"Sir," they say flatly, "she's a slut." (The women tend to be harder on Emma than the men are.) Subsequent class periods get even uglier. Many of the men admit that they're fearful of marrying and then having their stay-at-home wives cheat on them. For that reason, they say, "you've got to get her pregnant before you deploy." Emma is their worst nightmare. Emma should have been faithful to Charles! He loved her! He was a good provider! What more does she want?
—Bruce Fleming at The Chronicle Review: Leaving Literature Behind.
That is a pretty cogent analysis of Madame Bovary, except for one thing: Emma's pregnancy didn't do much to curtail her infidelities.
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