Gig
Description
A gig is a light, two-wheeled sprung cart pulled by one horse. It is more formal than a village cart or a meadowbrook cart. It was sometimes used for carriage racing.
Quick Facts
- Capacity: 1-2 Persons
- Average Speed: 6 miles/hour
- Power: 1 Horses
- Cost: about $9,000
Literary Analysis of Its Significance
The gig was mentioned during Charles and Emma's wedding. Emma enjoyed taking part in and being a part of elegant events such as weddings and ballroom dances. While reading Madame Bovary, the reader can infer that Emma would want important people attending the wedding. The gig is a more formal vehicle that signifies some sort of importance. Madame Bovary states that many visitors arrived at the wedding in vehicles like the gig, charabanc, etc. One may infer that the person driving the gig would be of much importance because it only seats one person, and during this time it was one of the fastest and most prestigous type horse carriages.
Appearances in Madame Bovary
Part 1 Ch.4
The invited guests arrived early in a variety of vehicles-- one-horse shays, two-wheeled charabancs, old gigs without tops, vans with leather curtains; and the young men from the nearest villages came in farm-carts, standing one behind the other along the sides and grasping the rails to keep from being thrown, for the horses trotted briskly and the roads were rough. They came as far as twenty-five miles away, from Goderville, from Normanville, from Cany.
(p.30) (used by visitors that traveled to Charles and Emma wedding)
A gig pulled by one horse, and with at least two seats
Maitre Guillaumin was to drive Leon to
Rouen in his carriage.... Ahead he saw his employer's gig in the road, and beside
it a man in an apron holding the horse. Homais and Maitre
Guillaumin were talking together, waiting for him.
The apothecary embraced him, tears in his eyes. "Here's
your overcoat, my boy. Wrap up warm! Look after yourself!
Take it easy!"
"Come, Leon, jump in!" said the notary.
Homais leaned over the mudguard, and in a voice broken
by sobs gulped the sad...
--This shows that guillaumin owned a gig that could carry at least two people
Gigs were very fast vehicles
They were gathering in the west, in the direction of
Rouen, twisting rapidly in black swirls. Out from behind
them shot great sun rays, like the golden arrows of a hanging
trophy, and the rest of the sky was empty, white as porcelain.
Then came a gust of wind, the poplars swayed, and suddenly the
rain was pattering on the green leaves. But soon the sun came
out again, chickens cackled, sparrows fluttered their wings in
the wet bushes, and rivulets flowing along the gravel carried
away the pink flowers of an acacia. "Ah, by now he must be far away!" she thought.
--After a short rain that must have only taken a few minutes, she thinks he is far away.
This shows that they thought Gigs were pretty fast vehicles back then.
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Part 2 Ch 11:
It was quite an event in the village, that mid-thigh
amputation by Doctor Canivet! All the citizens rose early
that morning, and the Grande-Rue, thronged though it was, had
something sinister about it, as though it were execution day.
At the grocer's, Hippolyte's case was discussed from every
angle. None of the stores did any business. And Madame
Tuvache, the mayor's wife, didn't budge form her window, so
eager was she not to miss the surgeon's arrival.
He drove up in his gig, holding the reins himself. Over
the years the right-hand spring had given way under the weight
of his corpulence, so that the carriage sagged a little to one
side as it rolled along. Beside him, on the higher half of
the seat cushion, could be seen a huge red leather case, its
three brass clasps gleaming magisterially.
The doctor drew up in the hotel yard with a flourish and
called loudly for someone to unharness his mare, and then went
to the stable to see whether she was really being given oats
as he had ordered. His first concern, whenever he arrived at
a patient's, was always for his mare and his gig. "That
Canivet, he's a character!" people said of him. And they
thought the more of him for his unshakable self-assurance.
The universe might have perished to the last man, and he
wouldn't have altered his habits a jot.
References
http://colonialcarriage.com/item.cfm?id=363
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_(carriage)