The Kugelmass Episode was written by Woody Allen about a humanities professor who is unhappy about his life and marriage and gets himself transported into the fictional world of Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. At first Kugelmass loves the idea of sneaking around and living a fun, exciting life but after indulging in his affair for some time he finds out that he bit of more then he could chew. He starts to miss his old boring life and leaves the affair. After a few months Kugelmass again goes back to an affair and that turns out to be his downfall. The story's humor comes not only from its odd situation and the wonderful use of irony but also from the look of the male's midlife crisis. In the end 'The Kugelmass Episode' tackles the serious problem of the human condition of always wanting more. Kugelmass is sadly married to his second wife and is bored, he wants something new and exciting and romantic. He starts off going to his doctor deciding what he really needed was an affair, some flirtation some sex. Though he wants to be discreet because he doesn't want to go though the trouble of getting another divorce. Of course the doctor said that this is a bad mistake and it won't solve anything. What was interesting was the dream that Kugelmass had the night before. He said he was skipping through the meadow with a basket marked 'options' with a large hole in the basket. It is interesting because he has a wife that loves him, even if he doesn't necessary love her, two sons, and a good job; what most people wish for and he is still not happy. I think that is a red flag right there. What most people would consider a beautiful full life he wants to take a step back and go in the wrong direction. Kugelmass believes that the doctor doesn't know what he is talking about and he needs something different, something better. What Kugelmass needs is a magician. And what do you know The Great Persky calls him up out of nowhere. The next day Kugelmass goes to a broken-down apartment to meet Persky who turns out to be a little 'waxy-looking' man. Persky leaves to get a old cheap looking (of course Chinese) cabinet and tells Kugelmass that if he goes into the cabinet with a book he will become projected into the novel. Of course Kugelmass doesn't believe that for a second but he wants it to be true so much that he stays and tries it out. The best part is that in all of the characters in all of the novels Kugelmass who is described as 'as bald and harry as a bear' chose Emma Bovary as the character he wanted to meet. In the novel Emma Bovary was a doctor's wife who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the boring emptiness of her life. That right there is one of the largest points of irony. It does make me wonder if Kugelmass ever read Madame Bovary and why he honestly chose her. If he did read it then he would know how the story ends and how Madame Bovary is with men. He would have known that this wouldn't have ended well. Then again maybe he was hoping that he could change her, or possibly he didn't even care. He was just looking at the right now and not for the future, he just wanted fun romance right now. It is possible that he never read the book and just heard about her adulterous tendency. So Kugelmass goes into the book and meets Emma Bovary. It starts off as everything Kugelmass wanted; sex, romance, love, fun, excitement. Everything seams to be going well, he spends his days with Madame Bovary and goes home to his wife wishing he was back with Emma. Everything is going great until Kugelmass brings up the idea of Emma coming out of the novel and into New York city with him. The Great Persky must be a great magician because he does as he was asked and brings not only Kugelmass but Emma into the real world. Once Emma leaves her own story people start to wonder what is going on. One of my favorite parts of the story is when college students come to their teacher and tell them, the teacher just
