Loulou is like the Holy Spirit
At certain points, Loulou takes on a religious role. Felicite confuses him for the Holy Spirit in prayer and finds comfort in his presence. When Felicite is dying, instead of seeing the Holy Spirit in the gates of heaven, she sees a gigantic parrot looming overhead.
Felicite’s ignorance of the world represents the general public
Felicite has extremely little knowledge of the world. She is uneducated and does not understand basic math or general geography, such as how big the world is. Her lack of knowledge represents a general sense of ignorance of the majority of the lowly French population during this time period.
Felicite represents the normal
The aspect of simplicity throughout the story represents that Felicite is not extraordinary. She is a normal, lowly servant who in reality represents much more of the general French population of the late 1800s that much of the literature of the time would like you to believe. In general, only fantastical or romantic tales were told, and these often portrayed characters such as princes and princesses, dukes and duchesses, etc. “Simple” Felicite is more truthful to the time period and relates to a larger number of people.
Loulou is a lover and a child
The question of what Loulou, the parrot, represents has stumped many who try to analyze “A Simple Heart,” and there is no definite answer for what Flaubert had in mind. What is clear throughout the story is that Felicite has never had a family of her own and that she becomes obsessed with Loulou. She stuffs him after he dies and keeps his rotting corpse. A times, it seems as if Loulou is at once representing both the child that Felicite never had, the husband she never had, as well as a religious idol that Felicite turns to for comfort.
Felicite is like a woman made of wood
In the opening section of the short story, we learn that Felicite resembles a “woman made of wood” before we ever learn about her life story. This tells the reader that they are going to soon learn about what has made Felicite such a rigid figure. Later on, we learn that Felicite has never been able to focus on taking care of herself as she has had to work from a very young age, taking care of other people and farm animals.
