Flaubert described Madame Bovary as "a work of anatomy." In fact, Flaubert's father was a doctor which meant that Flaubert spent much of his childhood in a very sterile and controlled hospital environment. The precision with which Flaubert brings his characters and their surroundings to life is in many ways like the work of a doctor. And like a cautious doctor, he tries to stick to the objective, concrete facts about his characters in their setting that will reveal their essence. Flaubert uses description of physical things; clothes, food, buildings, nature, and carriage rides; as another dimension of his story. In most novels, descriptive passages serve as breaks and intermissions in the plot, but in Madame Bovary they play an integral part of the story. For example, Flaubert's description of Charles' cap in the opening scene tells you as much about its owner as you might get in pages of character analysis in another book. In a similar vein, Flaubert conveys the aimlessness and the total lack of direction of Emma's affair with Leon by taking you on an endless cab ride through the streets of Rouen. The long, winding sentences in this particular passage parallel the drawn-out nature of the trip. The description of Rouen Cathedral at the beginning of Part Three is another example of a passage rich with meaning. And, the many descriptions of food throughout Madame Bovary usually are reminders of lust. For example, the elaborately detailed description of the feast at Emma and Charles' wedding, where "big dishes of yellow custard, on whose smooth surface the newlyweds' initials had been inscribed in arabesques of sugar-coated almonds, quivered whenever the table was given the slightest knock."
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is highly realistic. Because Alexander Solzhenitsyn endured a prison labor camp in Siberia, he is able to effectively give realistic details of camp life and the mindset of his protagonist; but he does not give excessive descriptions. His portraits of the prisoners and the struggles that they endure are short and vivid. Although it is clear that the author approves of and believes in Ivan Denisovich, he does not make him perfect, for that would be unrealistic. Instead, Ivan is a realistic prisoner, who is seen rudely pushing through the crowded mess hall and breaking the prison rules. Solzhenitsyn tells Ivan’s story through an omniscient, third person narrator. Since the narrator is capable of going into the thoughts and feelings of Ivan, most of the book is seen through his eyes and emotions. The end result is that the novel interestingly combines both objective impartiality and subjective realism, causing the reader to believe Ivan’s story and sympathize with his plight. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is also allegorical. Ivan’s life in the prison camp is a reflection of the life of the people of Russia living within the dark confines of the Soviet regime. Under the authoritarian rule of Stalin, no one could breathe the air of freedom or live without fear. Life for all the people was difficult and insecure. Food shortages, crime, and corruption were widespread. The common man of Russia was like a prisoner in his own country.
Symbolism is an important stylistic device in Madame Bovary. The frequent use of windows sets a mood to the story. A closed window might symbolize the reality and monotony of small-town life that Emma so strongly wishes to escape and of the limitations of marriage, while open windows might symbolize dreams and freedom. Flaubert uses symbolism very liberally throughout the book, with the blind beggar being an example of his use of the stylistic device. A picture of physical decay, the blind beggar who follows the carriage in which Emma rides to meet Leon also symbolizes Emma's moral corruption. He sings songs about "birds and sunshine and green leaves" in a voice "like an inarticulate lament of some vague despair." This coupling of innocence and beauty with disease relates to the combination of beauty and corruption that Emma herself has become. While her thoughts, appearance, and most especially her fantasies are those of an innocent and beautiful wife, her spirit becomes foul and corrupt as she indulges herself in these adulterous temptations and the deceptions required in maintaining her illicit affairs. Later, when Emma dies, the blind man gets to the end of his song about a young girl dreaming. It is then clear that what was originally thought be a song about an innocent woman is actually a bawdy, sexual song. This progression from innocence to sexual degradation mirrors the path of Emma's life. Another more major symbol Flaubert uses is the dead wedding bouquet. When Emma comes home with Charles, she notices his dead wife's wedding bouquet in the bedroom and wonders what will happen to her own bouquet when she dies. Later, when they move to Yonville, she burns her own bouquet as a gesture of defiance against her unhappy marriage. The dried bouquet stands for disappointed hopes and for the new promise of a wedding day turned sour and old. In a sense, Emma's burning of her beautiful bouquet foreshadows the way her desires will consume her youth and, eventually, her life.
Flaubert’s style in Madame Bovary also utilizes the effect of motifs, or recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes. An example would be the usage of death and illness. There are many disturbing references to death and illness in Madame Bovary, and the novel can seem very morbid. These references emphasize Flaubert's realistic, unflinching description of the world, and also act as physical manifestations of Emma's moral decay. For example, Lestiboudois grows potatoes in the graveyard because the decomposing bodies help them grow, and Homais keeps fetuses in jars. Similarly, Hippolyte loses his leg to gangrene, the blind beggar with festering skin follows the carriage to and from Rouen, and, when Emma faints in Part Two, Chapter 13, Homais wakes her up with smelling salts, saying, "this thing would resuscitate a corpse!" Such excessive corruption is a comment on the physical state of the world. Flaubert constantly reminds us that death and decay lurk beneath the surface of everyday life, and that innocence is often coupled very closely with corruption. This focus on the negative aspects of life is part of Flaubert's realism.
Word imagery is also important in Flaubert’s usage of stylistic devices. Flaubert utilizes various liquid images to convey boredom and indifference to sensuality and even death. The liquids take on various forms from oozing, dripping, and melting to oceans, rivers, tides, torrents, and waves and these descriptions in themselves can set a mood for the scene. Emma's passion for Rodolphe is referred to as a "river of milk." His fading love is "the water of a river sinking into its bed." There are many related images of dampness, drowning, and boats.
Some readers compare Madame Bovary to the carefully constructed edifice of an architect or engineer; some compare it to a painting; others see it as a symphony, and still others think it resembles a play. Whichever analogy is most appropriate is up to the reader to decide, but one will find it hard to ignore the way almost all the elements of the novel fit together like the different pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. One may find that Flaubert's attention to structure and detail detracts from the story and makes it move too slowly. Others may think everything is a bit too controlled to fully convey the passion and reality of the characters and yet others may feel that the devotion to accurate description creates monotony. Perhaps one of the many beauties of this book is that there is no one consensus on the book…but one thing is definite and that is that overall, the reader cannot fail to admire the way Flaubert has put together the pieces of an entire society over a span of almost twenty years and at the same time painted a complex inner portrait of an unforgettable woman, Madame Bovary.
