Félicité. Una serva esemplare

Abstract

From the first lines of the novel, Felicite appears to be the epitome of the servant. The sources of the literary topos of the «servante au grand cœur» go back in fact to the moral novel of the xviii century and to a philanthropic literature that probably inspired Flaubert. The comparison with a few examples of edifying literature of the same period depicting this character demonstrates that the author drew his inspiration from these cliches, though treating them in a paradoxical way. The paradox was already visible in the episode of Catherine Leroux in Madame Bovary, where the chemist’s annoyed reply is opposed to the servant’s loyal submission, and yet it is not possible for the reader to take a stance for either attitude. In Un cœur simple the demystification is emphasized by the arrival of the parrot, whose sources in the literature of the Enlightenment are also well known. From this moment on the edifying reading becomes impossible and the reader is sent back to an unsolvable opposition Enlightenment/religion that gives the novel a philosophical dimension.