In Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, the search for sublime and perfect expression seems to be trapped in the inability to successfully verbalize thoughts and interpret the words of others . The relationship between written words and how they are translated into dialogue and action is central to the evaluation of Emma's actions and fate, and ultimately challenges the reader to look at the complexities of communication. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Flaubert's portrayal of Emma's reading habits provides the basic framework for evaluating how she processes information. In Emma's purest depiction of the reading public, she "picked up a book and then, dreaming between the lines, dropped it to her knees." (43). Flaubert uses reading to establish Emma's short attention span towards any thoughts outside of her own. The book falling to the ground symbolically creates space for his illusions: note that Flaubert chooses the word "dream" instead of "read", emphasizing his imaginative tendencies rather than those of a critical nature. In portraying Emma's interpretive skills, her distortion of the material becomes a semi-conscious decision because she chooses to deviate from the original text, but sometimes her manipulation of words is more accurately described as misinterpretation. When Leon praises the entertainment value of simplistic novels containing “noble characters, pure affections, and images of happiness,” he misses his further conclusion that “since these works fail to touch the heart, they lack, it seems to me, the true value of happiness". end of art” (59). The subtext implies that she is incapable of distinguishing differences in the quality of expression and understanding emotional depth because it is these same novels that she judges to be the pinnacles of expression. From the beginning Flaubert recognizes that Emma's search is doomed to failure because she tries to imitate passion from material that initially lacks it. Ironically, Emma seems to recognize the implausibility of the ideals that guide her actions; she "detests ordinary heroes and moderate feelings, as found in nature (59). Flaubert seems to wonder how conscious Emma is in forming her delusions and subsequently how this relates to her responsibility. Charles provides a comic contrast for The Emma's inability to understand the "indefinable feelings of love that [she tries] to construct from the books she reads" (206). She may undertake more serious reading activities such as "La Ruche Medicale", but her inability is more pronounced to interpret or even understanding something, let alone staying awake for "five minutes," demonstrates a more primitive version of Emma's delusional dream state (44) the second time Charles embarks on a "reading assignment" on how to perform surgery, can't even get him to pronounce the scientific terminology on how to describe medical deviations of the foot (125) Flaubert suggests that words can cross a man's mind but be able to understand them in a relational context, understand them and pronounce them, expression, represents. the challenges of the interpretative process. Charles's mutilation of his patient embodies the distortion that the human mind creates in the interpretive process. By illustrating the difficulty in translating ideas between different mediums of writing, speaking, and thinking, Flaubert partially exempts humans from inevitable distortion. Emma expresses the incompatibility of thoughts and words by describing her conversations with Leon: "sometimes they stopped before revealingtheir thoughts fully, and then they tried to invent a sentence that could nevertheless express them." (168). Humanity seems condemned to live an existence in which "the human language is like a cracked cauldron on which we beat melodies" (138 ) The inconsistency of this metaphor reinforces the imperfect process of using words as a channel of communication. Perhaps "Leon's indifference towards the vibrations of love whose subtleties he could no longer distinguish" suggests that repeated exposure. to highly emotional material ultimately desensitizes man's powers of interpretation (211, and bloodshed" (210) allows the audience to examine the consequences of exposure to extreme literature. The explosive action of fiction contrasts with the more monotonous activities of everyday life, helping to explain why Emma begins to find "in adultery all the banalities of marriage" (211). Emma seems perfectly capable of digesting the emotionally vacuous and didactic instructions contained in her reading of fashion. His ability to hang curtains according to the latest custom suggests that he can craft clear, directive texts that leave little room for deviation from the author's intent; however, he makes a mistake in reading novels as vehicles for the same didactic purpose. Flaubert implicitly suggests that the novel as a genre can be harmful if it overwhelms the senses to the point of darkening them both in the interpretation of the written word and of life. It subtly creates space for the reader to come to this conclusion by ironically making the story of Emma's hysterical fits and tragedy seem peaceful, thus allowing the reader to better evaluate their use in the novel. Leon frames this problem when he asks, “Where could [Emma] have learned this corruption so deep and well disguised as to be almost elusive?” (201). Perhaps one could also shift some of the responsibility to the novelists, the architects of “this corruption” (201) that renders her insensitive to the extremes of emotion and action. Flaubert reminds us at every moment that Emma makes a conscious decision to expose herself to romantic fiction. Even when advised to direct her attentions elsewhere when facing medical difficulties, "she always prefers to sit in her room and read (59). Because Emma derives all of her visions of an ideal world from the flat constructs of a page, the superficiality of inspiration suffuses her character. Literary images and clichés saturate Emma's conception of love, suggesting that her thoughts are little more than abstractions of what she reads on the page. Love, she thought, must come to pass. sudden, with great explosions and lightning, a hurricane of the skies, which hits life, upsets everything, uproots the will like a leaf and drags the heart into an abyss (71). of her thoughts and the inability to evolve beyond this dream prevents her from actually transforming into a complete character Flaubert communicates to the reader by forcing them to watch Emma play out the same hopeless romantic vision with Charles, Leon and Rodolphe and ultimately creates a fierce warning. against living life through a novel. Emma's physical state during pregnancy in which she "filled out her hips without a corset" (62) creates a dimensional contrast with the flatness of "her affection" for the child who was "perhaps weakened from the start" (63). Although Emma's inability to interpret the emotional gravity of new life and the potential of new love suggests a deficit in her reading of life, Flaubert, if adequately expressed, implies an innate disability in her. A suggestion like that might create sympathy for Emma, if she didn't aspire to be "the lover.
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