# Madame Bovary — Character guide

> Key figures in Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.

- [Emma Bovary](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/emma_bovary.md): Emma enters marriage expecting the transports of the books she devoured as a girl, and finds instead a quiet house, a plodding husband, and neighbors who talk about cider and weather. Her beauty draws attention she half-
- [Charles Bovary](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/charles_bovary.md): Charles is the man who marries Emma after his first wife dies, a mediocre practitioner with a warm heart and no imagination for the longings that move her. He notices violets on the mantel and smells them tenderly, unawa
- [Rodolphe Boulanger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/rodolphe_boulanger.md): Rodolphe arrives at the agricultural fair already bored with easy conquests, and Emma's restless beauty strikes him as a more interesting diversion than the local women. He speaks to her in the language of novels she has
- [Léon Dupuis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/leon_dupuis.md): Léon meets Emma at the inn and discovers a kindred spirit who reads the same books and sighs at the same sunsets; they talk of poetry and music while Charles dozes. He leaves for Paris to study law, and three years later
- [Monsieur Homais](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/monsieur_homais.md): Homais is the neighbor who drops in daily, writes florid paragraphs for the local paper, and treats every event as an occasion for his opinions on progress and virtue. He bustles through the market bowing to Madame Bovar
- [Monsieur Lheureux](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/monsieur_lheureux.md): Lheureux appears at Emma's elbow with a bow and a compliment, offering fabrics and novelties she cannot afford and terms she does not read carefully. He walks beside her and Rodolphe at the fair, pretending not to intrud
- [Justin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/justin.md): The Homais' young, infatuated assistant who works in the pharmacy.
- [Père Rouault](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/pere_rouault.md): Rouault is a prosperous, plainspoken Norman farmer who pays Charles Bovary seventy-five francs and a turkey for setting his leg, then quietly steers the widowed doctor back toward his household. His grief over his dead w
- [Monsieur Binet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/monsieur_binet.md): The tax collector in Yonville, known for his lathe work.
- [Madame Homais](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/madame_homais.md): The pharmacist's wife and mother of their children.
- [Hippolyte Tautain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/hippolyte_tautain.md): The clubfooted stable boy at the inn on whom Charles operates.
- [Berthe Bovary](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/berthe_bovary.md): The young daughter of Charles and Emma.
- [Félicité](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/felicite.md): The Bovarys' maid in Yonville.
- [Hivert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/hivert.md): The coachman who drives the Hirondelle between Rouen and Yonville.
- [Madame Lefrançois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/madame_lefrancois.md): The innkeeper of the Lion d'Or in Yonville.
- [Monsieur Bournisien](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/monsieur_bournisien.md): The parish priest of Yonville, often at odds with Homais.
- [Doctor Larivière](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/doctor_lariviere.md): A renowned, skilled doctor from Rouen consulted in critical cases.
- [Mère Rollet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/mere_rollet.md): A wet-nurse who cares for Berthe Bovary.
- [Mademoiselle Lempereur](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/mademoiselle_lemp.md): A music teacher in Rouen whom Emma falsely claims as her piano instructor.
- [Madame Dubuc](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters/madame_dubuc.md): Charles Bovary's first wife, who dies early in the story.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/madame_bovary_se/characters