Le Père Goriot[a] (French pronunciation: 

[lə pɛʁ ɡɔʁjo], "Old Goriot" or "Father Goriot") is an

1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), included in the
Scènes de la vie privée section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set in Paris in
1819, it follows the intertwined lives of three characters: the elderly doting Goriot, a
mysterious criminal-in-hiding named Vautrin and a naive law student named Eugène de
Rastignac.

Originally published in serial form during the winter of 1834–35, Le Père Goriot is widely
considered Balzac's most important novel.[1] It marks the first serious use by the author of
characters who had appeared in other books, a technique that distinguishes Balzac's fiction.
The novel is also noted as an example of his realist style, using minute details to create
character and subtext.

The novel takes place during the Bourbon Restoration, which brought profound changes to
French society; the struggle by individuals to secure a higher social status is a major theme in
the book. The city of Paris also impresses itself on the characters – especially young
Rastignac, who grew up in the provinces of southern France. Balzac analyzes, through Goriot
and others, the nature of family and marriage, providing a pessimistic view of these
institutions.

The novel was released to mixed reviews. Some critics praised the author for his complex
characters and attention to detail; others condemned him for his many depictions of corruption
and greed. A favorite of Balzac's, the book quickly won widespread popularity and has often
been adapted for film and the stage. It gave rise to the French expression "Rastignac", a social
climber willing to use any means to better his situation.

THEME WIKI
Social stratification

One of the main themes in Le Père Goriot is the quest to understand and ascend society's
strata. The Charter of 1814 granted by King Louis XVIII had established a "legal country"
which allowed only a small group of the nation's most wealthy men to vote. Thus, Rastignac's
drive to achieve social status is evidence not only of his personal ambition but also of his
desire to participate in the body politic. As with Scott's characters, Rastignac epitomizes, in
his words and actions, the Zeitgeist in which he lives.[4]

Through his characters and narration, Balzac lays bare the social Darwinism of this society. In
one particularly blunt speech, Madame de Beauséant tells Rastignac:

The more cold-blooded your calculations, the further you will go. Strike ruthlessly; you will
be feared. Men and women for you must be nothing more than post-horses; take a fresh relay,
and leave the last to drop by the roadside; in this way you will reach the goal of your
ambition. You will be nothing here, you see, unless a woman interests herself in you; and she
must be young and wealthy, and a woman of the world. Yet, if you have a heart, lock it
carefully away like a treasure; do not let any one suspect it, or you will be lost; you would
cease to be the executioner, you would take the victim's place. And if ever you should love,
never let your secret escape you![42][43]
This attitude is further explored by Vautrin, who tells Rastignac: "The secret of a great
success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been discovered,
because it was properly executed."[44] This sentence has been frequently – and somewhat
inaccurately – paraphrased as: "Behind every great fortune is a great crime."[45]

Influence of Paris

The novel's representations of social stratification are specific to Paris, perhaps the most
densely populated city in Europe at the time.[46] Traveling only a few blocks – as Rastignac
does continually – takes the reader into vastly different worlds, distinguished by their
architecture and reflecting the class of their inhabitants. Paris in the post-Napoleonic era was
split into distinct neighborhoods. Three of these are featured prominently in Le Père Goriot:
the aristocratic area of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, the newly upscale quarter of the rue de la
Chaussée-d'Antin, and the run-down area on the eastern slope of the Montagne Sainte-
Geneviève.[47]

These quartiers of the city serve as microcosms which Rastignac seeks to master; Vautrin,
meanwhile, operates in stealth, moving among them undetected.[48] Rastignac, as the naive
young man from the country, seeks in these worlds a new home. Paris offers him a chance to
abandon his far-away family and remake himself in the city's ruthless image.[49] His urban
exodus is like that of many people who moved into the French capital, doubling its population
between 1800 and 1830. The texture of the novel is thus inextricably linked to the city in
which it is set; "Paris", explains critic Peter Brooks, "is the looming presence that gives the
novel its particular tone".[50]

It is said that in Le Père Goriot, Paris becomes a character in the same way the city did in The
Hunchback of Notre Dame and London becomes in Charles Dickens' works.[51] This is evident
in Balzac's portrayal of the Parisian society as mercilessly stratified, corrupt, amoral, and
money-obsessed.[51] In addition, the protagonists living in its quarters were presented in
perfect harmony with their environment.[52]

Corruption

Rastignac, Vautrin, and Goriot represent individuals corrupted by their desires. In his thirst
for advancement, Rastignac has been compared to Faust, with Vautrin as Mephistopheles.[53]
Critic Pierre Barbéris calls Vautrin's lecture to Rastignac "one of the great moments of the
Comédie humaine, and no doubt of all world literature".[54] France's social upheaval provides
Vautrin with a playground for an ideology based solely on personal advancement; he
encourages Rastignac to follow suit.[55]

Still, it is the larger social structure that finally overwhelms Rastignac's soul – Vautrin merely
explains the methods and causes. Although he rejects Vautrin's offer of murder, Rastignac
succumbs to the principles of brutality upon which high society is built. By the end of the
novel, he tells Bianchon: "I'm in Hell, and I have no choice but to stay there."[56]

While Rastignac desires wealth and social status, Goriot longs only for the love of his
daughters: a longing that borders on idolatry.[57] Because he represents bourgeois wealth
acquired through trade – and not aristocratic primitive accumulation – his daughters are happy
to take his money, but will see him only in private. Even as he is dying in extreme poverty, at
the end of the book, he sells his few remaining possessions to provide for his daughters so that
they might look splendid at a ball.[58]

Family relations

The relations between family members follow two patterns: the bonds of marriage serve
mostly as Machiavellian means to financial ends, while the obligations of the older generation
to the young take the form of sacrifice and deprivation. Delphine is trapped in a loveless
marriage to Baron de Nucingen, a money-savvy banker. He is aware of her extramarital
affairs, and uses them as a means to extort money from her. Anastasie, meanwhile, is married
to the comte de Restaud, who cares less about the illegitimate children she has than the jewels
she sells to provide for her lover – who is conning her in a scheme that Rastignac has heard
was popular in Paris. This depiction of marriage as a tool of power reflects the harsh reality of
the unstable social structures of the time.[59]

Parents, meanwhile, give endlessly to their children; Goriot sacrifices everything for his
daughters. Balzac refers to him in the novel as the "Christ of paternity" for his constant
suffering on behalf of his children.[60] That they abandon him, lost in their pursuit of social
status, only adds to his misery. The end of the book contrasts Goriot's deathbed moments with
a festive ball hosted by Madame de Beauséant – attended by his daughters, as well as
Rastignac – suggesting a fundamental schism between society and the family.[61]

The betrayal of Goriot's daughters is often compared to that of the characters in Shakespeare's
King Lear;[62] Balzac was even accused of plagiarism when the novel was first published.[63]
Discussing these similarities, critic George Saintsbury claims that Goriot's daughters are "as
surely murderesses of their father as [Lear's daughters] Goneril and Regan".[64] As Herbert J.
Hunt points out in Balzac's Comédie humaine, however, Goriot's tale is in some ways more
tragic, since "he has a Regan and a Goneril, but no Cordelia".[65]

The narrative of Goriot's painful relations with his children has also been interpreted as a
tragicomic parable of Louis XVI's decline. At a crucial moment of filial sentiment in Balzac's
novel, Vautrin breaks in singing "O Richard, O mon roi"—the royalist anthem that
precipitated the October Days of 1789 and the eventual downfall of Louis XVI—a connection
that would have been powerful to Balzac's readers in the 1830s.[66] An ill-founded faith in
paternal legitimacy follows both Goriot and Louis XVI into the grave.

Rastignac's family, off-stage, also sacrifices extensively for him. Convinced that he cannot
achieve a decent status in Paris without a considerable display of wealth, he writes to his
family and asks them to send him money: "Sell some of your old jewelry, my kind mother; I
will give you other jewels very soon."[67] They do send him the money he requests, and –
although it is not described directly in the novel – endure significant hardship for themselves
as a result. His family, absent while he is in Paris, becomes even more distant despite this
sacrifice. Although Goriot and Vautrin offer themselves as father figures to him, by the end of
the novel they are gone and he is alone.[68]
Pere Goriot Study Guide

Le Père Goriot, translated literally in English as “The Father Goriot,” is a novel by Honoré de
Balzac. As a Realist writer, Balzac strove to present people and events exactly as they were,
without idealizing or romanticizing people. His work, like that of most Realists, therefore
includes long passages of descriptive narrative that establish physical descriptions and
characters. Compared to a French roman or romance, such as the type made popular by
Alexandre Dumas and his son, Realist novels do not rapidly advance the plot. The long
descriptive passages necessary to create the sense of accuracy and verisimilitude tend to bog
down the action. Likewise, in order to eschew the Romantic tendency to exaggerate the
positive attributes of characters, Realist authors went out of their way to emphasize their
human failings. Among the contemporary criticisms Balzac received was the fact he
emphasized the corruption and greed of his characters to the point of exaggeration.

Balzac seems to have been influenced in his development of the Vautrin plotline by a real-life
criminal named Vidocq. Vidocq had become notable in 1828 when he published a memoir
describing his sensational life of crime. Balzac met with Vidocq in April 1834, and began to
plan a story that would feature a criminal mastermind. At the same time, his journals and
notes from the summer of 1834 reveal that Balzac was also interested in a storyline where an
elderly father is mistreated by his daughters. Working with his usual speed, Balzac wrote the
novel in just over a month in the autumn of 1834. The novel was published in serialized form
in the periodical Revue de Paris between December 1834 and February 1835. The novel was
then published as a complete volume in spring 1835. In subsequent editions, Balzac often
made significant changes and revisions.

Le Pere Goriot forms part of Balzac's La Comedie Humaine, a series of novels meant to
provide a totalizing vision of 19th-century French society. One of Balzac's literary
innovations was his practice of having the same characters appear in multiple novels, and
many of the figures from Le Pere Goriot appear in Balzac's other novels as well. In some
cases, these subsequent appearances provide additional insight into plot events and character
motivations. For example, in La Maison Nucingen (1837), Balzac reveals that the Baron
Nucingen was actually responsible for orchestrating the affair between Delphine and
Rastignac himself.

Despite some mixed initial reviews, Pere Goriot fairly quickly became accepted as one of
Balzac's best novels. It was popular with readers as well as critics, and "Rastignac" became a
term used in the French language to refer to someone who was socially ambitious or grasping.
The novel was adapted into stage productions almost immediately, which furthered its success
and popularity. Subsequently, the novel has been adapted into a number of film versions.

Themes

Paternal Love
Goriot loves his two daughters with an intensity that borders on obsession, and as a result of
his love, he continuously excuses their neglectful and selfish behavior. Money contaminates
almost every relationship in this novel, and the father-daughter relationship is no exception.
Goriot fantasizes that providing money to his daughters will ensure a healthy relationship with
his daughters. His excessive love blinds him to the reality that his daughters want only
financial support from him, and are not ready to provide affection or care to him. The
intensity of his paternal love is particularly striking because at this era it was not necessarily
assumed that men nurtured close emotional bonds with their children, particularly with
daughters. Significantly, the only other paternal relationship shown in the novel is the one
between Victorine and her estranged father, who neglects his daughter in favor of his son.

Social Elitism
Much of the momentum of the plot results from Rastignac's determination to break into the
world of the Parisian social elite. Moving in these social circles requires a complex
combination of social connections, charm, cunning, and the ability to meet high standards of
dress and behavior. As Rastignac learns when he unwittingly offends Anastasie, an innocent
mistake can cut someone off from society permanently. Although Rastignac is ostensibly a
student of law, he actually devotes his time and energy to learning how to successfully
maintain the deceptions and rituals required to function as part of Parisian high society. While
Rastignac's attempt to break into society are not easy, the process does show that it was
possible for someone to advance their social position if they were intelligent and ambitious.

Money
One of the most essential themes of the novel is money. In fact, Diana Festa-McCormick
argues that "the unifying force is money" (pg. 68). Individuals, relationships, and activities are
all monitored by money. Madame Vauquer judges her residents by how much money they
have and how much rent they are paying. For her, the individuals are nothing more than their
bank account. She falls in love with old man Goriot when she believes he is rich but once his
spending decreases, she starts despising him. Vautrin convinces Eugene to consider killing
Victorine’s brother by tempting him with the prospect of gaining a huge sum of money. Both
of Goriot's daughters are preoccupied with money, and never seem to be able to have enough
of it. Strikingly, the narrative does not punish the greedy characters, and Goriot, the one
person who places love above money, dies a lonely and anguished death. In Balzac's world, a
preoccupation with money seems to be essential for survival and success.

Secrets
Almost all of the boarders at the Vauquer household end up having secrets of some kind:
Vautrin is a disguised criminal, Mlle. Michonneau is plotting to betray Vautrin, Rastignac is
eventually involved in Vautrin's plot to get his hands on Victorine's fortune, and Goriot was
once very wealthy. Even amongst seemingly unremarkable and ordinary characters, dark
secrets are lurking. By paying close attention to the material details of the setting and inner
lives of his characters, Balzac shows how appearances often do not align fully with reality,
and there is often more to someone than there may appear to be.

Infidelity
Amongst the various aristocratic couples, infidelity is shown to be an accepted and normal
reality. Delphine, Anastasie, and Madame de Beauseant all have lovers, and none of these
women keep their affairs secret. In fact, other members of high society seem to know all
about the various affairs that are happening amongst Parisian aristocrats. Infidelity is even
normalized and tolerated to the extent that Goriot supports and encourages Delphine and
Rastignac having an affair while she is still married. Marriage is shown to be largely a
business arrangement that permits individuals to acquire money and social prestige, while
love and desire are pursued through extramarital affairs. Nonetheless, Delphine, Anastasie,
and Madame de Beauseant all end up being betrayed and deceived by their lovers.

Education
Education appears as a theme in the novel because Rastignac and Bianchon are literally
students, training to work in their respective professions of law and medicine. However,
Rastignac has greater ambitions than the modest life of provincial professional, and he
becomes focused on acquiring a different type of education. Through advice from mentors
like Vautrin and Madame de Beauseant, and from his own keen observation of how aristocrats
behave around him, Rastignac starts to teach himself how to succeed at climbing the social
ladder. He does not always like the lessons he learns, because he gradually becomes aware
that the world is a cruel place. Still, by the end of the novel, Rastignac has learned what it
takes to become the kind of man he wants to be, and he commits himself to doing whatever it
takes.

Aging
Many of the boarders at the Maison Vauquer, including Goriot, are elderly, and they are often
treated with mockery and a lack of respect. Goriot's daughters are also neglectful and rude
towards their aging father. Traditionally, elderly characters would be shown respect,
deference, and care, but in a world where the only things that matter are money, social
position, and power, individuals lose power and influence as they age. Goriot is literally a
relic of an older time where he once occupied a position of power and political influence, but
in the new era of the restored monarchy, he seems old-fashioned and out of place.

PERSONNAGES

Pere Goriot Character List

Jean-Joachim "Pere (Old Man)" Goriot

Goriot starts off as a man of modest means, but makes his fortune manufacturing pasta and
other grain products. He is a widower with two married daughters, and his intense love for
them makes him susceptible to folly. In order to give money to his daughters, at the start of
the novel, Goriot is living in a cheap boarding house.

Eugene Rastignac
Rastignac is a young man from a modest family with some lingering aristocratic connections.
He comes to Paris to study law, and lives as a boarder at Madame Vauquer's lodgings.

Madame Vauquer
Madame Vauquer is a widow who runs a boarding house, and is very focused on earning a
profit.

Vautrin
Vautrin is a man in his forties who lives as a boarder at the Vauquer boarding house. He is a
mysterious and sometimes sinister presence; it is later revealed that he is a notorious criminal
living under an alias.

Madame Couture
Madame Couture is a widow who lives in the Vauquer boardinghouse with Victorine
Taillefer. She was a distant relative of Victorine's mother, and now acts as the guardian of the
young girl.

Victorine Taillefar
Victorine is a young girl who has been disowned by her wealthy father, and now lives in the
Vauquer boardinghouse with her guardian, Madame Couture. After her brother's death, she is
eventually reconciled with her father and becomes a wealthy heiress.

Sylvie
Sylvie is a woman who works at the Vauquer boardinghouse.

Poiret
Poiret is an elderly man who lives at the Vauquer boardinghouse, and is attracted to
Madamoiselle Michonneau.

Mlle. Michonneau
Mlle. Michonneau is a woman who lives at the Vauquer boardinghouse. She ends up
betraying Vautrin to the police in exchange for money.

Christophe
Christophe is a man who works as a servant at the Vauquer boardinghouse.

Madame de Beauseant
Madame de Beauseant is a wealthy woman and a distant relative of Rastignac. She gives him
advice about breaking into Parisian society.

Duchesse de Langeais
The Duchesse de Langeais is a wealthy Parisian aristocrat and friend of Madame de
Beauseant.

Anastasie de Restaud
Anastasie de Restaud is Goriot's elder daughter and the sister of Delphine. She is married to
the Comte de Restaud.

Delphine de Nucingen
Delphine is Goriot's younger daughter and the wife of a wealthy German banker named Baron
de Nucingen.

Comte de Restaud
The Comte is Anastasie's husband and Goriot's son-in-law.

Baron de Nucingen
The Baron is Delphine's husband and Goriot's son-in-law.

Maxime de Trailles
Maxime de Trailles is a wealthy, young French aristocrat who is having an affair with
Anastasie de Restaud.

Marquis d'Ajuda
The Marquis d'Ajuda is a Portuguese nobleman who has an affair with Madame de Beauseant
but eventually chooses to marry another woman.

Bianchon
Bianchon is a medical student and friend of Rastignac.

Gondureau
Gondureau is the police official who contracts Mlle. Michonneau and Poiret about helping
him to arrest Vautrin.