A Simple Heart Mortality Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)

Quote #4

He was dead. That was all the letter said. (3.47)

When Victor dies, Félicité finds out in a shocking way. She doesn't hear from him for months and then receives a letter that she's unable to read (she's illiterate, of course) and only finds out that her beloved nephew is gone in the bluntest way possible. Once again, death is sudden and tragic for her.

Quote #5

Much later, through Victor's captain himself, she learned the circumstances of his end. In treating him for yellow fever, they had bled him too much. Four doctors had held him down. He had died immediately, and the head doctor had said, 'There goes another one!' (3.58)

It must have been particularly painful for Félicité to hear how Victor died. It could have been avoided, if the doctors hadn't bled him so much. (They used to drain sick people's blood in an attempt to heal them, but it was actually very dangerous. Go figure.)

Quote #6

When she was halfway along, she heard strange sounds, a funeral bell. 'It's for someone else,' she thought. (3.69)

Félicité is on the way to the convent where Virginie lives; she didn't get to go the night before because she had to go check that the house was locked up (she's the servant, not a family member, after all). After the recent death of her nephew, it's not surprising she'd slip into denial when she hears the funeral bells.