Embedded Versus Original Artwork

Embedded versus Original Artwork

A primary function of art is to provide commentary and start a discussion about some aspect of humanity. When experiencing artwork first-hand, each person can come to their own conclusions because our brains are able to choose our own interpretations. Some authors, however, reference another’s artwork within their text. When looking at a piece within another, it is important to remember that its presence is no coincidence and that the piece serves the author’s purpose. The author meticulously chooses each word to best convey his or her point. Therefore, the reader’s experience is limited to what the author chooses to reveal about the embedded artwork. Gustave Flaubert’s use of Gaetano Donizetti’s opera Lucia di Lammermoor within his novel Madame Bovary is such an example. The protagonists in each piece, Lucia and Emma respectively, both are women trapped in unwanted marriages due to the pressures of society. Both pieces explore similar themes such as freedom and confinement, women and femininity, repression, and love. People observing the opera first-hand have limitless freedom in their individual interpretations of these themes while those reading Flaubert’s novel are guided toward a conclusion because he chooses what components of the scene are described, uses character commentary to steer the reader’s interpretation, and determines if scenes are simply left out.

Even if it were Flaubert’s sole purpose to comprehensively describe the opera, it would be impossible for the reader to have the same experience as those who actually attend it. Words simply describing music are no comparison to actually hearing each note from each instrument. Music not only stimulates our auditory senses but something primal within us. For ages, humans have been drawn to music for its unique ability to convey intense emotions without words. Operas are a special form of music because they do contain words, yet even those watching who do not understand the language of the opera are able to perceive the emotions gushing from the singers. Anyone who has sent a misunderstood, sarcastic text knows how important inflection and tone have on the interpretation of words. No amount of adjectives or other qualifiers in text can substitute hearing words from someone’s mouth. Therefore, all the sounds in an opera cannot be adequately described in words, and this only addresses one of the senses; an opera contains set pieces, lighting, costumes, facial expressions, body language, character interactions, and so much more. As a member of the audience, our brain is able to take in all of these things at once, or at least all of the things it chooses to perceive, while text can only describe one thing at a time. An author can try to arduously describe each thing in turn, but this creates a feeling of linear time and loses the impression of sensory overload with everything happening at once.