see it all happening time and time again we never stop, we never bail out, we just stay put, and enjoy the ride until it’s over. The whole enjoying the ride until it’s over thing is great until we realize the “over” part tends to be accompanied by painful heartbreak, depression, severed relationships that had been built up for years, broken families, and of course the possibility of death whether inflicted by yourself or the enraged lover. The Lover and Beloved dynamic will never die out and as much as we try to play the foreboding prophet to our own friends and loved ones much like Cassandra we will only be met with deaf ears and frustration.