"Woman is a vulgar animal from whom man has created an excessively beautiful ideal"

In this quote, Gustave Flaubert is expressing his belief that females are seen as inferior and base animals, while men have actually built an unrealistic and unattainable standard of appeal for them. He uses the word "vulgar" to suggest that ladies are crude and lacking improvement, and that they are not efficient in accomplishing the perfect of charm that guys have set for them. Flaubert's use of the word "excessively" indicates that this ideal is not just unattainable, however also unneeded and even hazardous. Overall, this quote shows the societal attitudes towards ladies throughout Flaubert's time, and the destructive impacts of unrealistic charm standards on women.