Essay on Lacanian Desire Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary

Introduction Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert’s first novel and is considered his masterpiece. It has been studied from various angles by the critics. Some study it as a realistic novel of the nineteenth century rooted in its social milieu. There are other critics who have studied it as a satire of romantic sensibility. It is simply assumed that Emma Bovary, the protagonist, embodied naive dreams and empty clichà © that author wishes to ridicule, as excesses and mannerisms of romanticism. She is seen as a romantic idealist trapped in a mundane mercantile world. Innumerable theorists have discovered and analysed extensively a variety of questions raised by its style, themes, and aesthetic innovations. In this research paper an attempt has†¦show more content†¦He says that desire is always unconscious. It is not the case that Lacan sees conscious desire as unimportant but the unconscious desire forms the central concern of psychoanalysis. Secondly, unconscious desire is entirely s exual in nature as he says, â€Å"the motives of unconscious desire are limited†¦to sexual desire†¦the other great generic desire that of hunger, is not represented† (Lacan 156). It is possible to recognize one’s desire only when it is articulated in speech i.e. in the presence of the other. But because of the ‘fundamental incompatibility’ between the desire and the speech there is a limit to its articulation in speech. Whenever speech attempts to articulate desire there is ‘always a leftover, surplus, which exceeds speech (Evans 37). To put it in simple words, the desire cannot be put into words; it cannot be expressed and thus is always left unexpressed. Lacan distinguishes desire from need and demand in his article â€Å"The Signification of the Phallus†. According to Lacan, need is purely biological in nature which can be satisfied. The infant depends upon the other in order to satisfy his needs because of his ‘motor incapability’. Demand on the other hand, can never be fulfilled. Demand is always demand for love. The â€Å"craving for love remains unsatisfied and this leftover is desire† (38). Lacan posits it thus, â€Å"Desire is neither appetite for satisfaction, nor demand for love, but