BALZAC’S ART OF CHARACTERISATION IN

“PERE GORIOT”
As Balzac wrote about his characters: "I have attempted everywhere to give life: to the type, by
bringing out his individuality, and to the individual, by rendering him as a type".

What is characterization?
Characterization as a literary tool was coined in the mid-15th century by Aristotle in his Poetics.
It is a literary device that is used step-by-step in literature to highlight and explain the details
about a character in a story. It is in the initial stage in which the writer introduces the character
with noticeable emergence. After introducing the character, the writer often talks about his
behavior; then, as the story progresses, the thought-processes of the character.
The next stage involves the character expressing his opinions and ideas, and getting into
conversations with the rest of the characters. The final part shows how others in the story
respond to the character’s personality.

Types of Characterization

An author can use two approaches to deliver information about a character and build an image of
it. These two types of characterization include:

1. Direct or explicit characterization

This kind of characterization takes a direct approach towards building the character. It uses
another character, narrator, or the protagonist himself to tell the readers or audience about
the subject.

2. Indirect or implicit characterization

This is a more subtle way of introducing the character to the audience. The audience has to
deduce for themselves the characteristics of the character by observing his/her thought process,
behavior, speech, way of talking, appearance, and manner of communication with other
characters, as well as by discerning the response of other characters.

BALZAC’S ART OF CHARACTERISATION:

The idea was to create a universe of characters in which all human "types" were represented; to
document the reality of everyday life and, above all, to study Man in his habitat. For Balzac
bases his La Comedie Humaine on the premise that there exist, and have always existed, "social
species" much in the same way as there are "zoological species" writes Alan English in The Irish
Times.

For instance, the description of Madame Vauquer, mistress of the somewhat greasy premises,
demonstrates with panache how the person and the place fit together, how the person has been
produced by her environment, and in turn how she creates the particular atmosphere of the place.
“Her whole person, infact, explains the house, as the house implies the person”. This is an
example of Balzac’s belief in what you might call the Bronx Zoo principle: the animals must all
be seen in their habitats. He liked to compare his work to that of a zoologist.

This paper attempts to elucidate mainly on two aspects:

1. Balzac’s recurring character technique

2. Potrayal of recurring characters in Pere Goriot

Genesis of the recurring technique:

Madame Surville, places her brother’s announcement of his discovery in the year 1833, when
Balzac rushed from his quarters and told her “Salute me, for am fairly on the road to being a
genius”. What had occurred to him was the idea of reappearing characters. He did not mean by
this merely the continuation of a given hero's adventures, but a form of fictional inter-connection
that was as much spatial as sequential.

There are two thousand four hundred and seventy two imaginary characters in the Comedie
Humanie, four hundred and sixty of them appearing in more than one novel. Some characters
reappear frequently: Rastignac comes in fifteen stories; his friend Bianchon, the doctor in Goriot,
is in attendance—often of course for professional reasons—in twenty-five.

It was in Le Pere Goriot that Balzac first developed his technique systematically, so that the
characters in it act in accordance with their earlier and later careers as presented elsewhere in the
Comedie Humaine. Some Pere Goriot characters now began to be inserted into earlier works,
beginning a process of tinkering which involved Balzac in the constant revision of his text during
successive editions. Other Goriot characters had already appeared.

There were two ways in which Balzac increased the number of reappearing characters. The first
was by bringing in a character created in an earlier book again upon the scene in a new one; the
second was by adding in a new addition of an old work a name which originally had been absent.
The first was called the natural and organic way while the second was known as artificial and
arbitrary.

Balzac experimented with this method throughout the thirty years he worked on La Comédie
humaine. The author was chiefly concerned with the creative role of the device in the making of
the Comedie Humaine: the part it plays in producing an illusion of a society, actually existing in
time, whose members know one another. It enabled a depth of characterization that went beyond
simple narration or dialogue. "When the characters reappear", notes the critic Samuel Rogers,
"they do not step out of nowhere; they emerge from the privacy of their own lives which, for an
interval, we have not been allowed to see.

PORTRAYAL OF CHARACTERS IN PERE GORIOT:

The characters are realistically examined. We are first given a glimpse of them in the way one
would see them at a first meeting, and then, gradually, we penetrate bit by bit into their
personality, as would happen in real life. And their physical traits and reactions to environment
give us an insight into their moral behavior.

Balzac shows us here a society in miniature patterned after the Parisian one; indeed, as in Paris,
we see the guests at the boardinghouse lodged and treated according to their financial means and
their social position (here the rooms each one occupies) fluctuating as their fortunes fluctuate.

Madame Vauquer:
A fifty-four year old widow formerly known as Mademoiselle de Conflans. She is the owner of
Maison Vauquer.
Vauquer is shown to be a woman with a malicious mind, impressed by title, money, and the
power they command. "It is one of the most detestable habits of a Lilliputian mind to credit other
people with its own malignant pettiness," says Balzac of Mme. Vauquer. She is an egotistical
hypocrite who will close her eyes on sin if the sinner is rich, but who will crucify him when he
becomes poor in the name of decency. She is hypnotized by Vautrin because of his strength,
joviality, and gallantry. She was deserted by her various boarders shortly after the arrest of
Jacques Collin.

Sylvie:
The "buxom cook" at the Maison Vauquer, who lived in the attic.
Christophe:
“The man-of-all-work” also stayed in the attic. He alone was with Rastignac at the funeral of
Goriot, accompanying the body as far as Pere-Lachaise in the carriage.

Poiret:
The elder one. Going to Paris with a younger brother, they became clerks in the Department of
Finance; he left the department, in 1816, with a retiring pension. [The Government Clerks.]
Afflicted with cretinism he remained a bachelor because of the horror inspired by the memory of
his mother's immoral life; he would repeat, with slight variation, the words of those with whom
he was conversing. Poiret established himself at Madame Vauquer's private boarding-house; he
occupied a room on the second floor at the widow's house, became intimate with Christine-
Michelle Michonneau and married her, when Horace Bianchon demanded the exclusion of this
young woman from the house for denouncing Jacques Collin (1819). Poiret often afterwards met
M. Clapart, an old comrade whom he had found again on the rue de la Cerisaie; had apartments
on the rue des Poules and lost his health. He died during the reign of Louis Philippe.
He also appears in The Middle Classes, A Start in Life, and Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.

Mlle. Michonneau:
A stingy, meek old maid, ready to do anything for money.
Pretending to have been persecuted by the heirs of a rich old man for whom she had cared,
Christine-Michelle Michonneau went to board with Madame Vauquer, on the third floor of the
Maison Vauquer, made Poiret her squire; made a deal with Bibi-Lupin—Gondureau—to betray
Jacques Collin(Vautrin), one of Madame Vauquer's guests. Mademoiselle Michonneau was
forced to leave the house at the formal demand of Bianchon. Accompanied by Poiret, whom she
afterwards married, she moved to the rue des Poules and rented furnished rooms. Being
summoned before the examining magistrate Camusot, she recognized Jacques Collin in the
pseudo Abbe Carlos Herrera. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] Ten years later, Madame Poiret,
now a widow, was living on a corner of the rue des Postes. [The Middle Classes.]

Madame Couture:
A ray of sunshine in this drab boardinghouse. The widow of an army commissary general of the
French Republic, who has appointed herself guardian and chaperone of Victorine Taillefer. She
occupies the most expensive room on the first floor.

Victorine Taillefer:
One of the touching feminine characters depicted by Balzac. Victorine is a pale, resigned,
sympathetic young person who, unfortunately, “lacks the two things that create women a second
time: pretty dresses and love letters."
She is the sister of Michel Frederic, and daughter of Jean-Frederic Taillefer by his first wife; a
distant cousin of Madame Couture; her mother having died in 1819, she was wrongfully passed
in her father's opinion for "the child of adulterous connections"; was turned away from her
father's house, and sought protection with her kinswoman, Madame Couture, in Madame
Vauquer's boarding-house; there she fell in love with Eugene de Rastignac; by the death of her
brother she became heir to all the property of her father, whose death-bed she comforted in every
way possible. Victorine Taillefer probably remained single. [The Red Inn.]

Bianchon:
A medical student, a friend of Eugène de Rastignac who is with Eugène in attendance at Goriot's
agony and funeral. He appears in 25 other books: The Atheist's Mass, Cesar Birotteau, The
Commission in Lunacy, Lost Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, A Bachelor's
Establishment, The Secrets of a Princess, The Government Clerks, Pierrette, A Study of Woman,
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Honorine, The Seamy Side of History, The Magic Skin, A
Second Home, A Prince of Bohemia, Letters of Two Brides, The Muse of the Department, The
Imaginary Mistress, The Middle Classes, Cousin Betty, and The Country Parson. Horace
Bianchon was a brilliant and inspiring conversationalist. He gave to society the adventures
known by the following titles: A Study of Woman; Another Study of Woman; La Grande
Breteche.

Vautrin:
Vautrin's character is described in a suspenseful, masterly way. We feel a dichotomy in his
personality. Although a jovial person, fond of jokes and pleasant in his manners, he is a
somewhat mysterious if not a sinister character who can take a lock apart and replace it in
seconds. He knows the sea, foreign countries, and prisons. He disappears every evening, does not
return until midnight, and seems to bear a grudge against society.

A strong and gallant man, living on the second floor soon discovered to be the escaped convict
Jacques Collin, alias "Trompe la Mort," a banker for the underworld. Trompe la Mort is a very
dangerous man, a banker for the underworld, who handles his fellow convicts' money, sees to it
that they get the best lawyers, and arranges escapes. Collin has been branded on the shoulder.
(Convicts were branded with the letters "T. F.," initials for hard labor.)
The first cynical observations of Vautrin on society were its superficiality, its corruption, the evil
power of money--one very basic idea of this novel. A rebel against a society that has made him
what he is, and a hedonistic man seeking the sensual pleasures of life, who would find happiness
on an American plantation surrounded by slaves. Of this power, Balzac gives us an inkling in the
first section: Vautrin's "eyes, like those of a pitiless judge, seemed to go to the very bottom of all
questions, to read all natures, all feelings and thoughts."
Another interesting trait of this depraved character is his seemingly genuine interest in, and
compassion for, Eugène. "The escaped convict cast a glance at Eugène, a cold and fascinating
glance. Men gifted with this magnetic power can quell furious lunatics in a madhouse by such a
glance, it is said."
Vautrin appears here as the devilish tempter, closely resembling the Mephistopheles.
A keen psychologist, he has soon discovered the latent ambitions in Rastignac, whom he tries to
convert to his side by his powerful comments on society, to make of Eugène an instrument of
revenge. But to Vautrin, Rastignac is more than a mere instrument; he becomes a sort of alter
ego. Vautrin feels a genuine interest in, and love for, the young man, in whom he can see the
attributes he lacks: an aristocratic charm and elegance, allied with a spontaneous naiveté.

In Vautrin's character, we find much of Balzac and of his preoccupations. This is the reason why
Vautrin leaves us with mixed feelings. Although he is presented as a villain, as a cynical and
vicious person, as a diabolical tempter, we cannot help but feel toward him the unexplainable
feeling of mixed admiration and envy.
He also appears in Lost Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Scenes from a Courtesan's
Life and The Member for Arcis.

Pere Goriot:
“Père" in French is a term with a double meaning. First, the derogatory meaning of "père"
translated "old" suggests the physical and moral downfall of the character, and, second, it means
"father," introducing the "paternity" theme of the novel.

Also known as Jean-Joachim, started as a porter in the grain market. During the first Revolution,
although he had received no education, but having a trader's instinct, he began the manufacture
of vermicelli and made a fortune out of it. He had two daughters, Anastasie and Delphine, he
lavished all the tenderness of which their mother had been the recipient, spoiling them with fine
things. Goriot's griefs date from the day he married his daughters off. Far from being grateful for
his pecuniary sacrifices, his sons-in-law, Restaud and Nucingen, and his daughters themselves,
were ashamed of his bourgeois exterior. In 1813 he had retired saddened and impoverished to the
Vauquer boarding-house. The quarrels of his daughters and the greedy demands for money
increased and in 1819 followed him thither. He found an agreeable respite when he acted as a go-
between for the illicit love affair of Mme. de Nucingen and Rastignac, his fellow-lodger. The
financial distress of Mme. de Restaud, Trailles' victim, gave Goriot the finishing blow. He was
compelled to give up the final and most precious bit of his silver, and beg the assistance of
Gobseck the usurer. He was crushed. He shows us, at the same time, the sublime and the extreme
elements in his passion.
He says:
Well then, since I have been a father, I have come to understand God. He is everywhere in the
world, because the whole world comes from Him. And it is just the same with my children,
monsieur. Only I love my daughters better than God loves the world, for the world is not as
beautiful as God Himself is, but my children are more beautiful than I am.”
Some of what he says expresses not only pure paternal love but also involves the pure act of
creation.
This was a subject dear to Balzac, who felt that an author is also a creator and that there is the
same relationship between a child and his parents as between a writer and his works.

This strange passion inextricably combines two elements: animality and sublimity. We have seen
throughout the book the animalistic behavior of Goriot toward his daughters, a behavior often
compared to that of a dog. Balzac said of him, in reply to criticisms: "Old Goriot is like a
murderer's dog, who licks the hand of his master when it is soiled with blood; he does not argue,
he does not judge, he loves."
And indeed, his passion has annihilated every other human feeling. At the same time, Balzac
elevates him to a type, a creator, a godlike figure, capable of infinite passion which will
culminate in the ultimate sacrifice of that "Christ of Paternity."

A serious attack of apoplexy carried him off. He died at Maison Vaquer. Rastignac watched over
him, and Bianchon, attended him. Only two men, Christophe, Mme. Vauquer's servant, and
Rastignac, followed the remains to Pere-Lachaise. The empty carriages of his daughters followed
as far as the cemetery.

Countess de l'Ambermesnil:
A woman of thirty-six. Became a good friend of Madame Vauquer and acted as an intermediary
between Goriot and Vauquer. The countess readily accepted, with the idea of keeping such a
wealthy man for herself, but she was infuriated by Goriot's indifference. Hurt in her pride, the
countess started downgrading Goriot in Mme. Vauquer's mind and, knowing now that she could
not find a catch at the pension, departed owing six months' rent.

Eugene de Rastignac:
He is the only character who is a principal figure throughout the whole book and undergoes a
psychological change. At first he is shown as a young student just arrived from the provinces,
full of dreams, prepared to work hard to become a successful lawyer. Belonging to an aristocratic
family, he has some influential relatives in Paris, and he is quick to realize that with their help he
will enter one of the most restricted and brilliant circles in Paris. Fascinated by that luxury, by
that life of pleasure, he wants to become a part of it. But to join a club, one has to follow the
rules, and Eugene discovers that to become a member, he will have to leave behind some of his
moral principles. He will have to cheat, to lie, and dull his sensibilities. He also realizes that the
important instrument of success is money.
He first tries to compromise. Why not combine hard work and pleasure? But Vautrin is right at
his side to whisper that hard work will lead him to a life of bourgeois mediocrity and that in the
meantime he will need money.
Eugène is defeated, and although he argues with himself and feels remorse, he will exploit his
mother and sisters, forget his studies, and when his money runs out, he finds himself lost, so lost
that he will listen to Vautrin's criminal plot.
Little by little, he makes more and more concessions. We notice a further breach of the young
man's code of ethics, for if he appears mildly shocked when Delphine asks him to gamble for
her, his second reaction is the happy thought that "She has gone too far to draw back"; therefore,
"she can refuse me nothing now!"
There is also in Rastignac, a quest for money and love which is a strong resemblance to Balzac
as a struggling young writer.
He accepts his illicit liaison with Delphine, Goriot's money, and his mistress' present. And by the
end of the book, he has definitely joined the club and will successfully abide by its rules.

In spite of all this, Eugène remains a sympathetic character because of his candor, his childish
naivete, and his love and devotion for Old Goriot.
He also appears in fourteen other stories: A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life, The Ball at Sceaux, The Interdiction, A Study of Woman, Another Study of
Woman, The Magic Skin, The Secrets of a Princess, A Daughter of Eve, The Gondreville
Mystery, The Firm of Nucingen, Cousin Betty, The Member for Arcis and The Unconscious
Humorists.

Gobseck:
One of the reappearing characters in the Comédie Humaine; a usurer who has been running a
highly successful business and who counts among his clients Old Goriot and his daughter
Anastasie. He also appears in Gobseck, Cesar Birotteau, The Government Clerks, and The
Unconscious Humorists.

M. Taillefer:
Jean-Frederic Taillefer, then a surgeon in the army, killed and robbed, one night, a rich native
tradesman, Monsieur Walhenfer, by name; however, he was never incommoded by this murder;
for accusing appearances pointed to his friend, colleague and fellow-countryman, Prosper
Magnan, who was executed. Returning to Paris, J.-F. Taillefer was from that time forth a wealthy
and honored personage. He was married twice, and was brutal in his treatment of his first wife
who bore him two children, Frederic-Michel and Victorine. Taillefer suffered, nevertheless,
morally and physically; in the first place because of the crime that he had previously committed,
for remorse for this deed came over him every fall, that being the time of its perpetration; in the
second place, because of gout in the head, according to Doctor Brousson's diagnosis. Though
well cared for by his second wife, and by his daughter of the first wife, Jean-Frederic died
sometime after a sumptuous feast given at his house. He also reappears in The Firm of
Nucingen, The Magic Skin and The Red Inn.
Frederic Taillefer:
Michel Frederic, son of Jean-Frederic Taillefer by his first wife, did not even try to protect his
sister, Victorine, from her father's unjust persecutions. Designated heir of the whole of his
father's great fortune, he was killed near Clignancourt, by a dexterous and unerring stroke, in a
duel with Colonel Franchessini, the duel being instigated by Jacques Collin, in the interest of
Eugene de Rastignac and Vautrin.

Mme. de Rastignac:
Eugène's mother, kind and indulgent to her son. Reappears in Lost Illusions.

Laure de Rastignac:
Eugène's sister, a very minor character, but the most charming female in this book, devoid of the
egoism we find in Anastasie or Delphine and of Victorine's passivity. She reappears in Lost
Illusions and The Member of Arcis.

Madame de Beauséant:
Born Clair de Bourgogne in a family almost royal. Being Rastignac's cousin, she will introduce
Eugène into society and give him friendly help and good advice on how to succeed.
Deceived by her lover, Miguel d'Ajuda-Pinto, who, while continuing his intimacy with her,
asked and obtained the hand of Berthe de Rochefide, she left Paris secretly before this wedding.
In 1822 this "deserted woman" had lived for three years in the most rigid seclusion at Courcelles
near Bayeux. Gaston de Nueil, a young man of three and twenty, who had been sent to
Normandy for his health, succeeded in making her acquaintance, was immediately smitten with
her and, after a long seige, became her lover. This was at Geneva, whither she had fled. Their
intimacy lasted for nine years, being broken by the marriage of the young man. Later marries
Vicomte de Beauseant. Reappears in The Deserted Woman and Albert Savarus.

Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto:
AJUDA-PINTO was a Portuguese belonging to a very old and wealthy family. In 1819 he was
enrolled among the most distinguished dandies who graced Parisian society. At this same period
he began to forsake Claire de Bourgogne, with whom he had been intimate for three years. After
having caused her much uneasiness concerning his real intentions, he returned her letters, on the
intervention of Eugene de Rastignac, and married Mlle. Berthe de Rochefide. Towards 1840, the
Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, then a widower, married again—this time Mlle. Josephine de Grandlieu,
third daughter of the last duke of this name. Also reappears in Beatrix, Scenes from a Courtesan's
Life and The Secrets of a Princess.

Duchess de Langeais:
Very beautiful and intelligent, Madame de Langeais reigned in Paris. Her best friend was the
Vicomtesse Claire de Beauseant, whom she wounded cruelly, for her own amusement, calling on
her one morning for the express purpose of announcing the marriage of the Marquis d'Ajuda-
Pinto. Of this pitiless proceeding she repented later, and asked pardon, moreover, of the
foresaken woman. Soon afterwards the Duchesse de Langeais had the pleasure of captivating the
Marquis de Montriveau, playing for him the role of Celimene and making him suffer greatly. He
had his revenge, however, for, scorned in her turn, or believing herself scorned, she suddenly
disappeared from Paris, after having scandalized the whole Saint-Germain community by
remaining in her carriage for a long time in front of the Montriveau mansion. Some bare-footed
Spanish Carmelites received her on their island in the Mediterranean, where she became Sister
Therese. She was killed by Montriveau. She reappears in The Thirteen.

Anastasie de Restaud:
Wife of Count de Restaud and elder daughter of the vermicelli-maker, Jean-Joachim Goriot; a
beautiful brunette of queenly bearing and manners. She is presented as a spoiled, self-centered
young person, interested only in social prominence. In Anastasie, we find the cold, calculating
egoism of a woman who has been consciously bleeding her father and ostracizing him at the
same time and whom Balzac punishes greatly for it She had three children, two boys and a girl;
Ernest, the eldest, being the only legitimate one. She ruined herself for Trailles, her lover's
benefit, selling her jewels to Gobseck and endangering her children's future. As soon as her
husband had breathed his last, in a moment anxiously awaited, she took from under his pillow
and burned the papers which she believed contrary to her own interests and those of her children.
It thus followed that Gobseck, the fictitious creditor, gained a claim on all of the remaining
property. She reappears in Gobseck.

Count de Restaud:
Anastasie's husband, a violent, heartless aristocrat. He reappears in Gobseck.

Maxime de Trailles:
A young nobleman, being loved, in turn, by Anastasie de Restaud, ruined her, gaming was his
master passion, and his caprices knew no bounds. Also reappears in Cesar Birotteau, Gobseck,
Ursule Mirouet, A Man of Business, The Member for Arcis, The Secrets of a Princess, Cousin
Betty, Beatrix.and The Unconscious Humorists.

Delphine de Nucingen:
Goriot's second daughter, a more complex character than Anastasie. A very pretty girl, spoiled
and self-centered, married to a foreigner of recent aristocracy, belongs to the middle-world
banned by the aristocratic salons of Paris. Madame de Nucingen formerly had as her lover Henri
de Marsay, who finally abandoned her most cruelly. She shows true love for Rastignac and
tenderness for her father.
Delphine reveals the ugly details of her conjugal life and of her infidelity. She explains she has
had to borrow money from her lover, how money is the essential instrument for women to attain
social status and retain it, and how low they will stoop to acquire it. Delphine also displays that
egoism, but it is presented to us as brought on by passion, and, in her outbursts of emotion,
Delphine shows herself so naive that we cannot deny feeling compassion for her.
True, she used Eugène at first to be launched into high society, but she later shows such a true
love for Eugène that we can't help liking her even when, by accepting Rastignac's love, she is
rejecting everything else--family and father: "All my life is in you. My father gave me a heart,
but you have taught it to beat. The whole world may condemn me. What does it matter if I stand
acquitted in your eyes?"
Also reappears in The Thirteen, Eugenie Grandet, Cesar Birotteau, Melmoth Reconciled, Lost
Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, The Commission in Lunacy, Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life, Modeste Mignon, The Firm of Nucingen, Another Study of woman, A
Daughter of Eve and The Member for Arcis.
Baron de Nucingen:
Delphine's husband, an unrefined Alsatian banker. Also reappears in The Firm of Nucingen,
Pierrette, Cesar Birotteau, Lost Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life, Another Study of Woman, The Secrets of a Princess, A Man of Business,
Cousin Betty, The Muse of the Department and The Unconscious Humorists.

Henri De Marsay:
A young aristocrat, Delphine's first love. Also reappears in The Thirteen, The Unconscious
Humorists, Another Study of Woman, The Lily of the Valley, Jealousies of a Country Town,
Ursule Mirouet, A Marriage Settlement, Lost Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris,
Letters of Two Brides, The Ball at Sceaux, Modeste Mignon, The Secrets of a Princess, The
Gondreville Mystery and A Daughter of Eve.

Conclusion
Balzac's characters reappear not only because they were real to him and representative of his
time and country, but because their lives illustrated the laws of Society and Nature.
Eugene's reappearances are therefore inextricably bound up with Balzac's ambition to present a
complete society. Showing the same man through successive stages of recent history gives the
reader a more clearly focused picture of social change. Showing the same man living in different
circles of society and different parts of the country clarifies our sense of the relationships
between class and class, between Paris and the provinces.
The simple fact that he wrote interconnected novels out of sequence must surely indicate that he
knew his characters' lives well enough to take them up at any point. In Goriot, for example,
Rastignac receives advice and support from Mme. de Beausant who is about to bury herself in
Normandy after being let down by Ajuda-Pinto; to find out how she later consoles herself with
Gaston de Neuil one has to turn to La Femme Abandonee, written two years before Goriot.
The device of reappearing characters proves in Balzac's hands to be an important way of
showing the social effects of passion; it thus demonstrates - the essential point of connection
between the individual will and the general fate
It follows that reappearance contributes to a larger sense of unity. However satisfactory single
novels in the Comedie Humaine are in themselves, we know that they are ultimately to be seen in
relation to all the other novels. The reappearance of a character in Balzac acts as a circulating
guarantee of that greater coherence.
Readers are more often troubled by the sheer number of people in Balzac's world, and feel
deprived of important context for the characters. Detective novelist Arthur Conan Doyle said that
he never tried to read Balzac, because he "did not know where to begin".

While Balzac’s reappearing characters is usually seen as a means of creating a unified fictional
universe, it can also be seen as Balzac’s response to a specific kind of unauthorized appropriation
which was becoming a growing threat to authorial property in Balzac’s time: the appropriation of
his plots and characters by playwrights who staged adaptations of his works- which Balzac
considered as theft. In this context the reappearance of Balzac can be seen as an attempt to
establish ownership of his characters and plots through repetition, to mark them as his property
on the grounds of constant use over a period of time.
Balzac was obsessed with his characters as it was reported that on his deathbed and with his
mind racing, Balzac called out for his doctor Bianchon. The doctor never arrived, as he only
tended to the characters of La Comedie Humaine. In the end, fiction overtook reality in Balzac's
mind.

Thank you!

Bibliography:
1. Balzac, Honore de. Pere Goriot. Oxford University Press, 1999
2. Canfield, Arthur Graves. The Reappearing Characters in Balzac’s Comedie Humaine.
University of North Carolina Press, 1961
3. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/the-balzac-binge-1.221604
4. https://literarydevices.net/characterization/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A8re_Goriot#Recurring_characters
6. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3725454
7. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17635/17635-h/17635-h.htm#2H_4_0010
8. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1237/1237-h/1237-h.htm