What is A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert about?
“A Simple Heart” by Gustave Flaubert describes the life, the affections, and the fantasies of a diligent, kindhearted servant named Félicité.
How does A Simple Heart critique religion?
God and Organized Religion The story’s reputed critique of the Church is not explicit—critics find it conveyed through such techniques as irony and symbolism. Félicité’s vicarious devotion to the church through Virginie’s first communion experience, while passionate and profound, is also arbitrary and circumstantial.
Why did Gustave Flaubert write A Simple Heart?
He was also hoping to please his longtime friend George Sand, who had admonished him to create a literature of “consolation” rather than “desolation.” In “A Simple Heart,” then, Flaubert wished to compose a simple story about a good woman, and most critics agree that he did just that.
What did Félicité inherit Madame Aubain?
Félicité inherits a parrot named Loulou, and after he dies she has him stuffed. Madame Aubain dies, and Félicité remains in her room, impoverished and deaf. She gets very sick until one day she dies, with a vision of Loulou as the Holy Spirit greeting her in heaven.
What does Loulou represent in a simple heart?
Loulou has become an idol, a representative of God here on earth. She has always been kept away from the divine; she has no education and can’t read, and must get her religious training by taking Virginie to church. Loulou is like proof that God would care about someone as simple and poor as Félicité.
How is Mme Aubain’s bedroom described?
On the first floor, there was Madame’s bedroom, a very large room, decorated with pale, flowery wallpaper and containing a picture of ‘Monsieur’ dressed up in the fanciful attire that was fashionable at the time.
How would you describe Félicité as a servant and as an individual?
Félicité is a highly moral, hard-working, and virtuous woman. Félicité is born to working-class parents who die when she is a child; at that time, she is separated from her siblings, and begins to work as a farmhand and domestic servant.
What did the protagonist inherit from Madame Aubain?
She inherits a parrot named Loulou, and after he dies she has him stuffed. Madame Aubain dies, and Felicite remains in her room, impoverished and deaf. She gets very sick until one day she dies, with a vision of Loulou as the Holy Spirit greeting her in heaven.