Gustave Flaubert's A Simple Heart

“At twenty-five she looked forty. By the time she reached her fifties, she was ageless – and, with her constant silence, her upright figure and her measured gestures, she seemed like a woman made out of wood” (6). In Gustave Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart”, we do not find out a lot of information about Félicité, even though she is the main character. However throughout the story we receive small bits of information about Félicité and her life. We get those details because it allows the reader to get a general understanding of what makes her tick, but also to expose to the reader how her life evolved over time.
Seeing as there are only a handful of things that we learn about Félicité, each of the different events does not do much for the story by itself. However when all of the information gets put together the idea of the plot seems to come to light. They are
Then her mother died, her sisters scattered” (6). When a person has to deal with that much suffering, especially early in life, a trend of unhappiness begins to occur. Furthermore we learn about she was never really wanted by the people she becomes acquainted with like Madam Aubain or Théodore. This would have a long lasting effect on her because when you get mistreated for so long, you start to believe
When you read a story about someone you expect to see a lot more of the minor details about their personal lives and past. In “A Simple Heart” however, you do not see a lot of those details because it may confuse the reader about what the really message of the story is. As a result Flaubert eliminates a lot of the information that would not really help him explain the journey of Félicité.
Even though some off the stuff would not have made much difference in the plot of the story, it would provide some nice background information. For example we never found out where she