1. Flaubert’s “A Simple heart”
Realism in France

2. 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

3. Realism
Began 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 image is a painting titled Prado Museum, Madrid.
The Third of May (1814) by Francisco de Goya.

4. Literary Aims 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
Realist writers wanted to write fiction that reveals truths about the world, to observe social life unsentimentally and to convey it objectively, now focusing on new subject matter related to the rise of democracy, the middle class, the Industrial Revolution, and working-class issues. They routinely chose the city over the countryside, and provided detailed description of squalid surroundings. Religion, symbolism, and allegory are largely absent; instead the focus is on sensory experience and the observable world. The idea of “beauty” transformed as ugliness and the hideous were recognized as appropriate subjects for art works.
The painting is titled The Stonebreakers (1848) by Gustave Courbet. A realist painter, Courbet’s work put working-class people and their lifestyles into the limelight, which was a break from previous modes of painting, in which idyllic, mythical, and religious groups or aristocratic and political movements were featured.

5. Elements
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
For writers wanting to capture the whole social world in an objective style, the use of ordinary language and omniscient third-person narrator provided the perfect, impersonal perspective. Other writers opted for first-person narrators, guided only by their own senses and experience. Elements of character and plot raised challenges and opportunities as writers tried to stay clear of sensational events and neat endings, which compromised the idea of “unvarnished truth telling.” Dramatic interest lay in having the character make a difficult choice or be faced with an ethical dilemma. Questions included: Can individuals have an impact on unjust social relationships? What responsibility does a person have toward others in a city, nation, or his own family?

6. Test Your Knowledge
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 Russia b. Japan c. North America and Britain d. Britain and France
Answer: D
Section: Realism Across the World
Feedback: Realism began in Britain and France. The mid- to late-nineteenth century saw a new era of “globalism.” Artistic styles and ideas—just like their commercial counterparts—spread widely and quickly.

7. Test Your Knowledge
Realist fiction tended to feature which of the following?
a. great heroes of the past b. the poor c. British kings d. mythic archetypes
Answer: B
Section: Realism Across the World
Feedback: While realist fiction often included a diverse cast of characters, one of its defining features—i.e., what distinguished it from previous literary traditions—was its focus on otherwise marginal figures from real life: the poor, the sick, and the powerless. When realist works did include the powerful from society, it was often in the context of interactions between various classes of people.

8. Test Your Knowledge
Realist fiction tended to emphasize which of the following?
a. transcendent experience b. spiritual awakening c. empirical reality d. sense and sensibility
Answer: C
Section: Realism Across the World
Feedback: With its attention to the realities—sometimes the very harsh realities—of everyday life, most realist fiction saw the world in terms of what was empirically, verifiably “there,” outside of any subjective or transcendent experience.

9. Gustave Flaubert ( )
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.

10. Gustave Flaubert ( )
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 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.

11. Gustave Flaubert ( )
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.

12. “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.

13. Dynamic reading In groups, read one section of the story.
Using your own words, summarize the section to your peers.

14. “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.

15. 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.

16. 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?

17. 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?

18. 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”