FLAUBERT’S “A SIMPLE HEART”Realism in France

France

• Location: Europe• Area: 246,201 sq mi• Official language: French• Currency: Euro• Predominant religion: Catholicism• Population (2014): 66,616,416• GDP per capita: $44,730

RealismBegan in Britain and France, where industrial and political

revolutions had recently taken place.

Goya’s painting captures the Spanish resistance to

Napoleon, who under the initial guise of aiding Spain,

instead occupied Spain in 1808.

The painting focuses on an execution rather than valor

or victory in war.

The Third of May (1814) by Francisco de Goya.

• truth without sentiment• New subjects:

democracy,

middle- and working

-class issues and the

Industrial Revolution • city versus countryside• sensory experience (no religion, symbolism or allegory)• “beauty” – the ugly and the hideous as art

Literary Aims

Writers wanted to capture the whole social world in an objective style.• ordinary language• omniscient or first-person narrator• issues with plot, scenarios, endings - writers tried to stay

clear of sensational events and neat endings, which compromised the idea of “unvarnished truth telling.”

• Difficult choice or ethical dilemmas

Elements

Though it spread quickly across the globe, and in some cases developed from local literary traditions, realism began primarily in which of the following?

a. France and Russiab. Japanc. North America and Britaind. Britain and France

Test Your Knowledge

Realist fiction tended to feature which of the following?

a. great heroes of the pastb. the poorc. British kingsd. mythic archetypes

Test Your Knowledge

Realist fiction tended to emphasize which of the following?

a. transcendent experienceb. spiritual awakeningc. empirical realityd. sense and sensibility

Test Your Knowledge

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)

• born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen in northern France.

• was the second son of Anne Justine Caroline (1793–1872) and Achille-Cléophas Flaubert (1784–1846), a surgeon.

• began writing at 8.• studied law in Paris; he was an

indifferent student and found the city distasteful.

• In1846, after an attack of epilepsy, he left Paris and abandoned the study of law.

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)• From 1846 to 1854, Flaubert had a relationship with the

poet Louise Colet.• After leaving Paris, he returned to Croisset, close to

Rouen, and lived there for the rest of his life. • Flaubert never married. • Flaubert was a tireless worker and often complained in

his letters to friends about the strenuous nature of his work.

• The 1870s were a difficult time for Flaubert. Prussian soldiers occupied his house during the War of 1870, and his mother died in 1872. After her death, he fell into financial difficulty due to business failures on the part of his niece's husband.

• Flaubert suffered from venereal diseases most of his life. His health declined and he died at Croisset of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1880 at the age of 58. He was buried in the family vault in the cemetery of Rouen.

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)

• Known for his psychological analysis, sense of reality, criticism of social behavior and style.

• avoided the inexact, the abstract, the vaguely inapt expression, and scrupulously eschewed the cliché.

• believed in, and pursued, the principle of finding "le mot juste" ("the right word"), which he considered as the key means to achieve quality in literary art. He worked in sullen solitude — sometimes occupying a week in the completion of one page — never satisfied with what he had composed.

• Aimed for perfection in his paragraphs, lines and words.

“A Simple Heart”

• Straightforward tale of a relatively uneventful life

• Flaubert portrays Felicite’s life (naïve, exploited, illiterate) as serious and sad rather than absurd or contemptible.

Dynamic reading• In groups, read one section of the story.

• Using your own words, summarize the section to your peers.

“A Simple Heart”

• Economy: Flaubert uses brief, clipped sentences to describe Felicite’s experience. Often details carry rich significance.

• Impersonal narrator: he never intrudes his feelings and opinions

• Structure: No climax, but rather a repetition of the same pattern: short periods of happiness followed by some kind of parting or death and then a long spell of grief.

Class issues

• While Flaubert’s story centers on domestic life and the family unit, it does not present the family unit as natural and unconstrained, but as a site penetrated and constructed by class and capitalism.

• Felicite cannot say a proper goodbye to her nephew or Virginie because she cannot leave before she finishes her chores.

Concreteness

• Felicite’s literal-mindedness and difficulty with abstractions keep her character focused on what is concrete, allowing Flaubert a means to work with images.

• She can only approach abstract reality through icons and images (Parrot as the Holy Ghost)

• If Realism distances itself from supernatural and symbolic meanings, what is Flaubert’s intention in his portrait of Felicite?

Questions for Discussion• Did Félicité live a life worth living? Did Madame Aubain?• Is "A Simple Heart" a love story?• Why is Félicité's first communion less moving to her than

Virginie's?• What is Flaubert's religious position? • Why does Théodore's jilting of Félicité play an such an

important role in the rest of her life?• Why is Madame Aubain so mean to Félicité?• What does Loulou (the parrot) symbolize?• Is Loulou important in tying together the story?

Questions for Discussion• "A Simple Heart" was originally entitled Le Perroquet (The

Parrot). What does each title suggest?• As a representative of France’s servant class, Gustave

Flaubert presents Felicite as uneducated and unsophisticated. Should her character be read ironically?

• To what degree is “A Simple Heart” a realistic story? How does the story differentiate itself from journalism or nonfiction?

• Examine the use of the word “simple” in Flaubert’s  “A Simple Heart”