《包法利夫人》這部傑作之所以超越時間，因為它所敘述的是一個具有普遍性的人性化企圖：個人在人世間對幸福的追求。浪漫主義者們追尋的方式常被界定為：激情、熱忱、慾望、違抗限制與對絕對的渴求。這些概念皆屬非理性領域，但在非理性被推到過激的過程中，人也因而犯下錯誤，艾瑪正是絕佳的例子。本論文希望提供個新的切入觀點，也就是要透過基督教靈性的概念：懶抑（acédie），來重新理解一個浪漫主義者－艾瑪－的激情路程與命運。論文首先要喚起對懶抑此一詞彙的歷史認識，並描述福婁拜這本著作中與懶抑相關的幾個面向。第二部分要分析艾瑪如何在其薄弱的企圖下，嘗試抵抗另一種生活之招喚，以勉強自己堅守於她認為失敗的生活中。藉由分析艾瑪的例子，我將呈現欲望並非意志這一事實。意志不該是用來形容愛作夢的艾瑪，它指的反而應該是查理在道德上的優點。這也是論文第三部分所要分析的主題：包法利先生。論文前三部分的重點落在分析人（在此以艾瑪為例）對其生命成功或失敗的責任，第四部分的分析則採用另一種福婁拜本身也支持的觀點：諾斯替哲學（gnose）。根據此神秘哲學，對於人的失敗與殘缺應該負起責任的是其造物主。接著在第五部分，論文要分析福婁拜作品中的反諷書寫。福婁拜式的反諷是一種對既定成俗的觀念與過於教條的閱讀的真正挑戰。但這個福樓拜特有的反諷也讓其作品留下很大的詮釋空間。本文特別要呈現，本作品對於浪漫主義意識形態所表現的矛盾態度的觀察。因為布爾喬亞階級的福婁拜，他的作品對布爾喬亞階級的批判具有雙重性，因為它似乎又是一種支持生活理性行為的道德展示。論文要揭示福婁拜本身的生命紀錄（書信集）正好可被用來闡明隱藏在《包法利夫人》之中的道德教誨。儘管具有浪漫與激情的本性，但與艾瑪相反，福婁拜從未怠忽他的職責，並且知道要幾近宗教般地細心維繫其作家的志向。

Madame Bovary is a timeless masterpiece because it relates a story of an universal attempt of all human race: the pursuit of happiness in the world. For the romanticism, the means to approach this attempt are identified as passion, enthusiasm, desire, the transgression of one's limits and the thirst of perfection. These concepts, which raise all the domains of the irrational and push them to an extreme, are apt to induce human beings to commit errors. And it is exactly the case of Emma Bovary. The present article proposes to trace the fate of a romantic passion of Emma in use of the concept in Christian spirituality: the acedia. In the first part of this essay, we will recall the outlines of this word in history and will describe the major aspects relative to acedia in Flaubert’s novel: the ennui of concrete life and a longing for a heavenly somewhere else. The second part will be devoted to the analysis of Emma's weak endeavors to resist the call of another life, and to persevere at living in her failed life. It will be the chance to demonstrate the fact that the desire does not equal the willingness. The later is far from the character of Emma, it is, on the contrary, one of the moral qualities of Charles. The third part of this work studies Mr. Bovary. If the first three parts of this study emphasize the responsibility of human beings (of the occurrence of Emma) in his success and failures in life, for the forth chapter, we adopt another point of view which seems to be shared with Flaubert, that is, the gnosis, according to which the Creator of this world is responsible for the imperfections and failures he had made. Finally, the fifth part aims to clarify the powerful irony dimension in the work of Flaubert. In fact, the irony writing is ubiquitous in Madame Bovary and it constitutes a real challenge for all the received ideas and dogmatic readings. Nevertheless, it leaves an important space to interpret. I try to demonstrate how Flaubert's critique about the ideology of romanticism is ambiguous. Paradoxically, Flaubert's novel could be a kind of moral statement of reasonable conduct in life. The life of Flaubert himself illustrates the moral precepts concealed in Madame Bovary: in spite of his romantic and passionate nature, unlike Emma, he never neglects his duties and knows how to take care quasi-religiously ofhis vocation as a writer.