If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

Stagecoach

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 5 months ago

Stagecoach

Stagecoach

Description

The Stagecoach is a type of Coach that is a four-wheeled enclosed vehicle strongly sprung and drawn by four horses. The stagecoach is a heavy slow moving vehicle that was supported by thoroughbraces. Thoroughbraces were leather straps. The stagecoach held over eight plus people. The poorer lower class would ride on top of the vehicle. Some people would strap on and ride to the back, and the first and second class rode inside of the stagecoach most of the time.

Quick Facts

Capacity: 8+ Persons
Average Speed: 4 miles/hr
Power: 4 Horses
Cost: $1200-1500 back in the 19th century or about $24,995 today

Literary Analysis of its Significance

The passages in which Flaubert uses "Stagecoach" reveal that this vehicle can not only be used to transport people and their belongings, but it was also used to also carry packages from one location to another as shown in the quote below. Also, the price of this vehicle were not something regular people in 19th century France could afford. So Stagecoaches must have been owned by wealthy people or the government in those times. However, from the research and even from the novel, because these vehicles were used to transport people and goods from one location to another and the fare was affordable to many people, most riders of stagecoaches were middle or lower-class people. The rich owned their own vehicles back then and would certainly not use public transportation.

Appearances in Madame Bovary

Part 1 Ch.1

To save him money, his mother sent him a roast of veal each week by the stagecoach, and off this he lunched when he came in from the hospital, warming his feet by beating against the wall.

(p.11)