old man goriot

Chapter 1 Preface: Human Ethics and Morality in the Writings of Balzac
In Paris in the winter of 1819, in a dilapidated apartment with meals, all kinds of men and women were sitting around.Among them are Rastignac, a college student from other provinces, old man Goriot, a retired businessman, and Vautrin, a mysterious figure.During meal time, the dining room is very lively, because everyone can make fun of old man Gao together.The college student has a distant cousin in Paris, who is the Viscountess Bossian in high society.He flattered his cousin and used this relationship to get in and out of Paris' high society.This is the main character in the novel "Le Père Goriot" (Le Père Goriot).

8 The author of the novel, Balzac (Honoré de Balzac, 1799-1850), is a master of French literature. 20 years (1829-1849) as one day, 1842 hours of overload work every day, enabled him to write a series of novels.Inspired by Dante's La Divine Comédie ("Divine Comedy", or translated "God's Comedy"), he has collectively called all his novels La Comédie humaine ("Humaine Comedy") since 2000; The joys and sorrows are meaningfully compared to the scenes of live dramas performed on the stage.A set of voluminous and magnificent "Human Comedy", including nearly a hundred novels and more than 19 characters, profoundly and extensively reproduced the social life of the entire French in the first half of the 1834th century.This series of novels has written all kinds of life in French society at that time, and its important representative work is this "Old Man Goriot".The novel "Old Man Goriot" began to be serialized in periodicals at the end of [-], and was first published as a single book in the following year.The novel fully embodies the basic theme of "Human Comedy" and fully represents Balzac's unique artistic style.

This work has multiple scenes, multiple layers, multiple plots, and multiple stories;The college student Rastignac is ambitious and dreams of getting ahead as soon as possible. He is fascinated by the observation and speculation of Parisian society. With the deepening of his observation, the tragedy of old man Goriot's life gradually surfaced.

In his early years, old man Gao was an upstart who started selling food. He devoted all his love for his dead wife to his daughters, spoiling them in every possible way, and he was determined to let them live a life of luxury.At the beginning, he used a huge sum of money as a dowry, so that his eldest daughter married the Earl of Restor, and his youngest daughter married the banker Nucingen.He thought that if his daughter stepped into the upper class, he could enjoy the blessings along with him.Unexpectedly, not long after, the two families thought he was not decent enough and kicked him out one after another.Old man Gao had no choice but to see his daughter in private.In order to make his daughter happy, he would rather give everything, sell the real estate shop, distribute the money to his two daughters, and live in the apartment himself.The two daughters are vain and wealthy, and they squeezed the little money left by their father for a long time with peace of mind.The willing, masochistic father, who went out of business and retired, wanted to bear all the pain for them.In order to satisfy their various extravagant desires, he kept lowering his living standards and selling off the things around him until he ran out of money.The impoverished and ill old man Gao still blessed his two daughters when he was dying, but none of the daughters came to the bedside to bring tea and water, and none of the daughters paid for the burial after death.

Old man Gao's tragedy in his later years is that he firmly believes that his daughter's unfilial piety must have some unavoidable reasons.If there is a mistake, it is the son-in-law's fault, the lover's fault, and the father's own fault.Anyway, it's someone else's fault. My daughter is an angel, so she can't be wrong!And his gnawing old daughter, all she wants is to beat him to the bone and suck the marrow.

The novel also successfully portrays the images of the young careerist Rastignac, the declining lady Bossian and the cynical Vautrin.Rastignac plays an important role in the novel. He is not only a character in the book, but also a social observer and event witness.It can be said that he is the shadow of the author himself.He originally wanted to gain fame by studying hard, but he was quickly corrupted by Parisian society, and he developed the desire to take shortcuts and climb up.Madame Baussian and the fugitive Vautrin are respectively the instigators of Rastignac's character formation.The two people's tactics are exactly the same: if you want to succeed, you have to do whatever it takes, through lovers, through marriage, and through murder.Rastignac witnessed a series of strange things happening around him: old man Goriot, a rich man in the past, was exploited into poverty by his two daughters; Mrs. Bossian, the queen of social circles, was forced to withdraw from high society because she was abandoned by her lover because of lack of money; Vautrin, who was clever and clever, was also betrayed by his neighbors who were greedy for rewards and returned to prison.These three events taught Rastignac a profound life lesson.The work mainly describes the process of forming the character of Rastignac careerists.

If there is a non-human protagonist in "Old Man Goriot", it is money.Money is at stake, profit is neglected, and humanity is wiped out. No matter the ordinary people or the upper class, they can give up any principles and morals.Balzac described scenes of tragedies surrounding money, exposed the "fatherly love", "family affection" and human relations based on money, and strongly criticized the materialistic and morally degraded society; he strongly criticized the distortion of money. Human nature, the evils that corrupt society, criticize the naked money relationship between people.

The novel is well-conceived, with a clear context and obvious dramatic techniques.The author first highlights the environment and characters, then brews events, spreads out one by one, bursts out suddenly, and finally ends.Rastignac's thread of plot connects all the scenes, sequences them, and gives them specific meaning.The author also uses the method of contrast and contrast, for example, old man Goriot's infatuation and his daughter's unfeeling;The portrayal of typical characters is the biggest feature of Balzac. Whether it is the description of appearance or psychological portrayal, even a detail makes the characters as vivid as possible.The fully personalized language of the characters is also a major feature of the work. The language in the aristocratic salon is completely different from that of ordinary people.

Balzac deliberately stated directly in the novel that the things in the book are all true, "so real that everyone can find some of them in himself or in his own heart." The meaning of this work goes beyond Times, transcending borders, constantly hitting the hearts of the world.A good book is an inexhaustible spiritual food for life, a cultural source for self-improvement, and a good teacher and helpful friend for self-cultivation.The novel also contains many other elements, which need to be excavated and realized by the readers.

Qian Zhian

April 2007

(End of this chapter)