SOURCE: "The Fairest of Them All: Modes of Vision in Madame Bovary," in PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association, Vol. 93, No. 5, October, 1978, pp. 982-91.

In the following essay, Thornton examines the sources of Emma Bovary 's fantasies in a conflation of fairy tales and romantic literature. He notes that "Flaubert presents Emma's fantasy life through a series of tableaux in which her imagination is associated with images of mirrors."

She had a magic looking-glass and when she stood before it and looked at herself she used to say: "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is fairest of us all?" Then the glass replied: "Queen, thou'rt fairest of them all."

"Snow White"

I

On her first evening in Yonville, Emma Bovary becomes involved in a discussion of esthetics with the local litterateur, Léon Dupuis. "[Q]uelle meilleure chose," he argues, "que d'être le soir au coin...