41 pages • 1 hour read
Gustave FlaubertA Simple Heart
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1877A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Loulou
Loulou the parrot is Félicité’s companion in life and death. The parrot is gifted to her by Madame Aubain, who herself receives the parrot (on Félicité’s suggestion) from a neighbor. Madame Aubain does not like Loulou, so she gives the parrot to Félicité, who was taken with him from the start because of his association with the Americas, where her nephew Victor died.
The way Félicité comes to own Loulou symbolizes the disparity between the working and middle classes. This is one of the few gifts that Félicité receives in her life, and it is given with a sense of disdain by Madame Aubain, who never comes to understand why something that means so little to her could mean anything to Félicité. To Félicité, however, Loulou is a wonderful gift and a treasured companion. Even after Loulou dies, Félicité is so devoted to the bird that she decides to send his body to a taxidermist to be stuffed. Félicité treasures Loulou in life and death because the parrot symbolizes a form of companionship that is missing from her life, underscored by the bird’s connection to Victor.
Loulou eventually develops a religious symbolism as well, significantly furthering the theme of The Value of a Personal Relationship With God. Contemplating religious artwork, Félicité comes to associate the Holy Spirit with a parrot rather than a dove—ostensibly because parrots can speak, but largely because Loulou, one of the few figures who showed Félicité genuine affection, embodies the love that Félicité associates with God. As such, she directs her spiritual energy at the stuffed body of Loulou as a means of prayer, her devotion to the care of the stuffed bird symbolizing the way in which she devotes herself to God. As a poor, working-class woman whose life has been continually marked by grief, she feels alienated from the conventional institutions of society and religion. The alternative form her devotion takes is highly idiosyncratic and could seem comical, but Flaubert’s depiction is not altogether ironic; in contrast to her largely cynical society, her spiritual feeling is earnest and profound.
The community’s attitudes toward Loulou as a religious artifact symbolize Félicité’s broader disconnect from society. As she grows old, she begins to lose her sight and hearing. Prior to Loulou’s death, his is the only speech she can hear and thus the only social interaction she experiences. Later, as she lies on her death bed, her only connection to the passing religious procession is her stuffed parrot, which she has asked to be placed on the altar in the courtyard. While Félicité imagines a large parrot coming to welcome her to heaven, the rest of the community buries Loulou in flowers. The parrot is unseen by the procession-goers even as it dominates Félicité’s final thoughts. This disparity is a symbol of Félicité’s alienation from the community.
The French Countryside
A Simple Heart is set in the provincial countryside of 19th-century France. In this context, the Aubain family represents the property-owning middle class. Madame Aubain is forced to sell most of her husband’s properties after his death, but she keeps two farmhouses, one of which she lives in with her family while renting the other out to provide the family with an income. This economic arrangement is indicative of the way in which the small rural community functions as a microcosm of French society. The clear class divisions in the rural area can be extrapolated to France broadly, while the protections and material benefits that are afforded to the Aubain family illustrate the privileges and benefits accorded to the middle class at the expense of the working class (e.g., Félicité). The setting thus contributes to the novella’s exploration of The Power of Social Class.
For the Aubain children growing up in the French countryside, rural life is idyllic. The descriptions of the blossoming flowers and abundant fields are romantic, painting a picture of a life filled with nature. Against this bountiful backdrop, however, there are hints of the more sinister, less resplendent reality of French society. The descriptions of the countryside include references to fallen or rotting trees. These decaying logs block the footpaths and cause issues for those trying to enjoy the countryside; the rotting logs symbolize the economic disparities that beset society but that the middle class roundly ignores. Occasionally, these issues cannot be swept aside. The raging bull, for example, confronts the middle-class Aubain family when they are trying to enjoy an afternoon in the countryside. This symbol of brutal, powerful anger is a direct threat to the middle-class family, who must rely on the bravery and ingenuity of the working-class Félicité in order to escape. Félicité does not want praise or notoriety for helping the family, which itself is symbolic of her refusal to engage with the class problems that affect the society in which she lives. If the bull represents the hidden dangers of French society, Félicité's response represents the way in which working-class people like her have internalized their own exploitation.
Another way in which the French countryside illustrates class differences is the way in which certain characters can move around as per their health requirements. When Virginie is sick, for example, the doctor recommends that she spend time convalescing by the sea. Madame Aubain swiftly decides to move the family to the seaside—a decision informed by her relatively comfortable wealth. By contrast, when Félicité becomes sick later in the novel, she is too scared to even leave the rotting, collapsing house where she lives because she fears that it will be sold in her absence.
The Book of Maps
One of the few family members in Félicité’s life is her nephew, Victor, who eventually sails away on a voyage to the Americas. Victor’s departure greatly saddens Félicité and fills her with anxiety. Her closest family member is embarking on a trip to a place so distant that Félicité cannot really grasp the distance between herself and her nephew. She has never attended school or been taught geography, and her lack of comprehension symbolizes the differences in education between her and the middle-class characters. Nevertheless, Félicité seeks out a book of maps so that she can chart Victor’s course across the world and thus ease her anxieties. Félicité’s desire to learn is symbolic of her quiet desire to overcome the limitations of her class position.
When Félicité goes to Monsieur Bourais, one of the most educated men she knows, for information about Victor’s voyage, he shows her a book of maps. That he has such a book itself reflects the difference in opportunity afforded to the male, middle-class Bourais in contrast to the female, working-class Félicité. That lack of opportunity is likewise clear in Félicité’s response; she is unaware of the sheer geographical scale that the map represents, causing Bourais to laugh at her. This treatment of Félicité is symbolic of the prejudices of the middle class against the working class. Rather than comfort or empathize with Félicité, Bourais turns her into an object of mockery.
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By Gustave Flaubert
