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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is unusual about the children's beds?

2. What was the most exciting part of the day in Trouville?

3. Where is Félicité's bedroom?

4. Who in Félicité's family always kept out of sight?

5. What particularly bothered Mme. Aubain about the way that Félicité's family behaved?

Short Essay Questions

1. At the beginning of the story, what does the narrator tell us about Mme. Aubain's history?

2. Why do you think Félicité never talks about how worried she feels for Victor?

3. Why do you think Félicité is hurt by people's jokes about Loulou?

4. Why does Félicité offer the parrot for the altar in the Corpus Christi celebration?

5. Describe the scene with the bull and explain why you think it is important.

6. Why do you think Flaubert has Félicité run all the way to say goodbye to Victor only to miss him at the last?

7. Think back on the story as a whole. What do you think is the major theme and why?

8. Does Victor seem to genuinely care for Félicité or is he only interested in taking things from her?

9. Why do you think that it struck Félicité as wrong that Mme. Aubain should die before she did?

10. Do you think that Félicité's final vision is religious or delusional? Does it matter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Flaubert is a critical figure in the literary movement called Realism, in which authors attempted to tell a story that mimics life as it actually is. To what extent is "A Simple Heart" realistic? Is Félicité a realistic character? In what ways would you answer yes and in what ways no? Do you think that realism is an attainable goal for a piece of literature?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast Virginie and Victor. Félicité considers them to share the same place in her heart. What similarities of character and situation contribute to this sense for the reader? What differences distinguish them?

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the deaths of Victor and Virginie. What does each mean to Félicité? In what ways are the events the same and in what ways are they different? Why do you think that both deaths are included? What is the thematic impact of having these two deaths so close together that mirror each other in several critical ways?

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