In this thesis, I analyze the view that the narrator of Madame Bovary takes on the society of the (fictional) French provincial town of Yonville. Gustave Flaubert, the author of the novel, strongly...Show moreIn this thesis, I analyze the view that the narrator of Madame Bovary takes on the society of the (fictional) French provincial town of Yonville. Gustave Flaubert, the author of the novel, strongly insist in his famous Correspondence on the impersonality and the objectivity of the author. Being the emissary of the author, the narrator therefore also has the task to withhold himself from any subjective statements or emotions and so on. However, there are multiple indications (both resulting from the novel itself and from the remarks of scholars) that question the approach so called ‘impersonal’ of the narrator. Giving ironic descriptions of his characters, and sometimes mocking them overtly, he doesn’t always seem to live up to the position of an objective narrator. Apparently, there is a contrast between Flaubert’s aesthetics (as pronounced in his Correspondence), that state that the narrator has to stay impersonal and even impassive, and the actual approach of the narrator in Madame Bovary. The claim we have made is that the narrator is above all a person himself as well, who has his own feelings that he expresses accordingly.Show less
