Flaubert builds a beautiful narrative of a woman who studies in convent, enjoys her life at her father's farm and finally marries the guy who asks for her hand. From then on, Flaubert begins to strip her off reservations, her character and her emotional maturity inch by inch. Her actions seems even more drastic because of her christian upbringing and having adhered to strict convent life. (Is that why this farm girl studied in a convent in the first place? To make her adult life seem edgier?) Without being awfully judge-y, Flaubert doles it out in ample amounts through out the novel because Emma simply cannot bring herself to make a rational decision. 
 Emma is influenced by the era's romanticism and its published works. Her expectation from life is grander and is quietly disappointed with her husband after being married for an entire day. Her husband, Charles, doesn't match up to her expectations and the notions she has built for her life. Thus comes the first blow of disappointment - her husband. 
 This state of mind becomes static thus bringing down their household and a decline in her health. 
 And then its a suburban drama, really. She has a baby, a daughter, who is totally ignored by Emma. Her first affair ends as most affairs usually do - in disappointment and her reduced to a needy woman. It feels horrible to see her falling into the shady man's charms and sincerely hoping to be loved the way she wants to be loved. The man sees her as a prey and uses her as one. 
 The second affair stemming from a rekindled friendship ends along the same lines and this time Emma's emotional instability is jarring. She slides further down and ends up consuming arsenic. Her daughter gets sent away after death of Charles and the poor girl ends up working in a cotton mill. 
 The primary characters in this novel have zillion issues in their pockets. The men are either ignorant or they are out to get you. The women are either happy with their husband and children or have affairs. Flaubert, with very gentle prose tears down romanticism by attacking Emma's ideals. 
 By the end I felt the author was nudging us by saying "she got what she deserved. She had it all but blew it off with silly notions." 
 And that isn't enough to justify her actions. Was it really all that was? Didn't her unhappiness have an actual meaning to it? The character, Emma, seems flimsy and superficial where her actions doesn't come from real life issues but from emotional instability (or insanity), as Leon (was it him?) implies at one point. Her death technically is the final judgment on her character and the way Charles continues to adore her and tries to justify her actions after finding her love letters only proves the underlying theme. 
 The entire experience was meh.