Loulou (Symbol)
The parrot, Loulou, is the most important symbol in A Simple Heart. He symbolizes everything that Felicite has missed out on in her life. He acts as her pet, lover, and son. The relationship is almost blasphemous and incestuous, but depicts all the Felicite needed in life and never got.
Education (Motif)
The importance of education is a striking motif in A Simple Heart. Gustave Flaubert was a Realist who strove to depict Felicite, a poor, working class woman at the end of 19th century France, as accurately as possible. In Felicite's case, what is evident is how her lack of education greatly hinders her. Felicite never received a formal education, as she was orphaned and worked on farms until receiving her job with Mme. Aubain several years later. She would keep this job for the rest of her life and would learn from her mistress' two children, Paul and Virginia. With Virginia, Felicite experiences religion for the first time. However, her simple mind is not equipped with the tools to properly understand metaphysical subject matter, so Felicite instead only understands religion in physical terms. She thinks of God as being present in animals or fire, for example, but cannot think of Him in conventionally religious means. When she listens to a sermon in church and hears of the lamb, she does not understand the metaphor, and instead thinks of actual lambs. Also, Felicite is not able to understand the size of the world. When her nephew, Victor, goes off to Havana, she asks for his exact location on a map, which is impossible to pinpoint. When it rains at her Mme. Aubain's house, Felicite believes it to be raining wherever Victor is and worries for him. Felicite's lack of education is striking, as even the young children she cares for can comprehend more than she is able to. Sadly, this discrepency between the amount of education between the working class and the upper class bourgeois was extremely accurate in Flaubert's time.
Felicite's Name (Symbol)
Felicite is not a symbol of happiness as her name would suggest, but a symbol of simplicity and goodness. Felicite is selfless and hard-working, and thinks only about the family that she cares for. In the episode in which she confronts a bull threatening the family, Felicite demonstrates that her duty is more important than her personal safety. Felicite represents a good heart which has been trampled on. There is actually nothing that marks her as different than any other working class servant. Felicite is simply the representation of any underappreciated, uneducated woman who is forced to take care of others rather than herself at the end of 19th century France.
