Homais

Homais, fully Jean-Baptiste Homais, is a fictional character in Gustave Flaubert's 1857 novel Madame Bovary. He serves as Yonville-l'Abbaye's pharmacist and is one of the town's most prominent bourgeois figures. Through Homais, Flaubert examines science, rationalism, and social climbing within provincial society.

Homais is portrayed as intelligent, talkative, and eager to present himself as enlightened and modern. He champions progress and the benefits of science, often pontificating on medicine, politics, and public life. His pharmacy is kept with a display of new remedies and demonstrations, reflecting his desire to be seen as the leading liberal intellect of the community. He forms alliances with other townspeople and with school and church authorities, notably disputing with the local priest, Abbé Bournisien, over modern ideas and status.

Physically and morally, Homais embodies the bourgeois pursuit of status through rationalism and social cunning. He functions as a foil to Charles Bovary and Emma Bovary's romantic fantasies, highlighting the gap between idealized love and pragmatic self-interest. His self-importance and opportunism illuminate the moral compromises of provincial life in Flaubert's realism. Although not the primary driver of the plot, he shapes events through his public persona and professional authority.

In adaptations and scholarly discussions, Homais is commonly recognized as a satirical portrait of the liberal provincial bourgeoisie in 19th-century France. He appears in film, television, and stage versions of Madame Bovary, usually depicted as pompous, witty, and self-assured.