Comparison of Passages from Great Expectations and Madame...

The two passages, taken from early sections of Great Expectations and Madame Bovary, deal predominantly with the subject of death and the spectrum of approaches applied by their characters to deal with such circumstances. Both Charles Dickens and Gustave Flaubert draw particular attention to the binary codes of public and private life and the extent to which the characters are compelled to manipulate or conceal their true feelings in order to conform to their societies dogmatic customs and expectations of decorum. In these passages Dickens and Flaubert also highlight the strength of feeling towards their lost love one of their characters, Joe and Charles, basking in what Lafayette calls the innocence of early youth. However,†¦show more content†¦On the other hand, as an author, Flaubert believed it was better for him to retain a degree of impersonality in the text, and therefore Flaubert does not employ a narrator to direct readers thoughts. As Erich Auerbach has commented i n Mimesis: the Representation of Reality in Western Literature about Flauberts work, His opinion of his characters and events remains unspoken; and when the characters express themselves it is never in such a manner that the writer identifies himself with heir opinion, or seeks to make the reader identify himself with it. We hear the writer speak; but he expresses no opinion and makes no comment. Auerbach continues by describing Flauberts role as a novelist as merely to describe events with such lucidity and clarity that no additional judgement or explanation is required, such as would be given by a third-person narrator. Furthermore, Flaubert writes in a letter to Louise Colet that desires a novel with `no lyricism, no comments (cited in George Beckers Documents of Modern Literary Realism). Thus this passage shows Flaubert straightforwardly describing the events of Emmas funeral with simplicity and unfussiness. Such starkness draws out in readers an empathy which is beyond language, as Flaubert endeavours to bypass what he saw as corrupting words and images communicate to his readers soul to soul. For example, when Flaubert writes, `the coffinShow MoreRelatedEssay Prompts4057 Words   |  17 Pagesselect a work from the list below or another novel or play of comparable literary merit. Alias Grace Middlemarch All the King’s Men Moby-Dick Candide Obasan Death of a Salesman Oedipus Rex Doctor Faustus Orlando Don Quixote A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man A Gesture Life Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Ghosts The Scarlet Letter Great Expectations Sister Carrie The Great Gatsby TheRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesthe text reveals under close examination. Any literary work is unique. It is created by the author in accordance with his vision and is permeated with his idea of the world. The reader’s interpretation is also highly individual and depends to a great extent on his knowledge and personal experience. That’s why one cannot lay down a fixed â€Å"model† for a piece of critical appreciation. Nevertheless, one can give information and suggestions that may prove helpful. PLOT The Elements of Plot When weRead MoreMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 PagesNOTE ON THE TRANSLATION larly dolly in and dolly out are used rather than forward and rear. Mise en scà ¨ne is also retained in its filmic use, while staging is used to describe a stage production. The term constantif, which Metz borrowed from Austin, should be rendered by constantive and not by ascertaining (p. 25). Finally, actor to translate Greimas s concept of actant is misleading and actant is usually kept (see Ducrà ´t and Todorov, Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Sciences of Language