The point of view of Madame Bovary was pretty radical when the novel came out. Flaubert delves way down into the psychological depths of his main character, and we emerge with a portrait of Emma that is unflinching in its directness. We can look at her objectively and be like, "You brought this all upon herself," but at the same time, we feel her pain; we experience what she experiences and understand why she makes the decisions that she does. We can see why Flaubert himself famously claimed, "Madame Bovary, c’est moi" (I am Madame Bovary). By the end of the book, we readers might also say, "We are Madame Bovary.