The Stylistic Effect

Flaubert definitely plays a lot with the placing of punctuation points. This stylistic change makes a great difference in the way we read and understand his book A Simple Soul. He uses sentences with up to seven commas, “When Virginia’s turn came, Felicite leaned forward to watch her, and through that imagination which springs from true affection, she at once became the child, whose face and dress became hers, whose heart beat in her bosom, and when Virginia opened her mouth and closed her lids, she did likewise and came very near fainting.”(A Simple Soul) this sentence feels like a race to the goal line. I when I actually saw this today in class, I was amazed and really started noticing Flaubert’s style which is the whole point of his book.

Another interesting part I found was, “Felicite evoked Paradise, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, the blazing cities, the dying nations, the shattered idols; and out of this she developed a great respect for the Almighty and a great fear of His wrath. Then, when she had listened to the Passion, she wept. Why had they crucified Him who loved little children, nourished the people, made the blind see, and who, out of humility, had wished to be born among the poor, in a stable?” (A Simple Soul) This book is definitely not a satire but it does contain elements like for example irony. The quotation above is a lot of irony. It also includes some stylistic effect as she cites the capitalized events and the non capitalized by threes.