It's not the cheating, it's the hunger

"I think I understand your feelings about this book. I used to have some problems with it myself. When I read it in grad school Madame Bovary just seemed like a fool. She marries the wrong man, makes one foolish mistake after another. But when I read it this time I just fell in love with her. She's trapped. But she has a choice: she can even accept a life of misery or she can struggle against it. And she chooses to struggle".

"Some struggle... up in the bed with every guy who says - Hallo?"

"Oh, she fails in the end but there's something beautiful and even heroic in her rebellion. My professor would kill me for even thinking this but... in her own strange way Emma Bovary is a feminist".

"Oh that's nice. So now cheating on your husband makes you a feminist?"

"No, no, no... It's not the cheating, it's the hunger. The hunger for an alternative. And the refusal to accept a life of unhappiness".

Sarah Pierce (Kate Winslet) e la vicina di casa Mary Ann all'incontro letterario su Madame Bovary in Little Children di Todd Field.