Felicity the Unhappy: A Simple Heart

A Simple Heart is a short story full fictional elements, although it is supposed to reflect the reality of society. The main character, Felicity, is pictured as a victim of life and of the circumstances. She represents a humble woman who has no power whatsoever, not only in society, but in her personal life. She suffers continuously throughout the story, always getting severely affected by the tragedies of others. Not only is her presence in society completely invisible, but she also manages to show herself as an ignorant person that will never succeed in anything.

The dependence that Felicity shows towards other people is too exaggerated. It seems that she is totally hopeless and can’t do anything on her own. She depends on everyone and she can’t bear anything. “She missed not having her hair to comb, her boots to lace, to tuck her in her bed—and not seeing continually her pretty face, not having to hold her hand when they went out together. Not having enough work to do, she tried to make lace. Her fingers were too clumsy and broke the threads. She was good for nothing, could not sleep, to use her own expression was ‘a wreck’.”(Flaubert)

Felicity is very insecure, and full of fears. She is attached to people that most of the time doesn’t even show any interest towards her.

This dependability on other people extends to a more exaggerated point when we are introduced to Felicity’s affection towards a Parrot. She is so connected to this animal that she continues to adore it once it’s dead, and even confuses it with religious figures, such as the Holy Spirit. These are the kind of fictional elements that make the story very incredible, but at the same time realistic because they reflect an imperfect society, with unbalanced people, instead of aiming for a utopia. “It was the first time in their lives, Madame Aubain not being of an expansive nature. Felicity was grateful for it, as for a kindness, and henceforth cherished her with an animal devotion and a religious veneration.”(Flaubert)

At the end of the story we see the desperation shown by Felicity when she replaces religion for an animal. She becomes totally devoted to the corpse, which is very disturbing. She admires and idolatrizes this figure constantly, which may represent a criticism made by the author against the church and the business they have established throughout images and religious figures. “All creatures functioned in ghostly silence. One noise alone now reached her ears, the voice of the parrot.”(Flaubert) The fact that Felicity confused her parrot to the Holly Spirit can have a lot of interpretations. The one I gave it was based on Flaubert stating that the church and its dogmas, as well as its figures, are all made up. The members of the Clergy are all liars, and all they do is talk, as well as the parrot. “In her final moments, she thinks she sees the heavens open, and hovering above her head — like the Holy Spirit in a religious painting — a giant parrot.”(Flaubert) This quote reminds me of the movie Psycho. In this film, Norman, a total psychopath with a doubled personality, has a collection of dead birds that he keeps in his office to admire. His affection towards the dead birds is very awkward and as you see his interaction with them, especially when he looks at them, you can see that the man has an obscure mind. When Felicity has a similar behavior towards the Parrot, you also think of her as a mentally unbalanced person that probably lacked of affection from others, and now tries to fulfill it through her animal. Norman could be analyzed in a similar way, as he was never close with her mom and he killed her when he felt betrayed by her.

In A Simple Heart, Flaubert recreates the France of his time by using characters such as Felicity. She is a typical woman from the countryside that works as a servant. Her ignorance on some subjects, such as religion, makes it more credible that she is a humble person. In this story, the author tries to portray reality exactly as it is, without exaggerating it in any way. He shows how Felicity’s life is sometimes very simple and boring. When reading this story, it is natural to think that it really happened and that Flaubert was narrating it, due to his realistic style.