Leo Bersani's The Narrator and the Bourgeois Community in Madame Bovary: Flaubert's Dual Position

In the article “The Narrator and the Bourgeois Community in ‘Madame Bovary’,” written by Leo Bersai, he discusses how “Flaubert maintains a dual position” in the novel Madame Bovary. Bersai states that Flaubert make Emma’s dreams seem important and gives it “dignity” but at the same time ridicules her fantasies. Bersani also writes that Flaubert detaches himself entirely from the community that he writes about. Although there are parts of the book that displays the narrator as a member of the society. For example in the start of the novel the introduction of Charles seem to me made by a person who was involved in the action. There are other parts when Flaubert seems to know all the innermost thought of the characters. In other word Flaubert portrays his narrator as one who is all know and one that is a person watching during the events that happens. The use of third person allows Flaubert to describe the views of he community, but at the same time describe the characters thought. In Madame Bovary Flaubert also make use of many italicized phrases. These, in Bersani’s opinion, are used to distinguish the passages from the rest in other to convey “forms of speech of people within the novel.” They introduce a the characteristics of each character through there form of speech. The italicized phrases are not actually what he character’s say, but rather clichés used to describe a situation. Other times Flaubert uses italics to indicate that he is “quoting” some form of speech. Flauberts basically uses many techniques in grammar to better present his characters and