The caricature of emotionality in Flaubert's Bouvard and Pecuchet

Flaubert's last novel, Bouvard and Pecuchet, depicts the extraordinary journey of two eponymous characters. Flaubert called them“my two idiots”. In this research, we will examine the meaning of this seemingly unflattering expression. Besides the well known meaning of “idiot”, “simple-minded”, the Greek etymon idios (“particular”) has endued the word with “idiosyncrasy”, carrying the meaning of “personal temperament”. The temperament of the two characters is, in short, an excessive emotionality that renders them grotesque. Indeed, in this study, we will demonstrate that the last novel by Flaubert is a caricature of emotionality.

First of all, we will highlight the mental immaturity and the social marginality of these two characters. Secondly, we will consider the underlying reasons for their behaviors, to conclude that they are perfect examples of the key notion in Flaubertian psychology : Bovarysm. Indeed, Bouvard and Pecuchet appear to be much ? agitated ? that they do not act intelligently and reasonably. This agitation which they carry for action will be fully illustrated in the third chapter of this study, where we will analyze the mechanism of action of the two transcribers becoming experimenters of all kinds. They go fast, demonstrate excessive zeal, implement overabundant measures, conceive ideas which each one more original than the others, to, ultimately, achieve, invariably, a catastrophic result. The reasons for these failures perhaps lie in certain intellectual aspects of their infantilism: dilettantism, astonishment, curiosity, interest for transgression. This is what we will try to explore in chapter four of this article.

Then we will look more closely at the nature of the laughter in this novel, and specify the nature of the grotesqueness of these two characters. Without hence falling into the situation of an overly univocal reading, behind the mockeries of the two whimsical characters, we will, in the sixth and final chapter, seek to demonstrate their melancholic suffering which essentially consists in the radical loneliness and the lack of kindness towards the others.