Madame Bovary

Content Warning: This section discusses suicide, racism, and domestic violence.

Léon has enjoyed his life in the city, but he never stopped thinking about Emma. When they run into each other at the theater, his passion for her is reinvigorated. Charles leaves Emma in the city so that she can see the opera they had left early the previous night. Léon meets with Emma alone in her hotel room, where he confesses that he is deeply in love with her and suggests that they start an affair. Emma rejects the idea of an affair, but she’s flattered and pleased by his declarations of love. They talk deeply about their lives and various sources of unhappiness, and they miss the opera. Emma is due to leave the city the next day to go back home, but she agrees to meet Léon in the cathedral the next morning. She writes several drafts of a letter to Léon telling him that she won’t make their meeting, but she doesn’t know where he lives and can’t deliver the letter to him.

The next morning, Léon anxiously and eagerly waits for Emma in the cathedral. She arrives late and prays fervently.