Moments in one’s life are often labeled as good or bad. In reality, no one’s life is perfectly good or perfectly bad, rather it, life, is periods of ascension and descension, constantly fluctuating as one ages. For example, one obtaining their driving license is a moment of ascension whereas one’s first heartbreak is a period of descent. In Gustave Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart”, the main character, Felicite, is a maid to Mme Aubain, and experiences a rough life as she grows. From, “the misery of her childhood, the disappointment of her first love, the departure of her nephew, and the death of Virginie,” (Flaubert 802), through the death of Loulou, one can clearly see that Felicite’s life is one of constant descent.
The story opens up explaining the tragedy of her childhood. For example, her father was a mason who died after falling off some scaffolding. Soon after that her mother passed away and her sisters all went their separate ways and eventually lost contact. So, it seems that even as a child, Felicite, knew graver pain than most today even think of. A farmer took Felicite in and gave her a job to look after the cows, despite her small stature. Felicite did not know the pleasures that kids today take for granted. For example, “she went about in rags, shivering with cold, used to lie flat on the ground to drink
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After all the pain Felicite endured and all the death she shed tears over only for her to die alone, evokes sadness in the reader. It seems as if all Felicite knew was suffering for she was beat as a child, heartbroken, and out lived everyone she loved. It is hard to see how Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart” is a triumph where Felicite actually ascends through the story. It is truly amazing how Felicite starts out as a farm girl after losing her family; she has nothing to her name, nothing she truly loves or cares about, yet somehow throughout this tragic story manages to lose it