The Long Night of Grief — Madame Bovary

After Emma dies, Charles throws himself on her body and cries goodbye. Homais and the doctor pull him downstairs. The chemist brushes off a blind beggar, then tells the town newspaper a lie: Emma thought arsenic was sugar in a vanilla cream. He waters his flowers and chats about neighbours while Charles stares at the floor. The priest gets Charles to agree to bury her. Charles writes sad orders: her wedding dress, three coffins one inside another, and green velvet. When Homais says the velvet is too much, Charles snaps that he did not love her and sends him away. In the garden Charles tells the priest he hates God.

That night Homais and the priest sit up with the body. They argue about prayer and Voltaire, then both fall asleep snoring. Charles keeps coming back to whisper Emma's name and lift the veil in horror. Women dress the dead body. Black liquid stains the wedding gown. Neighbours stand in a bored circle and sigh. Homais cuts her hair badly. At four in the morning the priest and chemist eat brandy and cheese, giggle, and say they will understand each other someday. Then undertakers arrive with hammers.

Charles hears the hammers. The three coffins are sealed. All of Yonville gathers. Homais had sent a vague letter to Emma's father. Old Rouault races from Bertaux, still hoping the funeral is not real. When he sees the black cloth in the square, he faints.