Flaubert / Dostoevsky

Examples of Naturalism and Symbolism in Madame Bovary

In Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary, the narratorial voice carefully avoids direct comment upon the story. Flaubert maintains a tension between Naturalism and Symbolism by leaving it up to the reader to determine if certain episodes are intended to be read symbolically. Flaubert's contemporary readers, however, found the book scandalous -- in some sense, Flaubert's determination to present certain aspects of reality directly was understood as almost obscene. This certainly links him with the goals of the literary movement of Naturalism, which presented human life as being socially determined and a product of heredity and environment, and did not flinch in presenting disgusting details. But Flaubert's goals as an artist are bigger than those of mere Naturalism: the episode in which the adulterous title character experiences a sudden interest in religion demonstrates this.

We may observe that Flaubert seems to...
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