English 204
Felicite adores her pet parrot Loulou very much while it is alive, and gets it stuffed after it dies. Felicite and Loulou seem to have a multifaceted relationship, and Gustave Flaubert uses the stuffed parrot as a means of satirizing religious though by depicting it as an embodiment of the Holy Ghost. Through Loulou, Flaubert seems to be mocking all parrotry, and he makes the parrot mindlessly repeat all sorts of clichés. In fact, the parrot’s own name comprises the repetition of the word “Lou.” There is a scene in the book when visitors to at the house are admiring Loulou. One of the visitors marvels why the parrot is not named “Jacquot,” which is a typical name for parrots (Lombardi). Analyzing Flaubert’s A Simple Heart reveals the significant role that the stuffed parrot plays in the story. The purpose of this paper is discuss the circumstances in Felicite’s life that lead her to viewing a decaying stuffed parrot that was once her companion as a saintly being.
For Félicité, Loulou symbolizes the uninterrupted perpetual pattern of her existence and becomes the final affection of her life. In fact, the parrot even reveals the meaning of the title of Flaubert’s story because Félicité is truly “a simple heart.” Her only basic purpose in life is to be generous and to love. Félicité speaks to her pet parrot, even though she has become deaf. Flaubert writes about Félicité and Loulou’s conversations, how affectionately they talk to each (171). It is not too tricky to perceive how impartially absurd the situation between the two is. Loulou, a bird can of course not understand the language that Félicité uses to passionately respond to her parrot, and Félicité herself is deaf, so she cannot even hear the bird’s voice that excites her.
Although Félicité’s relationship with the Holy Spirit is purely a saintly one, the absurdity of the relationship is prominent because of the symbolic nature of Loulou, the decaying stuffed parrot. Félicité’s spirituality creates a satirical world. This satirical world of hers includes the comical reduction of the penetrating affluence and permanent timelessness to Loulou, a temporary and vulgar craft of a taxidermist. Even while Loulou is still alive, Flaubert takes the liberty of describing the parrot’s habits that are not so endearing. Flaubert’s A Simple Heart has irony spread throughout it at every turn, especially, how the characters’ names contradict their practices. For instance, Félicité is not able to find felicity or happiness on this earth ("Analysis of "Félicité."), Theodore; Félicité’s fiancé, is certainly no “gift of God” ("The Name Theodore - Origin and Meaning of Theodore") for her, and Mme Aubain is definitely not “a Godsend” (Porter 18). It has often been noted that Félicité’s name has a Latin origin, being derived from felix, which means happy in Latin. The Latin word does not merely relate to gratification but to religious felicity, or in other words, saintliness since there have been many “saints named Felix” (Schuegraf 9).
Felicity’s life reflects the trivial, simple relation to the origin of her name. However, not only in Flaubert’s world but even in our own, we cannot practically conceive happiness in saintliness. Nonetheless, there is a passage in which Félicité combines the Holy Ghost and Loulou together. Right before this is another passage in which an odd accumulation of objects is described which are assembled in Félicité’s room as a reminder of the past. Félicité has arranged those strange objects in such a way that the holy and the desecrate blend and unite with each other, such that her room looked like both a chapel and a bazaar” (Orlando 7). For Félicité, the objects are a representation of the person they are associated to, her mistress, while she herself refrains from making any specific associations (Amir 78). Throughout the story, Félicité’s mind functions in this same way, and if look close enough, we will be able to see that she consistently invests in Loulou as the Holy Ghost.
There are also numerous juxtapositions in the story as well, revolving around Félicité and Loulou. For instance, Flaubert juxtaposes Félicité’s torment and the movement of the odd religious cortege in the courtyard with a disconcerting objectiveness. Flaubert describes the somewhat mismatched objects arranged on the cement basin in the courtyard quite realistically, with insensitive serenity. Among these objects, as he describes, was Loulou, hiding under noses, and showing merely his forehead, that Flaubert describes as “a plaque of lapis lazuli” (64).
When Félicité finally becomes deaf and almost blind, and has no choice but to live in isolation in her room, where only Simon visits her, she quickly finds relief and release from the requirements of the blatant external reality of this world. She was living in a stern world of fact, but now that she is old and ill, she no longer has to maintain any kind of relationship with that world. Most readers dismiss the fact that she mistook Loulou for the Holy Spirit as a result of becoming delirious. Thus, it was perhaps her imagination that fostered the illusions to such a realistic extent.
Flaubert portrays Félicité’s dying as being literally preserved and protected by the splendid rays of an amber sun. In contrast to the merry religious ceremony of the Fete-Dieu, this emphasizes the apotheosis of her pet parrot (Deppman, Ferrer, and Groden 81). Loulou, the stuffed parrot, is one of the multicolored objects that the worshippers feel uncontrollably drawn towards. The altar on which Loulou rests is adorned with colorful flowers and costly vases, which transform his significance, further reflecting his significance as the Holy Spirit. Moreover, Flaubert also related the progression of the ceremony to Félicité’s dying heart. As “[e]veryone knelt down. There was a deep silence” (64) and precisely the same moment, “[t]he beats of her heart lessened on by one, vaguer each time and softer” (64). Flaubert makes it seem as if Félicité is taking part in the festivities from her bed. He describes how there is some bright bluish vapor rising up into her room that meets her nostrils and she closes her eyes inhaling it delightfully, in a mystical manner, and she smiles when she does (Unwin 153). A remarkable effect of harmony and reverence is depicted by Flaubert in Félicité’s death scene.
Although Félicité ends up dying by the end of the story, without finding happiness as relating to her name, but Loulou, the parrot somehow shows her that her death was not in vain. The positive ending of A Simple Heart has often been seen as proclamation belief in the human spirit and its capacity to love eternally. The absolute, unconditional affection and love that Félicité has for everyone around her is witnessed once again at the ending of the story. Even on her deathbed, she refuses to submit to desperation and hopelessness. Even when she dies, she has a smile on her face because she has a vision of the Holy Ghost that appears in the form of a giant parrot, and regards her death as a reward for her troubled life. Thus, the deeper significance of Loulou is perhaps that of a poetic metaphor for the Holy Ghost. In other words, Flaubert, or rather Félicité had literally spiritualized Loulou, and in quite a glorifying manner.
Works Cited
"Analysis of "Félicité."." Tailored Texts. Tailored Texts. Web. 4 Mar 2013.
Amir, Ayala. The Visual Poetics of Raymond Carver. New York City: Lexington Books, 2010. Print.
Deppman, Jed, Daniel Ferrer, and Michael Groden.Genetic Criticism: Texts and Avant-textes (Material Texts). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Print.
Flaubert, Gustave. A Simple Heart. New York City: New Directions Publishing, 1996. Print.
Lombardi, Esther. "'A Simple Heart' - Part 4." About.com. About.com. Web. 4 Mar 2013.
Orlando, Francesco. Obsolete Objects in the Literary Imagination: Ruins, Relics, Rarities, Rubbish, Uninhabited Places, and Hidden Treasures. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006. Print.
Porter, Laurence M. A Gustave Flaubert Encyclopedia. Greenwood, 2001. Print.
Schuegraf, Ernst. Cooking with the Saints: An Illustrated Treasury of Authentic Recipes Old and Modern. 1st ed. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2001. Print.
Unwin, Timothy. The Cambridge Companion to Flaubert. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print.
