Surrogate Children

Loulou is another surrogate child for the childless Felicite and again her deep emeotions are present in the pain she feels when he is mocked. She is fascinated because he reminds her of her nephew, another surrogate child and like earlier she gives a lot to the bird to recieve nothing in return except more pain. She also becomes deaf but is still servile. She is also so devoid of personality that her sins are trivial and inconsequential, even then she needs to directiosn of others as she has no will of her own. Even her room looks like a temple for the lives of others that she sees as greater and in charge. She depends on the parrot because it is helpless and cannot grow like the children and that's why she tries to get it stuffed, because she can't bear that loss. Even then her isolation from the outside world is evident. She lives almost entirely in her head with no outside communication and does her tasks in an almost sleepwalking state. The only tangible connection she has is Madame and the less tangible connection of her dead parrot which begins to color her almost fanatical religiousness. After the loss of Madame she lives totally disjointed form the outside world. She is unloved and her health grows progressively worse and when she dies no one will mourn. Even her stuffed parrot is beginning to decay, leaving her all alone. Even the end, despite Felicite seeming somewhat glad is sad in the sense that it is the anti-climatic end of the poor and uneducated.