A Simple Heart

“For half a century, Madame Aubain’s housemaid Félicité was the envy of all the good ladies of Pont-l’Évêque.”

Félicité is introduced through the lens of her employer, establishing the theme of The Power of Social Class. Her life barely exists outside of the boundaries of her relationship with Madame Aubain, so much so that the opening line in the story of her life prioritizes her work status above everything else. This relationship gives Félicité’s life its shape and direction, which suggests that there is very little beyond her employment that gives her life meaning.

“Like other girls, she had once fallen in love.”

In certain ways, Félicité is like other women. Ultimately, however, these similarities only serve to underline her differences. She fell in love once, just “like other girls,” but this was the limit of her romantic experiences. Félicité experienced love only briefly before dedicating her life to her employer.

“Félicité was not naïve like other young girls of her age—working with the farm animals had taught her a great deal.”

Félicité’s supposed lack of naivety underlines the extent to which she is an outsider in society. She may not be as naive as other young women in matters of sex, but her apparent education is limited to an observational role of other species. She understands sex as a detached, objective observer rather than as an active participant because the closest thing she ever has to a romantic relationship results in her abandonment.