# Virginia — Short Fiction character guide

> Virginia in Short Fiction by Gustave Flaubert.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0005-a-simple-soul

## Snapshot

Madame Aubain's delicate daughter, whose convent letters and fragile nerves make her the anxious center of a household that measures love in postmarks.

## Who they are

Virginia is the cherished daughter whose slightest emotion exhausts her, forcing her to abandon piano lessons and depend on regular letters from the convent. Her mother's obsessive concern for Virginia's correspondence exposes the unbridgeable distance between the mistress's precious child and Félicité's own nephew, a cabin-boy lost at sea. Virginia's fragility anchors the early household scenes, quietly establishing the emotional hierarchies that will shape Félicité's devotion and grief.

## Relationships

### [Madame Aubain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_22_se/characters/madame_aubain)

_family_

Madame Aubain is Virginia's mother, grieving deeply after her daughter's untimely death.

## In the story

### [I: The Curse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_22_se/chapters/i-the-curse)

Not present in this chapter.

### [II: The Crime](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_22_se/chapters/ii-the-crime)

Not present in this chapter.

### [A Simple Soul](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_22_se/chapters/a-simple-soul)

Madame Aubain's daughter, who dies young.

### [II: The Heroine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_22_se/chapters/ii-the-heroine)

Four-year-old daughter, develops a nervous condition after the bull incident.

### [III: Death](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_22_se/chapters/iii-death)

Makes her first communion, is sent to convent school, falls ill, and dies of congestion of the lungs.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_22_se/characters/virginia
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_22_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_22_se/characters