What are the motifs in A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert?

While death is a recurring theme in "A Simple Heart," time and loss are important recurring ideas to the story as a whole. Death is ever-present, a product of time and a vehicle of loss. Félicité is orphaned at an early age and separated from her siblings. When she does locate one of her sisters, the woman seems primarily interested in taking advantage of her. With the passage of time she suffers the loss of Theodore, her only human lover, of Virginie, Victor, Paul, and even of Madame Aubain.