Realism In Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary

Realism is a major theme in Gustave Flaubert’s, Madame Bovary. Flaubert’s minute notation to the physical world is what brings the book to life. By adding excessive detail to certain aspects of the book, the reader is able to picture these moments, making the novel all the more life-like. Although Flaubert does an outstanding job of providing the reader with details to convey the idea of realism, he may be giving too many details. There are several instances in the book where it feels as though Flaubert put too much thought into the details and perhaps confuses the reader with adjectives that may be unfamiliar to them. For example, in part one chapter four, Flaubert takes several lines describing Charles and Emma’s wedding cake. The cake is broken down into tiers and the reader is given a lengthy description of each of the three tiers. In the description, Flaubert used words like “porticoes,” “colonnades,” and “stucco” (Flaubert, 25). The description of the cake gives the reader the illusion that they can envision it, but unless they know the meaning to every word used to describe the

It is important to understand that using lengthy descriptions is Flaubert’s way of conveying realism to his audience throughout his novel. When reading these passages in the novel the hope is that the reader gets a chance to understand Flaubert more and realize that this is his way of showing and sharing his perspective of the real would with you. By understanding why an author does something, as the reader not only do you connect with the author on a more personal level, but you connect with the novel more. By connecting with the author and book, the hope is that you become more interested and investing in not only the book itself but each and every one of the