Communication in Gustave Flauberts Madame Bovary Essay -- Madame Bova

Communication in Gustave Flauberts Madame Bovary In Gustave Flauberts Madame Bovary, the quest for the sublime and perfect structure seems to be trapped in the inability to successfully verbalize thoughts and read the contrives of others. The relationship between written words and how they are translated into talk and action is central in evaluating Emmas actions and fate, and ultimately challenges the reader to look at the intricacies of communication. Flauberts portrayal of Emmas reading habits provides the basic framework for evaluating the way she processes information. In the sharpst master key of Emmas readership, she picked up a book, and then, dreaming between the lines let it drop on her knees.(43). Flaubert uses reading to establish Emmas short attention span to any thoughts outside of her own. The book falling towards the floor symbolically creates the space for her illusions-- notice Flaubert chooses the word dreaming instead of reading, stressing h er imaginative t finishencies rather than those of a critical nature. In representing Emmas interpretation skills, her distortion of the material becomes a semi-conscious decision because she chooses to deviate from the original text, but at times her manipulation of words is more accurately described as misinterpretation. When Leon praises the entertainment value of the simplistic novels containing noble characters, pure affections, and pictures of happiness, she misses his further conclusion that since these works fail to touch the heart, they miss, it seems to me, the true end of art (59). The subtext implies that she is incapable of distinguishing differences in the quality of expressions and understandi... ...ility for the interpretation of the text. Works Cited and Consulted Berg, William J. and Laurey K. Martin. Gustave Flaubert. recent York Twayne Publishers, 1997. Colet, Louise. Lui A View of Him. Translated by Marilyn Gaddis Rose. Athens and London Univers ity of Georgia Press, 1986. Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Translated by Paul de Man. New York W.W. Norton and Company, 1965. Lottman, Herbert. Flaubert. Boston Little, Brown and Company, 1989. Maraini, Dacia. Searching for Emma Gustave Flaubert and Madame Bovary. Translated by Vincent J. Bertolini. scratch University of Chicago Press, 1998. Nadeau, Maurice. The Greatness of Flaubert. New York Library Press, 1972. Steegmuller, Francis. Flaubert and Madame Bovary. New York Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968. Troyat, Henri. Flaubert. New York Viking, 1992.