Madame Bovary Paper

Christoph Willibald Gluck, a French composer who had made the orchestra more important in Opera, developed Operas that held sudden loud dynamics, tremolos in the strings, chromatic motion, dissonant chords, and blasts from the brass that was unlike any other Opera of its time.1 Gluck, in the year of 1762 produced an opera with the poet Raniero de Calzabigi known as Orfeo ed Euridice, which held one of the scenes of the story of Orpheus when he was in a cavernous space in the underworld.2 Gluck had stated that he aimed “to confine music to its true function of serving the poetry by expressing feelings and the situations of the story.”3 Much like Gluck, Gustave Flaubert in his book, Madame Bovary, evokes emotion and suspense through his prose style, which matches the mood of the narrative; this style can be seen in many parts of the novel. Throughout the book Madame Bovary, Flaubert will use a certain form in his prose style so that the reader will want to continue to read more. This ingenious way of writing envelops the reader in his writings, and causes the reader to become engrossed in the reading. This prose style can often be found at the end of a chapter or the last paragraph of a page. Often, throughout the book, one can find many instances where Flaubert will use this; one major event is when Emma starts to feel optimistic about moving to a different place. This occurs after she seems to have a monotonous life in every place she had stayed in before. “She did not believe that things could remain the same in different places, and since the portion of her life that lay behind her had been bad, no doubt that which remained to be lived would be better.”4 This event takes place when Charles, Emma’s husband decides it is a good time to move into a new town so that Emma’s nervous disorder would disintegrate; regardless of his status in the town in which they formerly lived in. This quote, happens to be one of the only times in the book when Emma is optimistic

Cited: Burkholder, Peter J., Palisca, Claude V. Norton Anthology of Western Music: Classic to Twentieth Century Vol. II, 5th ed. New York /London, W.W. Norton & Co. 2006 . Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. New York & London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005