“Frederick, to get back to his place, pushed forward the grating leading into the part of the vessel reserved for first-class passengers, and in so doing disturbed two sportsmen with their dogs.
What he then saw was like an apparition. She was seated in the middle of a bench all alone, or, at any rate, he could see no one, dazzled as he was by her eyes. At the moment when he was passing, she raised her head; his shoulders bent involuntarily; and, when he had seated himself, some distance away, on the same side, he glanced towards her.”
— Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
Technique
In Sentimental Education, Gustave Flaubert uses the narrative focalization technique to shift perspectives.
The above passage is split into two paragraphs that show the change in narrative focalization. In the first paragraph, the third-person narrator is objective, neutral, and observant of the protagonist, Frederick, as he moves on the ship.
While the second paragraph remains third-person narration, it’s free-indirect discourse, meaning the action is suddenly told from Frederick’s perspective. We shift from objective to subjective, specifically how Frederick’s “dazzled” by the woman and only sees her. In other words, he no longer sees any of the passengers, including the sportsmen and dogs from the previous paragraph.
Use
- The key to narrative focalization is to create shifts that spotlight a key moment and bring it to the surface, forcing the reader to suddenly engage it. Flaubert achieves this by switching from neutral to emotional narration and contrasting the view of the scene in the objective narrator’s eyes and Frederick’s subjective eyes.
The Periplous 