"Père Goriot": analysis of the novel and main characters. Problematics and figurative system of O. de Balzac's novel "Père Goriot" Balzac Father Goriot analysis

The novel Father Goriot marks a new stage in Balzac's creative development. “Père Goriot” is not the story of the life of one character - it is a cross-section of the life of society at a certain period of its development.

Before the novel “Père Goriot” (1835), Balzac created works that centered on the fate of the main character. These characters were closely connected with their surroundings, created by their social environment, which “shaded” the central character and served to more fully reveal his character. However, Balzac increasingly felt that the traditional form of the novel was not suitable for embodying his desire to portray modern society in all the complexity of its struggles and aspirations. Novels began to change their structure: the center became a problem, the aspects of which were to be revealed by characters from various social groups; here it is no longer possible to unambiguously name the “main” character.

The first such novel was “Père Goriot.” Here are Goriot, Rastignac, Vautrin. The Viscountess de Beauseant can almost equally claim the main place in the work. Moreover, each of them represents a separate social group and the views corresponding to it: Goriot - the bourgeoisie, Rastignac - the provincial nobility, the Viscountess - the Parisian high nobility, Vautrin - the underworld. Life path Goriot reproduces the story of enrichment based on calculation and fall when life is subordinated to feeling.

Rastignac embodies young ambitious people who naively believe at first that everything can be achieved through hard work, and gradually understand that the main engine of society is useful connections.

The Viscountess de Beauseant, who possessed wealth and nobility from birth, is necessary for the author in order to show their ephemerality if a feeling takes possession of the human soul. Vautrin, an escaped convict, an almost romantic figure, embodies a daring calculation that completely excludes emotions, based on a deep knowledge of the modern world.

Rastignac is shown in evolution. At first he is a naive provincial, constantly violating social etiquette; at this time he dreams of “being faithful to virtue” and “achieving wealth through his labor.” However, he soon realizes that in “society” the most important thing is to have a well-tailored tailcoat. Gradually he gives up his youthful dreams. True, he does not dare to accept the enrichment plan proposed by the convict Vautrin, for he is afraid of becoming an accomplice in the crime. He will emerge victorious from the duel with Paris, because, having lost his illusions, he managed to act in accordance with the laws of this world.

The system of images in the novel “Père Goriot” is subordinated not only to the social principle, but also to the family one. Each time the author shows how intimate family relationships are replaced by monetary relationships. This thought is expressed by the dying Goriot: “Money can buy everything, even daughters.” For Balzac, social relationships are revealed in family relationships.

In this novel, as in the previous ones, the objective world plays a large role. That is why the work begins with a description of the quarter where Vauquer’s house is located, then the author introduces the reader to the street, and only then to the house itself, depicted extremely accurately. The pinnacle of this objective world, which reveals the essence of people, is Madame Vauquer’s attire and her appearance. Balzac writes about the composition of the parasites, corresponding to the appearance of the hostess of the boarding house, truly creating a complete analogy to the hostess: All characters, in one way or another, bear the mark of the owner of the boarding house.

Gobsek

The story “Gobsek” (1830, the first title is “The Dangers of Dissipation”) is characterized by the combination of a realistic basis with romantic elements.

The main character of the story, a millionaire usurer, is one of the rulers of the new France. A strong, exceptional personality, Gobsek is internally contradictory. “Two creatures live in him: a miser and a philosopher, a base creature and a sublime one.” Pedantic and soulless, Gobsek for Balzac is the living embodiment of that predatory force that persistently makes its way to power. The writer seeks to penetrate into the origins of her power and unshakable self-confidence. This is where Gobsek turns his other side to the reader. The practical moneylender gives way to the bourgeois philosopher, the insightful analyst. His views on life are based on the philosophy of an entire era: “In gold,” says Gobsek, “all human powers are concentrated.” Gobsek embodies the most negative features of bourgeois acquisitiveness, and yet he is not without a certain monumentality. He is endowed with a remarkable mind, capable of broad generalizations.

At its core, Gobsek’s realistic image also contains romantic signs. The past is hazy. The origin of the hero's wealth is unclear. His real life is full of mysteries. However, the romantic principle does not contradict the realistic essence of Gobsek’s character, but only emphasizes the specificity of Balzac’s realism at the early stage of its development, when the typical and exceptional appear in dialectical unity.

in “Gobsek” criticism of the morals of the aristocracy is combined with an anti-bourgeois principle. For Balzac it is important that his hero is not only a private person - he is a pillar modern state, the government needs his help. And at the same time, the author sees that this is a rotten pillar. This is evidenced by the picture of the death of a moneylender, when all the wealth he accumulated remains unnecessary to anyone, when all kinds of supplies rot in his closets. We see a colossal picture of the destruction of personality under the influence of money, when the monetary value of things itself loses all meaning.

Revealing the problem of fathers and children in the work is directly related to the central image of the novel - Goriot's father.

This is a man who selflessly loves his daughters. He doesn't ask for anything in return. The only thing he wants is to see his daughters at least occasionally. For " Father Goriot» topic saved family relations, family theme.

The core of the novel is the family conflict between the former merchant Goriot and his daughters, whom he married to the Comte de Restaud and the banker Nucingen.

“Gorio retains his selfless affection for his daughters until the end of his days. He does not oppress them, but, on the contrary, constantly pampers them and gives them almost his entire fortune. The family is collapsing without him, and the reason for this flows directly from the order established in that society, where the criterion for evaluating a person is his wealth.” ( 7, p. 282 )

Father Goriot lives in the Vauquer boarding house, and each time he moves up to a higher and higher floor, as his income becomes lower and lower, and living on the lower floor costs more.

« The boarding house has seven permanent residents - boarders, and about ten people come only for dinner. Boarders are accommodated on three floors, paying for housing and board - the higher, the cheaper». ( 2, p. 60 )

“By the end of the first year, the widow had reached such a degree of suspicion that she asked the question: why did this merchant, with his income of seven to eight thousand livres, with his excellent silverware and beautiful, like a kept woman’s, jewelry, still live with her? and, disproportionate to his fortune, spent so sparingly on his boarding house?

For most of the first year, Goriot often dined elsewhere, then little by little he began to dine outside the boarding house only twice a month. Monsieur Goriot's absences successfully coincided with Madame Vauquer's benefits, and when the tenant began to dine at home more and more often, such regularity could not but cause displeasure to the hostess.

These changes were attributed not only to Goriot's financial impoverishment, but also to his desire to annoy his mistress. The most disgusting habit of dwarf minds is to attribute their spiritual misery to others. Unfortunately, towards the end of the second year, Goriot justified all the gossip about himself by asking Madame Vauquer to move him to the third floor and reduce his boarding fee to nine hundred francs. He had to economize so strictly that he stopped heating in winter.” ( 1, p. 20 )

At the time he settled in the boarding house Goriot was a wealthy man of sixty years old. Then he was respectfully called Mister Goriot.
“He usually dressed in a cornflower-blue tailcoat, changing his pique white vest every day, under which his pear-shaped belly swayed, moving a massive gold chain with key rings. The snuffbox, also gold, had a medallion embedded in it, where someone's hair was kept, and this gave Goriot the appearance of a man guilty of love affairs.

When the hostess called him “an old red tape,” the cheerful grin of a tradesman, flattered in his passion, flashed on his lips. His " cabinets"were full of silverware." ( 1, p. 16 )

A.I. Gebrsman, author of a biography book Balzac, notes that “before the revolution of 1789, “Père Goriot” was a simple worker - a vermicelli maker, dexterous, thrifty and so enterprising that in 1789 he bought his owner’s business", accidentally killed during the first street battles, when famine began in Paris and prices for flour products were incredibly high, " Citizen Goriot“He made a significant fortune from the sale of pasta, which he very skillfully put into commercial circulation.” ( 2, p. 61 )

People have spoken out about why Goriot's condition is constantly getting worse different versions. “Everyone and everyone was speculating about the reasons for this fall. It's a difficult matter. As the false countess said, Father Goriot was secretive, in his own mind.

Père Goriot turned out to be a man who ran to the stock exchange and there, in the energetic expression of financial language, pinched his rent after he went broke in a big game - that was Vautrin's version... At one time they made him a spy for the secret police - but According to Vautrin, Goriot was not cunning enough to achieve this.

Besides, Father Goriot was also a miser, who lent under high interest rates for a short period of time, and by a lottery player who played on " through" number. He turned into some very mysterious product of dishonor, weakness, and vice. However, no matter how vile his vices or behavior, hostility towards him did not reach the point of expelling him: he paid for the boarding house. Moreover, there was also benefit from him: everyone, ridiculing or bullying him, poured out their good or bad mood.” ( 1, p. 20 – 21)

All the guests of the boarding house were thinking about why Father Goriot was getting poorer. Ms. Vauquer noted that “ this “well-preserved and fresh, like an apple, man, still capable of delivering a lot of pleasant things to a woman"was simply a libertine with strange inclinations." ( 1. p. 21 )

“With changes in Gorio’s property status, the attitude of those around him also changes. The widow Voke, crushed by the failure of her attempts and the death of her marriage plans, becomes the main persecutor of the old man. She spreads vile rumors about his debauchery and vices, she indulges the evil jokes of her parasites.” (6, p. 128)

Madame Vauquer and fat Sylvia eavesdropped on Goriot's conversations with her guests. Curiosity forced Sylvia to trace the path of the old man with the beautiful girl. " “Madame,” she said when she returned, “Mr. Goriot must be damn rich if he spares nothing for his beauties.” Would you believe it, on the corner of Estrapada stood a luxurious carriage!» ( 1, p. 21 )

None of the visitors believed Goriot when he said that his daughter was coming to him. " “This is my daughter,” Goriot answered with pride, which the parasites considered simply the complacency of an old man who observed external decency». ( 1, p. 21 )

Not a single version of why Goriot was becoming poor was correct. After the death of his wife, Father Goriot transferred all his love to his daughters. I.N. Muravyova notes that “his ardent paternal feeling, going beyond measure, developing one-sidedly and ugly, turns into a kind of vice, into a passion destructive for the unfortunate father.

Even when the daughters were small children, with the death of their mother, Goriot's feeling " crossed reasonable boundaries" He fulfilled all their whims, pampered his favorites immensely, accustoming them to luxury, thus developing in them vanity and a passion for pleasure.” ( 6, p. 129 )

“The upbringing of both daughters, of course, was ridiculous. Having more than sixty thousand francs of income per year, Goriot did not spend even thousand two hundred on himself personally, but he considered it a pleasure to fulfill all his daughter’s whims: the best teachers were charged with instilling in his daughters all the talents that a good upbringing required; They had a companion, and, fortunately for them, a woman with intelligence and taste; they rode horses, had rides, - in short, they lived as the mistresses of an old rich nobleman would have lived before: whatever they wanted, even very expensive ones, the father was in a hurry to fulfill their desire and for his generosity asked only affection as a reward.

Equating his daughters to angels, the poor fellow thereby elevated them above himself: he even loved the evil that he suffered from them.” ( 1, p. 64 – 65 )

« Goriot transferred all his feelings to his daughters, Delphine and Anastasi, and when they got married, he gave them almost his entire fortune as a dowry: Anastasi became Countess de Resto; Delphine, who loved money, married the banker Nucingen, who bought himself an aristocratic title " baron». ( 2, p. 61 )

Goriot counted on the reciprocal love of his daughters. He divided his fortune among his daughters, while he continued to work. However, gradually Goriot realized that his daughters and their husbands began to feel embarrassed to welcome him openly into their home.

“But soon his sons-in-law and daughters found it shameful for themselves that he was still conducting trade - and this was his whole life. Goriot resisted their insistence for five years; in the end he gave in and quit trading, providing himself with capital from the sale of his business and from the income of a few recent years; according to the calculations of Madame Vauquer, with whom he settled, this capital should have brought from eight to ten thousand livres a year. Goriot hid in the Vauquer boarding house out of despair when he saw that his daughters, at the request of their husbands, refused not only to take him in, but even to accept him openly.” ( 1, p. 65 )

« In the life of old Goriot, a resident of the fourth floor, a cruel tragedy lurks: having lost his property for the sake of his daughters, who shine in the world, he doomed himself to a miserable existence in the Vauquer boarding house and found himself abandoned, lonely, helpless». ( 6, p. 117 )

Even the mention of daughters is perceived as joy. " -So have you seen my daughter? – asked Goriot in a soulful voice. The old man brought the student out of his thoughts; Eugene took him by the hand and, looking at him with some kind of tenderness, replied: “You are a good, worthy person.” We'll talk about your daughters after». ( 1. p. 60 )

« The old man resembled a very young lover, happy in the fact that he had come up with a clever way to enter the life of his beloved without even arousing her suspicions». ( 1. p. 82 )

« Father Goriot's unconscious feeling could be compared with the highest sensitivity of a dog, and he caught the enthusiastic youthful sympathy and warm attitude towards him that arose in the student». ( 1, p. 83 )

“To please his daughters, who became high society ladies, he abandoned his business: he closed the flour shop. When his daughters made him understand that he was unnecessary in their living rooms, that he shocked them with his plebeian appearance, old Goriot almost stopped visiting their houses and visited them secretly from the back door, like a beggar. Gradually, he gives them all his last savings - both of them always need money for clothes, for the debts of their lovers, and their husbands have taken possession of their fortune.” ( 6, p. 129)

“Not immediately does the father begin to understand that he built his faith in the happiness of his daughters, in their attachment to him, on shifting sand, which inevitably begins to sink under his feet. The daughters are shocked by their father's low origins and his unpresentable enterprise; they insist on stopping his business.

Having transferred all the money to them, and leaving only the rent for himself, Father Goriot settles in Madame Vauquer’s third-rate boarding house in order to give the saved money again to the children, since he subconsciously understands that only gifts and payment of their debts cause attacks of love.

He agrees to everything, as long as the illusion does not collapse. He is not accepted in expensive mansions - he does not protest, but comes secretly from the back door. A man of patriarchal views, he keeps his daughters' lovers. Finally, one of them achieves the sale and rent, which was left to the father, and then the daughters leave him to die alone.

Father Goriot- just a father, but a father, in his incredible passion for his daughters, rising to the greatness of the suffering of Shakespeare's Lear. Balzac draws his hero using romantic symbolism.

The very greatness of Goriot is essentially romantic, since it is based on a feeling, albeit unreasonable and primitive, but sincere and tragic. At the same time, against the backdrop of everything that is happening, it turns out to be more of a comedy, due to the fact that neither the children nor the people around Gorio understand it, it confuses with its excessive passion, and irritates with its discrepancy with the generally accepted rules of this world.

In his dying monologue Goriot sees those truths, to which in a peaceful course Buden would never have grown. He understands that this society has destroyed the original human laws of morality. Children must not be allowed to tortured like executioners"of their fathers, says Goriot. And he demands that the police drag the daughters to their dying father, because this is a tragedy not only of an individual, but of a society that is doomed to death if natural laws are violated.” ( 5, p. 225 )

Goriot deceives himself and tries to deceive others about their daughters’ relationship with him.

“- My dear, how could you think that Madame de Resto angry at you for mentioning my name? Both daughters love me very much. As a father I am happy. But my two sons-in-law treated me badly. I did not want the creatures dear to me to suffer because of my disagreements with their husbands, and preferred to visit my daughters on the sly.

This mystery gives me a lot of joys that other fathers, those who can see their daughters at any time, cannot understand. But I can't do this. You understand? Therefore, when the weather is good, I go to the Champs-Elysees, asking the maids in advance if my daughters are going out.

And so I wait for them at the place where they should pass, and when their carriages reach me, my heart beats faster; I admire my daughters’ toilet; passing by, they greet me with their smile, and then it seems to me that all nature is golden, as if bathed in the rays of some clear, clear sun.

I remain waiting - they must go back. And I see them again! The air is good for them - they turn pink. Around me I hear conversations: “ What a beautiful girl!“And my soul rejoices. Aren't they my blood? I love the horses that carry them. I would like to be that little dog that my daughters hold on their laps. I live for their pleasures. Everyone loves in their own way. Who does my love bother? Why do people pester me?

I'm happy in my own way. What is criminal if I go in the evening to look at my daughters when they leave the house, going to a ball somewhere. How sad I get when I’m late and they tell me: “ Madame left».

Once I didn’t see Nazi for two whole days, and then I waited from the evening until three o’clock in the morning to see her. I almost died from joy! I ask you, if there is any mention of me anywhere, just say how kind my daughters are. They are ready to shower me with all sorts of gifts, but I don’t allow this and tell them: “ Save your money for yourself! What's in my gifts? I do not need anything" Yes indeed. What am I? “A miserable corpse, but my soul is always and everywhere with my daughters.” ( 1, p. 83 )

Even on his deathbed, Father Goriot is deceived, mistaking Rastignac and Bianchon for his daughters. “Eugene took from the fireplace a chain woven from ashen hair, probably from the hair of Madame Goriot. On one side he read: Anastasi, another - Delphine. The emblem of his heart, always resting on his heart. Inside were curls, judging by the thickness of the hair, cut off in early childhood from both daughters.

As soon as the medallion touched his chest, the old man responded with a long sigh, expressing satisfaction, terrible for those who were there. In the sigh of the dying man one could hear the last echo of his tenderness, which seemed to go somewhere inside, to a center unknown to us - the source and refuge of human affections.

Painful joy flashed across the face, cramped. Both students were shocked by this terrible flash of great feeling that outlived thought, and could not restrain themselves: their warm tears fell on the dying old man, who responded with a loud cry of joy.

- Nazi! Fifina! - he said.

- There is still life in it , said Bianchon.

- What does he need her for? – Sylvia noted.

- To suffer , Rastignac replied.

Signaling to a friend to help him, Bianchon he knelt on the other side of the bed and put his hands under the patient’s back. Sylvia waited for him to be picked up and stood ready to pull off the sheets and put others in their place.

Goriot, probably deceived by the tears of the young people, with the last of his strength he stretched out his hands and, feeling the heads of the students on both sides of the bed, impulsively grabbed their hair; I heard barely audibly: “ Ah, my angels!“His soul babbled these two words and flew away with them.” ( 1, p. 190 – 191 )

Analyzing the novel, N. I. Muravyova notes that “the impression of Goriot’s suffering is weakened by its insignificance. He is too small to be a truly tragic figure, he does not understand at all what is happening to him, he acts semi-mechanically, being blinded by his passion for his daughters, and only before his very end does he accidentally comprehend the truth.” ( 7, p. 300 )

In addition to Goriot's selfless love for Delphine and Anastasi, in the work Balzac shows a completely opposite attitude of father towards his daughter. This is the story of the banker Taillefer and his daughter. Taillefer does not want to recognize Victorine as his daughter.

“Victorina’s father found some reason not to recognize her as his daughter, refused to take her in and did not give her more than six hundred francs a year, and he turned all his property into such valuables that he could transfer it entirely to his son. When Victorina’s mother, having arrived before her death to visit her distant relative, the widow Couture, died of grief, Madame Couture began to take care of the orphan as if she were her own child.” ( 1, p. 13 )

It is clear that the banker treats his son with love and does not recognize his daughter at all. He does not have enough fatherly love to love both his children equally. It should be noted that Victorina’s brother also does not have related feelings for his sister. " Her brother, the only possible intermediary between her and her father, for all four years never came to see her and did not help her in any way.». ( 1, p. 13 )

So, the novel presents different sides in the attitude of the older generation towards their children .

IN " Father Goriot“The story of a father’s son and his ungrateful daughters is contrasted with the story of a cruel father and an unfortunate daughter rejected and deprived by him. Herbtman notes that " By doubling the plot situation, Balzac, like Shakespeare, seeks to emphasize the typicality of what is happening - to show how the power of money destroys the family: there the daughters rob, reject and destroy the father; here the father deprives the daughter, who loves him dearly, of the right to inherit, dooms her to a miserable existence among strangers». ( 2, p. 65 – 66 )

In this contrast we see the disintegration of family and kinship ties, the dying of parental love.

During research work 25 respondents answered the question: “ Do you think that you can make any sacrifices for the sake of children?».

The form of the answer implied either an affirmation or a denial. ( Appendix 2).

Thus, 22 people agree with the main character of the novel. They, like Father Goriot, are ready to do a lot for the sake of their children. Based on this, it is necessary to consider the attitude of children towards their parents.

Honoré de Balzac's novel "Père Goriot" was written in 1832, published in 1834-1835 and subsequently included in a cycle of essays called "The Human Comedy" (1815-1848). The central theme of the work was sincere paternal love, which did not find a place for itself in the depraved Parisian society.

The artistic problems of the novel include the debunking of the universal myth that one can achieve fame and wealth through honest work. Throughout the entire narrative, one of the main characters of the work, a young student, Eugene de Rastignac, reflects on this. The life story of Father Goriot and his two daughters, Countess Anastasi de Resto and the “banker” Delphine de Nucingen, passes before the reader’s eyes in inextricable connection with the “secular education” of the young ambitious man.

Before Eugene de Rastignac appeared at the Maison Vauquet boarding house, no one took Papa Goriot seriously. He was considered an old reveler and a sensualist who squandered his fortune on young and noble mistresses. Eugene's penetration into the high society of Parisian society revealed an ugly truth: the exquisitely dressed beauties turned out to be the daughters of a former noodle maker who made a fortune for himself during the French bourgeois revolution. For each of them, Father Goriot gave a dowry of 500-600 thousand francs, but as soon as the girls turned into noble Parisians, they turned away from their poorly educated and no longer so rich father.

The life story of Father Goriot in the novel is actually a funeral epitaph for the slowly agonizing hero. Formally, the vermicelli maker dies only at the end of the work, when he is left penniless and receives a blow, realizing that he can no longer help his daughters. In fact, Goriot stops living as soon as he gives his heart and money to his children. The power of fatherly love is such that even on the verge of death, Father Goriot, recognizing the cruel truth of life, nevertheless forgives his daughters and hopes only that he will go to heaven, from where he will be allowed to appear on earth and monitor the lives of the creatures he adores.

A father thrown out of his daughters' lives, according to Viscountess de Beausian and her friend Countess de Lange, is an ordinary tragedy in the life of high-society Parisian society, built on the principles of female depravity, male vanity and an endless craving for wealth. According to Eugene’s cousin, only a cold-blooded person who looks at men and women “like post horses” can take their place in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Viscountess de Beausian warns the student against sincerity: in a world where everything is built on money and titles, one should never show real feelings and especially true love. A person in Parisian society can be either an executioner or a victim, and there is no third option.

However, one of the guests of the “House of Vauquer” - the escaped convict Jacques Collin, hiding under the name of Mr. Vautrin, is trying to take a position outside the standard social positions of “stupid obedience” and “rebellion”. He considers himself a person of a “higher order,” and in Eugene he sees a kindred spirit. Vautrin's criticism of contemporary society goes beyond the bounds of high society and extends to all of humanity. According to the escaped convict, “a person is the same everywhere, at the top, in the middle, at the bottom.” Vautrin's subsequent betrayal of Mademoiselle Michano once again confirms this point of view. An old maid who has lived for a long time in relative prosperity is no less greedy for money than Delphine de Nucingen, deprived of it by her husband. At the same time, in the character of Mishano, in addition to obvious self-interest, a certain female meanness also appears, a desire to take revenge on the man who called her “Cemetery Venus.” It seems that Widow Vauquer also behaves in relation to Father Goriot: rejected by him even during a period of relative material well-being, she spreads rumors about the hero and tries in every possible way to humiliate him in front of other guests.

Eugene de Rastignac, a pure young man unspoiled by the light, looking at the abomination happening around him, at the end of the novel, decides to challenge Parisian society. The student understands that both Viscountess de Beausian and Vautrin were right: honesty in life can only achieve a poor, dull funeral. In high society, people only need each other when they can give something in return: money, connections, titles and a small amount of true love. The latter is the most precious currency for noble Parisian women who have independently deprived themselves of sincere affection through a marriage of convenience.

Anastasi de Resto, Delphine de Nucingen, Viscountess de Beausian, Countess de Lange - all high society ladies have an affair on the side. They love truly, with all the power of passion that Parisian women are capable of, but this love does not bring them happiness: the lover and father of most of Anastasi’s children, Count Maxime de Tray, pulls money from his lady love to pay off gambling debts; The Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto is faithful to the Viscountess de Beausian until a favorable match comes along for him to marry; Countess de Lange is completely abandoned by her lover, never appearing on the proscenium of the work; The love affair between Delphine and Eugene is built on the principle of mutually beneficial exchange: Eugene provides Delphine with a reception in high society, Delphine becomes the mistress that is so necessary for any socialite.

The novel begins with a description of Madame Vauquer's boarding house, where one of the main characters of the work, Jean-Joachin Goriot, lives. Once Goriot was a simple noodle maker; during the revolution, thanks to his intelligence, cunning and ingenuity, he was able to get rich and make a certain fortune. Yet the most important things in his life to him were his daughters, Delphine and Anastasi. After the death of his wife, Goriot lived only with his daughters, indulging their every whim and doing everything for their happiness. When his daughters grew up, he brought them out into the world and married them off, hoping only to always be a welcome guest at their homes. But that did not happen. The kids didn't like the fact that Goriot was an ordinary vermicelli maker, and they didn't want to see him in their homes. The daughters, spoiled by their father in childhood, came to him only when they needed money.

Thus, having initially settled on the second floor of the boarding house "House of Vauquer", Goriot, spending more and more money on his daughters, after a while found himself on the fourth floor, having lost not only the convenience of living, but also the respect of the boarders, who were sure that Goriot was spending all the money is for mistresses. While Goriot gave everything to his daughters, he received nothing in return. I’m not sure whether he himself is to blame for raising his daughters this way or whether other factors influenced their lack of proper love for their father, but Goriot definitely did not deserve such a similar fate. Such a kind, honest and generous person should be loved by everyone, not despised.

Another main character The novel is Eugene de Rastignac, a student who came from Angoulême to study law. He was the hope of his large, poor family. Realizing that he will not be able to achieve anything if he does not get into high society, he tries to go out into the world, simultaneously learning all its dirty secrets. Here we see the story of Anastasi de Resto, who spends all her money on her lover Maxime de Tray, who loves to play cards, or the family drama of Victoria Taillefer, whose father does not want to leave her an inheritance. And then the escaped convict Vautrin appears, who invites Rastignac to kill Victoria’s brother and marry her, while getting rich. It's amazing that Eugene, immersing himself in these events, manages to keep his conscience clear. And when Goriot dies from his hopeless condition (he no longer has any money left to help his daughters), it is Eugene de Rastignac with his friend Horace Bianchon, a medical student, who spends his last hours with Goriot and buries him, when his daughters do not even come to say goodbye to his father, but only carriages with family coats of arms are sent to the funeral.

“Père Goriot” is a very sad work that talks about how money influences a person, both in the family and in public life.

In 1834, Balzac conceived the idea of creating a multi-volume work - a “picture of morals” of his time, a huge work, which he later entitled “The Human Comedy”. According to Balzac, the “Human Comedy” should have been artistic history and the artistic philosophy of France as it developed after the revolution.
Balzac worked on this work throughout his entire subsequent life; he included most of the already written works in it, and revised them specifically for this purpose. This is a huge literary

He planned the publication as follows:
The first part - “Sketches of Morals” - six sections: “Scenes from private life”, “Scenes from provincial life”, “Scenes from the life of Paris”, “Scenes from political life” “Scenes from military life”, “Scenes from village life”
The second part is “Philosophical Research”. 27 works were conceived, of which 22 were realized: “Shagreen Skin”, “Unknown Masterpiece”, “In Search of the Absolute”.
The third part is “Analytical Research” (5 were conceived - one work was carried out: “Physiology of Marriage”).
Balzac reveals his plan this way: “The Study of Morals” gives the entire social reality, without omitting a single situation in human life, not a single type, not a single male or feminine character, not a single profession, not a single form of life, not a single social group, not a single French region, no childhood, no old age, no adulthood, no politics, no law, no military life. The basis is history human heart, history of social relations. Not made-up facts, but what happens everywhere.”
The novel “Père Goriot” marks a new stage in Balzac’s creative development, as did the entire year of 1835. In it, behind the external façade of everyday life, the greatest tragedies of human life are hidden. “Père Goriot” is not the story of the life of one character - it is a cross-section of the life of society at a certain period of its development. The movement of the novel through the sections of the “Human Comedy” is interesting: in 1843 it was included in “Scenes of Parisian Life”; the author’s notes indicate that he decided to place this novel in “Scenes of Private Life”. The path is the same as that of “Gobsek”: scenes of private life absorb a larger number of facts and phenomena; they characterize society as a whole. And private life is the life of families. “The Human Comedy,” as Balzac wrote, depicts the world through the prism of the family.
Rastignac reveals himself in letters to his sisters and aunt, Victorine Taillefer's fate is built on relationships with her father and brother, Goriot's fate is, in fact, the fate of his two dissolute daughters. True feeling is missing. Families are connected only by monetary relations. Even the provincial Rastignac, who differs from the Parisian public, begs for money to get into high society. The novel was created when the idea of the “Human Comedy” had already taken shape in the author’s mind. Balzac has no other work that combines such big number characters and would have represented almost all layers of contemporary society. The only exception can be “Gobsek”. The events take place mainly in the boarding house of Madame Vauquer, this is a Parisian philistine, where Rastignac, a provincial nobleman, as well as the future doctor Bianchon, appears next to Michono and Poiret, creative person.
With the help of Rastignac, the reader enters the aristocratic salons - de Beauseant and de Resto, through Delphine - we see the environment of Nunsingen - one of the richest bankers in the “Human Comedy”. This is how a group of characters enters the novel, who actually determined the politics of France in the 1820s and 30s. However, for Balzac it is not so important to show all levels of the social hierarchy as to demonstrate their similarity in the perception of life values and beliefs. The heterogeneous environment here turns into a monolith, where there is nothing higher than the desire to get rich. At the center of the story is the Voke guesthouse. It is a kind of concentration, perhaps even a symbol of the social and moral laws inherent in Balzac's contemporary France.
It is no coincidence that Rastignac brings together the judgment on the laws of society of Viscountess Beaucean and Vtorain. The convict, speaking about people, understands the world as spiders in a jar, but the Viscountess compares people to horses that can be driven and changed at every post station. The norms of life in all circles of society are essentially dirty, but the Vauquer house demonstrates them more openly. Things again help Balzac to make generalizations and connect social groups at the level of moral laws. With their help, portraits are created, for example, the name of the Voke boarding house indicates the level of culture of the hostess and boarders, or, rather, their indifference to what surrounds them. “Family boarding house for persons of both sexes and so on.” A detailed description of the boarding house where the heroes live, which are a generalization of the environment itself, demonstrates the wretchedness of the existence of heroes who are brought up depending on this environment. The character's appearance, his manner of behavior and even dressing (Mrs. Vauquer's skirt) are inextricably linked with what surrounds them. The narration is told from a third person, but Balzac’s task is not to present readers with a ready-made morality, but to show how life itself flows, how people perceive their place in life, their opportunities, and this is what the author brings to the concept. novel of the new century. The abundance of reasoning of the characters, as well as the mass of author's descriptions, relieves the author of the need for didacticism, allowing the reader himself to draw conclusions about the morals prevailing in Balzac's contemporary society of 19th century France.

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