Meet the Cast
Félicité Barette
A Dutiful MaidEveryone is jealous of Madame Aubain because she's such a good worker: For a hundred francs a year, she did the cooking and the housework, she sewed, washed and ironed, she could brid...
Madame Aubain
Madame Aubain isn't a terrible person, but she can be a little bit toxic. She's the widow of a man and never seems to get past that fact; she's haunted by death throughout her life. It's even in he...
Virginie
The young daughter of Madame Aubain, Virginie is too good for this world. We don't really know anything about her other than that she's terribly good and terribly sickly, which is a very bad combin...
Paul
Just like pretty much every male character in this story, Paul is a source of heartache for the women in his life. He's Madame Aubain's son and Virginie's brother, and we don't know much about him...
Victor
While Paul is a real jerk, Victor, Félicité's poor nephew, is another story. He visits his aunt regularly and brings her presents from his sailing trips. He is, for her, like the son she never ha...
Monsieur Bourais
This guy's a real gem. A retired lawyer, he's Madame Aubain's friend. He takes care of her affairs, but also finds reason to "closet himself with her in Monsieur's study for hours on end" (2.24). R...
Théodore
And yet another piece of work. Poor Félicité meets this "prosperous-looking young man" (2.3) at a fair, where he buys her "cider, coffee, a buckwheat pancake, a scarf, and, assuming that she had...
Townies
Pont-l'Évêque is full of minor characters who play some role or another in the story. There's Mother Simon, a kind woman who cares for Félicité as she is dying. There are Robelin and Liébard,...