Questions on "A Simple Heart," by Flaubert

Did Félicité live a life worth living? Did Madame Aubain?

Is "A Simple Heart" a love story?

Why are the men in this story so unimpressive?

Why is Félicité's first communion less moving to her than Virginie's?

What is Flaubert's religious position? Is his realism to be taken at face value?

Is there a parallelism between the deaths of Victor and Virginie?

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?

Why does Flaubert have Félicité reject the Polish suitor over his theft of a salad (p. 49)?

Why, after Félicité and Madame Aubain exchange a kiss, does Flaubert say of Félicité that "Her native goodness unfolded in her heart"?

What does Loulou symbolize?

Is Loulou important in tying together the story?


For Textual Analysis

Pages 36-38, from "After bending her knee at the door" to "...but did not feel the same thrill."

Pages 46-48, from "For two whole nights Félcité did not leave to "...who had been paralyzed for some time."

Pages 55-56 from "The place contained such an assortment" to ..."stray in the direction of the bird."

Pages 60-62 , whole chapter

Author of the Month: Gustave Flaubert

The great French realist writer Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) wrote to a female friend about month's selection, "A Simple Heart" (originally titled "L'Histoire d'un Coeur Simple" -- the "Story of a Simple Heart"). He said it "is nothing more or less than the account of an obscure life, that of a poor country girl, devout but not mystical, matter-of-factly devoted, tender with a tenderness redolent of freshly baked bread."*

*Letter to Edma Roger des Genettes, dated June 19, 1876 ; cited in Brown, Frederick, Flaubert: a Biography, New York: Little, Brown, 2006.

Some Questions about "First Principles of Morals," by Kant

Interpretive Questions

Kant asserts (p. 16) that "Now all imperatives command either hypothetically or categorically." What is a "hypothetical imperative"? What is a "categorical imperative"?

Read pages 15-17, beginning "Everything in nature works according to laws ..." to "action is good for some purpose, possible or actual ..."

Read pages 2-5, beginning, "There is, however, something so strange ..." to "may involve many a disappointment to the ends of inclination."

Re-read the last sentence, "For reason recognizes the establishment of a good will as its highest practical destination, and in attaining this purpose is capable only of a satisfaction of its own proper kind, namely, that from the attainment of an end, which end again is determined by reason only, notwithstanding that this may involve many a disappointment to the ends of inclination."

How is reason to cope with such a disappointment?


On page 8, Kant writes, "the second proposition is: That an action done from duty derives its moral worth, not from the purpose which is to be attained by it, but from the maxim by which it is determined, and therefore does not depend on the realization of the object of the action, but merely on the principle of volition by which the action has taken place, without regard to any object of desire." How can "moral worth" come from the source of the action, and not from its outcome?

Read pp. 8 through 11, from "The third proposition ..." to "Hence my maxim, as soon as it should be made a universal law, would necessarily destroy itself."

Re-read the sentence on p. 9, "I am never to act otherwise than so that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law." Apply this to Kant's position on lying. What is the role of will in turning a maxim into a universal law?

Read pp. 11 through 13, from "If we have hitherto drawn our notion of duty from the common use of our practical reason" ... to "this duty is involved as duty in the idea of a reason determining the will by a priori principles." Why is Kant's notion duty based on a priori principles. (Note: "a priori" means "from before," that is, before experience).

Read pp. 19 through 22, from "There is therefore but one categorical imperative, namely this: Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law ." to "Thus it has been completely shown by these examples how all duties depend as regards the nature of the obligation (not the object of the action) on the same principle."

Discuss how Kant applies his principles to four imagined individuals, who may be described as (1)depressive, (2) indebted, (3) hedonistic, and (4) self-satisfied. Are you convinced that all four would be unsuccessful in willing his actions into universal laws?

Capstone question: Why, according to Kant, does reason control will by means of a priori principles?

The last sentence of the selection reads, "We have not yet, however, advanced so far as to prove a priori that there actually is such an [categorical] imperative, that there is a practical law which commands absolutely of itself and without any other impulse, and that the following of this law is duty." Will Kant go on to prove this, and how?

Evaluative Question

Is it possible to identify people of "pure and good will." (p.1) Can someone who "is not adorned with a single feature of a pure and good will, enjoying unbroken prosperity ... never give pleasure to an impartial rational spectator." [Emphasis added]. In other words, is it universally unacceptable for good things to happen to bad people?

Author of the Month

W.H. Walsh, in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, offers the following concise descriptor for Kant: "Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), propounder of the critical philosophy." Here is the statue of Kant in his native Königsberg (currently Russian Kaliningrad), where his daily constitutional was famous for its regularity.

More Faust Questions (for Meeting on December 27th, 2010)

If one reads Goethe's Faust as an allegory, what do the following characters represent:

Mephistopheles
Faust
Wagner
Gretchen
Martha
Valentine

Now that you've thought about this, is it correct to read Faust as an allegory?

Read and interpret the climactic last scene (the "Dungeon" scene). Must Gretchen resist Faust (p.291-292) in order to be redeemed? How and why is she redeemed?

During the initial scene in Faust's study (p. 179), Faust gives us his critique of the opening line of the Book of John, "In the beginning was the Word." What comes first, the Word, the Thought, the Power, or the Deed?

On page 202, Mephistopheles says,

It's exactly where a thought is lacking
That just in time, a word shows up instead.
With words you can argue beautifully,
With words you can make up a system,
A word's a beautiful thing to believe in,
Not one iota can be taken from a word.

Are words effective substitutes for thought?

Is Faust a critique of academic and intellectual culture? Of the "examined life" in general?

For example, on page 244 Faust says to Gretchen,

Believe me, dearest, what men call intelligent
Often is pedantry and self-conceit.

In the second scene in Faust's study, how does Faust, according to the Chorus of Spirits, destroy "the beautiful world" with his curses of hope, faith, and (most of all), patience (p. 191)? Interpret their response:

We carry
The ruins to nothingness
And weep for the lost beauty.
O mighty
Among the sons of earth,
Build it again, more magnificent,
Build it in your own breast!

Why do Faust and Mephistopheles go to Hartz Mountain for Walpurgis night? What is the significance of the events that take place there?

Why does God permit Mephistopheles to tempt Faust in the first place?

Why is Faust so despondent that he contemplates suicide at the beginning of the play?

Is Faust a hero? villain? antihero?

The Last Universal Man?

To the left you see a portrait of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). It was painted by Gerhard von Kügelgen in 1808. That was the year Faust, Part One was first published. It was also the year that Goethe met Napoleon (a big fan of Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther) in the German city of Erfurt.

It is remarkable to note that Faust, Part One wasn't performed for the first time until 1829, twenty years later, in Brunswick. This speaks to some of the difficulties in staging this work. As one of our discussants noted in our meeting last week, getting horses up on stage (as directed) can be a challenge.

Goethe can be considered the last universal man. He was a man of letters and a man of science. He is credited with founding the science of morphology and "discovered" the intermaxillary bone in humans. He put forward a powerful critique of Newton's optics. He also had a longstanding interest in meteorology.

Goethe's aesthetic concerns jibed with this scientific interests. Morphology, for example, can be a form of poetry in the way it matches object and word.

It is the persistence of Goethe's intellect that most qualifies him as a "universal." A close reading of Faust confirms this. Goethe spent at least 40 years writing and revising the two parts of Faust. His motto, after all, was

Ohne rast aber ohne hast.

Which, translated into English, means "Without rest BUT without haste."

Resource: Steuer, Daniel, "In defence of experience: Goethe's natural investigation," In The Cambridge Companion to Goethe," Lesley Sharpe, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Discussion questions re: Goethe's Faust

Is the heaven of the Prologue a Christian heaven?

What is the wager between Faust and Mephistopheles? What does each party stand to gain or lose?

Why does Mephistopheles tell Faust he must be asked into the study three times before he will comply with the invitation?

Why does Mephistopheles first appear as a black poodle?

What is the meaning of Mephistopheles's remark to Faust (p. 196) that "Time's short, my friend, and art is long"?

Why does Mephistopheles (p. 199) encourage the student to enroll first in a course of logic?

Why does Faust say that if he's not able to seduce Gretchen, then Mephistopheles will be through with him?

How and why does the witch-potion cause Faust to "see a Helen in every housewife" (p. 225)?

Why does Gretchen say (p. 260), "And now I'm just as bad myself!/But -- everything that made me do it/God was so good! Oh, was so sweet! (p. 261)"

What's the reason Mephistopheles takes Faust to Walpurgisnacht to take his mind off the terrible consequences of his liaison with Gretchen?

Why does the dialogue change to prose in Chapter xxiii (p.283) ("Dreary Day")

Why did Goethe choose his settings (e.g., Burgdorf, Auerbach's Celler in Leipzig, the Witch's Kitchen)?