In Flaubert's Madame Bovary, the concept of `home' is explored through the protagonist's experiences. Clearly this quotation argues that the home is a happy, harmonious place in which the inhabitant can feel content. Contrary to this belief, Emma Bovary's unfulfilling and frustrating life contains none of these feelings.

Traditionally the home is a place of restoration and sanctuary acting as a retreat from which we emerge better and more inspired people. Emma lives most of her life dreaming of what she does not have, meaning that her preconceptions of home are very different. Her home is a place to which she desires to retreat; however, it does not seem to exist anywhere but in her imagination. She creates artificial sanctuaries to escape from the reality in which the everyday tedium...