A Simple Heart

“Like other girls, she had once fallen in love.”

In certain ways, Félicité is like other women. Ultimately, however, these similarities only serve to underline her differences. She fell in love once, just “like other girls,” but this was the limit of her romantic experiences. Félicité experienced love only briefly before dedicating her life to her employer.

“Félicité was not naïve like other young girls of her age—working with the farm animals had taught her a great deal.”

Félicité’s supposed lack of naivety underlines the extent to which she is an outsider in society. She may not be as naive as other young women in matters of sex, but her apparent education is limited to an observational role of other species. She understands sex as a detached, objective observer rather than as an active participant because the closest thing she ever has to a romantic relationship results in her abandonment. On the other hand, Félicité’s awareness of sex safeguards her against Théodore’s attempts to seduce her—something that could have had disastrous consequences given that he has no intention of marrying her. Félicité’s working-class knowledge of life is in some ways more useful than the formal education bourgeois girls like Virgine receive.

“In fact, this was the only time anyone ever taught her how to read a book.”

Félicité’s education is limited to a few interactions with Monsieur Bourais, who allows her to leaf through a book of maps and then mocks her when she reveals her limited education. This patronizing attitude to the housemaid who is intrigued by the wider world hints at why Félicité largely accepts her lot in life: Any time she does reveal her curiosity about the world, she is mocked, even by people she considers friends.

“But Félicité never boasted about it and hardly seemed to realize that she had done anything heroic.”

Félicité saves her employer and the two children from a raging bull. Rather than boast about her achievement or accept others’ praise, however, her reaction is decidedly modest. Félicité’s reaction to a heroic deed is another example of the way in which her quiet modesty prevents her from being adequately rewarded. She continues to work for Madame Aubain for far less money than people in her same position while not even accepting praise for saving her employer’s life. Madame Aubain takes advantage of the naïve Félicité to the point that Félicité does not even seem to grasp when she may be due credit.

“Here and there the branches of a large dead tree traced their zigzag patterns against the blue of the sky.”

The description of the French countryside contrasts the lush imagery of the flowers with the dead, decaying trees. This use of juxtaposition hints at the problems at the heart of a society in which Félicité may claim to be happy but cannot discern how she is being mistreated or exploited. The unfair imbalance of wealth and power that shapes her life is symbolized by the dead trees, which cross her path and disrupt her enjoyment of the bounties of nature.

“She also took objection with the familiar way in which the nephew spoke to Paul.”

The way in which Madame Aubain takes advantage of Félicité is evident in her attitude toward Félicité’s family. After many years apart, Félicité is delighted to reunite with her long-lost sister and her sister’s family. However, her happiness is incidental to her employer, who is more concerned with the tone of voice of Félicité’s nephew, as she is worried that his working-class manners might in some way corrupt her son. She uses this as an excuse to drag Félicité away from her family, inventing a flimsy reason to exert control over Félicité’s life and happiness.

“Of church dogma she understood not a word and did not even attempt to understand it.”

Félicité cannot read or write. As a result, she develops a personal understanding of religion that is unique to her. Félicité’s vernacular understanding of religion is the product of a world that ostracizes and alienates her, forcing her to come up with her own understanding of God because no one is willing to help her. The novella explores The Value of a Personal Relationship With God, ultimately suggesting that Félicité’s faith, though unorthodox, does capture some spiritual truth.

“Félicité went to the sacristy and asked to be given communion. She received it with due reverence but did not experience the same rapture.”

Félicité’s unique understanding of religion mirrors her relationship with society itself. As someone whose life is defined by her relationship with her employers, she does not understand her own agency in the world. The result is that she derives greater meaning from seeing her employer’s child receive communion than she does from receiving communion herself. The flipside of Félicité’s self-effacement is her profound empathy for others, which this episode also highlights; she experiences more joy in witnessing Virginie take communion because she loves Virginie so selflessly.

“He brought with him any of his clothes that needed mending and Félicité always did the work willingly.”

Just as Madame Aubain takes advantage of Félicité’s naïve willingness to work for less than she deserves, Félicité’s relatives take advantage of her naivety to have her perform chores for them. Victor brings his clothes for her to mend, and Félicité dedicates her free time to helping her nephew. This suggests that the willingness to exploit is not limited to the middle class.

“But America, the colonies and the Antilles were lost in some unknown region on the other side of the world.”

Victor’s voyage causes Félicité such worry because she cannot conceive of the distance that he must travel. To her, the far-flung places on the other side of the ocean may as well be fantasy realms. Her understanding of the world is limited—often deliberately so, as no one is willing to teach her—and she suffers unduly through her lack of education.

“She felt very offended by Madame Aubain. But she soon got over it.”

Madame Aubain refuses to acknowledge the validity of Félicité’s concerns. When Félicité tries to offer empathy to her employer, Madame Aubain dismisses her sentiments, implying that the life of Félicité’s nephew is barely worth acknowledging and, by extension, that Félicité’s feelings are not valid. Félicité is briefly offended, but the speed with which she forgets her offense illustrates how she can be taken advantage of on so many occasions. She does not comprehend the degree to which her employer dehumanizes her.

“Bourais raised his arms in the air, sneezed and roared with laughter.”

Félicité is sincerely concerned about her nephew’s plight. He is on a voyage halfway around the world, but she lacks an understanding of exactly how far away he has truly gone. Félicité’s lack of understanding of the world and her lack of education are largely explained by what happens when she does show her intellectual curiosity. Bourais, though he is supposedly her friend, mocks her lack of education. Any time Félicité tries to educate herself, even her supposed friends treat her curiosity with contempt.

“The gate to the courtyard was not locked!”

Though Félicité is not well compensated by her employer, she is sincere in her desire to do a good job. On her way to visit the ill Virginie, she feels compelled to run all the way home to ensure that the gate to the courtyard is locked. In doing so, she misses the opportunity to say goodbye to Virginie. That the universe seemingly punishes Félicité for the sincerity of her beliefs highlights the cynicism of the world she inhabits.

“The years passed, one very much like another.”

In the aftermath of Virginie’s death, the chronology of the narrative accelerates. Not only do fewer dramatic incidents take place in a family now wracked with grief, but Madame Aubain and Félicité are less engaged with what is happening. The death of the little girl causes them to become more insulated and isolated, so the world outside passes by without them registering anything of note.

“Mistress and servant embraced each other, uniting their grief in a kiss which made them equal.”

The Omnipresence of Death ravages the lives of the characters but in doing so unites them across vast divides. Madame Aubain has taken advantage of Félicité for many years, preying on her servant’s naïve loyalty. Virginie’s death unites them and allows the employer to empathize with her employee. For the first time, Madame Aubain accepts the sincerity of Félicité’s emotions, and in doing so, she humanizes her employee. For a brief moment, they are equal.

“He obviously found Bourais’s face a source of great amusement.”

Earlier in the story, Bourais took great delight in Félicité’s lack of intelligence. He mocked her for not understanding a book of maps. The arrival of Loulou inverts this dynamic, as the parrot embarrasses and terrifies Bourais. Félicité’s beloved bird ridicules Bourais, providing a form of ironic punishment for the mockery that Félicité herself suffered.

“She became enclosed in an ever-diminishing world of her own.”

As Félicité loses more of those dear to her, her existence becomes a physical reflection of the alienation and isolation that she has experienced for her entire life. Previously, her social class and her lack of wealth separated her from others. She was too naïve to demand more money from her employer, and as a result, she was exploited and limited in her ambitions. Love, wealth, and travel have been denied to Félicité; her loss of sight and hearing plunges her into a sensory allegory for her social existence.

“Why don’t you have him stuffed?”

After the death of Félicité’s beloved parrot, Madame Aubain’s flippant words illustrate that their brief moment of empathetic unity has already passed. Where Virginie’s death united them in grief, Madame Aubain cannot empathize with Félicité’s grief for Loulou’s death. She offers to have the parrot stuffed and offers little else, as she does not value the emotional bond that Félicité built with her pet. Fundamentally, Madame Aubain does not respect the sincerity of Félicité’s emotions.

“Fortunately, Loulou had come to no harm.”

Félicité takes the parrot’s body on part of the journey to the taxidermist, as she does not trust the mail system. While she is traveling, a passing carriage hits her. Félicité is badly hurt, to the point of suffering a wound to her head, but her primary concern is for her dead parrot. Fortunately for Félicité, Loulou’s body is not damaged. Her focus on the well-being of a dead parrot demonstrates again how Félicité puts everything before herself.

“She lived her life as if in a sleepwalker’s trance.”

The more Félicité’s health begins to fade, the more alone she becomes. After the deaths of all those who were important to her, she is increasingly isolated. Life, for Félicité, becomes akin to a “sleepwalker’s trance” in which she moves through existence without really feeling anything. She is cut off from the world in a material, emotional, and sensory manner.

“This sordid business was a source of great distress to Madame Aubain.”

The “sordid business” of Monsieur Bourais’s crimes is particularly distressing to Madame Aubain because she is now associated with the scandal. She can tolerate the other deaths that pepper her life, as grief is not scandalous. Monsieur Bourais’s suicide has the power to damage her reputation, so it becomes far more of a concern to the middle-class Madame Aubain. By contrast, Félicité, a working-class woman who does not believe that she has a reputation to uphold, is merely saddened by the death.

“She had developed the idolatrous habit of kneeling in front of the parrot.”

Félicité’s idiosyncratic relationship with religion culminates when she begins to worship her dead parrot as though it were the Holy Spirit. Previously, Félicité’s unorthodoxies were interior—e.g., her mental conflation of the Holy Spirit and Loulou. When she begins to devote herself to Loulou, however, this physical practice is “idolatrous”—something the Church would consider profane. Félicité’s unique understanding of God ironically becomes blasphemous, though it stems from society’s refusal to offer her help or guidance.

“She was still worrying about the parrot.”

At the end of her life, Félicité focuses her emotional attention on Loulou. Félicité never married and was abandoned by every family she ever knew, either deliberately or due to death. The result is that Loulou’s stuffed body becomes the emotional focal point for the emotions that Félicité could never quite express. She now continues to direct her emotional energy at the dead body of her pet, as this was the closest she ever came to being loved in return.