In Goriot , money comes in gold, currency, coin, penny, wealth, property, capital, patent, bank, assets, securities, interest, awards, etc.. All these terms as banal as commercial projects are used as characters in their relationship with money. The word "money" appears eighty-three times and the word "fortune", sixty-five times. The occurrence of these words show how much the subject of money is relevant to understanding this novel by Balzac, and Parisian society in the first half of the 19th century. To understand the role of money in this text, we propose to study the power of money and its consequences.
I. The power of money
1. The meaning of money
He who knows the meaning more money is Goriot, as when he asserts that "money, that's life" p.208, we can only really subscribe. And in this novel, the money means too many things that are the foundations of life. And even Rastignac can not help but repeat the joke of Vautrin "Vautrin is right, property is virtue! "P. 89. The money can be established, but also eat, and so have the daily bread means having money. This metaphor finds himself in the mouth Vautrin, who is sometimes the narrator's voice: "I'm not complaining, I have on the plate of bread baked for long," he talking about the fortune he has to be the 'freedom from want for the rest of his life. And even Goriot does not distinguish between the two speaking of the husband of his daughter, Delphine, "Does he think I could endure for two days the idea of leaving you without fortune, without bread? . The money so mean to these characters nobility, beauty, love, respectability, and happiness.
But also, money is often a source of conflict, it is Satan, and we can resume proverb "Money is the sinews of war." We will see that the novel is a kind of illustration. That the wise sisters Rastignac have understood, and the letter of their brother, removing this demon called "money" makes us exult with joy: "Your letter came just in time, dear brother. Agathe and I wanted to spend our money in so many ways, we did not know how we solve purchase. You have done as the servant of the king of Spain when he overthrew his master watches, thou hast agreed. Really, we were always quarreling for that of our desires "which we would give preference, and we had not guessed, my good Eugene, employment which included all our desires. Agathe jumped for joy. "
2. The importance of money in society
Money is the thread that connects all the characters. First Goriot sees these girls when they need money, and he himself confirmed, because every time he sees them he asked them if they have money problems. Because, in fact, he has married so morganatic (marriage performed with a person of lower rank). The German became Nucingen by marrying Baron Baroness Delphine. And "Delphine loved money: she married Nucingen, German-born banker who became Baron of the Holy Roman Empire. . Also girls Goriot they seeking lovers used; Maximus Trailles for Anastasia Restaud, Eugene de Rastignac Delphine Nucingen. If the first is unscrupulous, as Rastignac is full of humanity. Vauquer and sees in these residents as sub, that Vautrin tandiq binds Rastignac to send him in this jungle of Paris, he represents the "devil", the "tempter." In this pair, which is added Victorine Taillefer believes Vautrin because knowing that its financial health will come from him.
Basically, in Goriot, money is synonymous with his children, so he regrets not to be, because it is synonymous with abandonment. "The money gives everything, even girls. Oh! my money, where is he? If I had to leave treasures, they licking me, she nursed me, I would hear them and I could see them. "
Money can be placed on the property ladder. This social mobility used by girls Goriot is the same who declined the family of Eugene Rastignac who says they lost their title of Chevalier de Rastignac the day the king was losing the family fortune.
Money allows you to whiten, become what we want, that we want. It ennobles. "If I succeed, nobody will ask me: Who are you? I would be Mr. Four Millions, U.S. citizen, "said Vautrin.
II. The impact of money
1. The pursuit of profit
Studying the pursuit of profit is equivalent to reconsider the life of Vautrin, the man who has experience, it seems, tried all means to become rich before, because he often says "It knows me." And he who throws the two slogans that sum up how it should be and what it takes to get rich in the mud of Paris: "Honesty is useless" and "Corruption is strength, the talent is rare," he said beforehand.
all means, it seems, are good to have money. Almost all means of seeking favor meet in the city of Paris. But the most common, and appears to be the least guilty speculation, a method that has made the fortune of Father Goriot. "Yes, this Moriot was president of his section during the Revolution and was in the secret of the famous famine, and began his fortune by selling in that time flour ten times more than they cost him. It took as long as he wanted. The steward of my grandmother sold him for immense sums. "Said Madame de Langeais.
However, this skill is not given to everyone, so they must be other ways for other characters, but too often dishonest ways so that Father Goriot has become a saint in front of all these "hunters "as he likes to say Vautrin.
Lender pawn, this is the job of the Marquis d'Ajuda and Count Trailles. Vautrin and also knew the system, since it would lead them to the young Rastignac is narrowly drawn through other means, the game is because the wheel of fortune is also gambling. And luck, the heroes are, because it won seven thousand francs. Also took the opportunity there to send money to his mother and sister who sent money to support it, saying at least the virtue that the young lives Rastignac. The flight
, perhaps the first occupation of Vautrin, because he is wanted as receiver of a group of thieves known as the "League of Ten Thousand," an association of senior thieves, people who work in great, and do not mingle with a case where there are not ten thousand to win, "according to the intelligence police chief Mr. Gondureau. The denouncement
Michonneau Miss and Mr. Poiret will not be outdone in this race to wealth. Them, they chose their formula, alias Vautrin Jean Collin denounce or Cheat Death to pocket the promised development that will help to confuse the bandit. Predictably from the old lady Michonneau especially since the narrator had suspected of greed from the beginning of history.
Goriot is the victim of blackmail emotional of his own daughters. Also did not suspect it at any time in their love for the impoverished and their husbands and lovers. The
blackmail love is the expedient used by the husband of Delphine's lover and Anastasia, Maximus of the last of which cost Trailles successfully wonders allowed him to disappear from the life of the latter . "Monsieur de Trailles is gone, leaving huge debts here, and I knew he was cheating on me" finally realized too late Anastasia. That's what Vautrin also proposes to Rastignac if wants to get rich through a marriage with Victorine Taillefer who will inherit his father if his brother should die. And thus, the crime is suggested by Vautrin, except that it even admits that other ways have been replaced today. So will he orchestrate the death of the brother of Victorine. The
concubinage, the prostitution and adultery seem commonplace, tolerated in this world where only the gain is important. All allusions to the past Ms. Vauquer tend to designate as someone who grew rich in the lucrative market of prostitution, which would justify it lies to be rich. Catholic
The only way to get honest money remains, as always, of course, the work . But in this society where work provides only the minimum to survive, Vautrin should certainly be other ways, and he told Rastignac "The work included as you understand it now, gives, in old days, an apartment with my mom Vauquer to guys on the strength of Poiret. . Rastignac and knows it.
2. Money, love and death
The obsession with money. The money is for the people of Paris fixation. And the story offers itself as a long ballad whose refrain is " If I was rich. " Rastignac, when making his first steps into Parisian society launches this wish "If I were rich," he said in a changing room of thirty he had taken in case of misfortune, I would have gone by car I could think at my ease. "In addition, each time, this idea recurs as a haunting '- And Money! shouted his conscience, which thus will you take? ". Rastignac now "wondered where and how he would obtain money. "Father Goriot
also knows when he says"? If I had to leave treasures, they licking me, she nursed me And I hear them, I would see them. "That's what makes the reduction of fortune is a harbinger of death and makes every request for money from Goriot equivalent to a" chop "or" drowning ". The father's death coincides Goriot does not end with his wealth?
The lack of fortune is also synonymous with loss of love. Goriot's daughters ruin themselves to be loved: Anastasia is defrauded by Maximus Trailles and the Baron flies Delphine. For Eugene Rastignac, he has to first find a wife, and get rich. But his only problem is that he has scruples, so the father told him Goriot "Monsieur de Rastignac is a young man unable to ruin his mistress." That's why Vautrin warns that the two are mutually exclusive, and it will choose.
Feelings of love and money do not mix. Indeed for the wealth, do not like or do not find out, this is the board that the Viscountess Beauseant Rastignac gives to his nephew: "You see, you will be nothing here if you don ' have not a woman who is interested in you. You need the young, rich, elegant. But if you have a true sense, hide it as a treasure never let suspect you will be lost. You would not be the executioner, you become the victim. .
Clearly, love, life, death and money are inseparable. Even the deep familial love is here for the money "This father had given everything. He had given for twenty years, his bowels, his love, he gave his fortune in one day, "says Madame de Langeais. And when Rastignac who knows where his family wrote letters asking for money, he knows that his life is at stake, what it expresses in these terms: "if I had not the money, I would be a prey to despair that would lead me to blow my brains out. . These few examples show how the money is life in this novel.
Conclusion
Money honestly earned is often well spent. This is basically what we learned Rastignac mother who told him after sending him money: "Do a good job of that money." In a world where money reigns like a king, it would be sacrilege to "be on the straw," as said Father Goriot. It has been, at least the time of reading, business analysts, and you will understand the workings of speculation as to not "drop its balance sheet. " What we will not learn when in Goriot ? Knowing all damage caused by money, should we not rejoice in the way if its loss of Agathe deprives us of our worries? We submit that question to the meditation of each, and finally recommend reading the two letters from the mother of Eugene and his two sisters, as if they were addressed to us.
Vocabulary difficult
Dispatch: average, sometimes disingenuous or just regular, solve a problem temporarily
Obsession : what occupies the mind of a regular, involuntary
Speculation: an operation which is to try to anticipate changes in the price of a good economic benefit from its sale or purchase
denouncement : treachery and malicious denunciation
Blackmail: medium pressure exerted to extract money
Executioner: individual executing a victim.
Patent (invention): title to an inventor to earn money on what he has invented.
Recognition (debt): document writing by which a person expresses borrower of a sum of money to another person.
file for bankruptcy : Statement of Assets and liabilities (a business) at the end of a fiscal year. Here it go bankrupt, in the context of Goriot.
Being on the straw : being in poverty, not having money.
Gear : medium
Excerpts:
The letter from the mother of Eugene
"Towards the end of the first week of December, Rastignac received two letters, one of his mother, the other her older sister. These writings made him known if both throbbing with joy and trembling with terror. Both papers contained a frail sentence of life or death over his expectations. If conceived some terror in mind the distress of his parents, he had proven too much for their choice not to fear to have sucked their last drop of blood. The letter from his mother was well designed. "My dear child, I send you what you asked. Do a good job of that money, I could not, when it comes to saving your life, find a second time so large a sum without your father was educated, which disturb the harmony our household. For us to get it, we would have to give guarantees on our land. It is impossible to judge the merit of projects that I do not know, but what kind are they to make you afraid to entrust them to me? This explanation does not require volumes, we only need one word to us other mothers, and that word would have saved me the agony of uncertainty. I can not hide the painful impression that your letter has caused. My dear son, what made you feel so compelled to cause such terror in my heart? you had to suffer much by writing to me because I have suffered you read. In what career you commit yourself So? Your life, your happiness would be attached to appear that you are not, to see a world where you can not go without spending money that you can support without losing valuable time for your studies? My dear Eugene, believe in the heart of thy mother, winding roads lead to nothing great. Patience and resignation must be the virtues of young people in your position. I do not scold you, I would connect to our offering no bitterness. My words are those of a mother as confident as farseeing. If you know what your obligations, I know, me, how your heart is pure, what your intentions are good. I can also tell you without fear, Go, my beloved, walk! I tremble because I am a mother, but your every step will be dearly with our vows and our blessings. Be careful, dear child. You have to be wise as a man, the fate of five people who are dear to you based on your head. Yes, all our fortunes are you, as your happiness is ours. "
The letter from his sisters
" god, dear child. I shall say nothing of your sisters: Laura writes to you. I leave the pleasure of chatter on small family events. Heaven grant that you succeed! "Oh yes, successful, my Eugene, you made me experience a pain too deep for me to bear a second time. I knew what it was like to be poor, seeking fortune and give it to my child. Well, goodbye. Do not leave us without news, and am here kiss your mother sends you. "When Eugene
had finished this letter he was in tears, he thought of Father Goriot twisting his silver and selling it to go pay the bill for her daughter." Your mother has twisted her jewelry! he told himself. Your aunt wept probably by selling some of his relics! What right do you curse Anastasia? You come to imitate for selfishness your future what it has done for her lover! Which, from him or you, is better? "The student felt the innards gnawed by a feeling of unbearable heat.
He wanted to renounce the world, it would not take the money. He felt remorse these noble and beautiful secrets that merit is rarely appreciated by the men when they consider their peers ...
"" Your letter came just in time, dear brother. Agathe and I wanted to spend our money in so many ways, we did not know how we solve purchase. You have done as the servant of the king of Spain when he overthrew his master watches, you we have agreed. Really, we were always quarreling for one of our desires "to which we would give preference, and we had not guessed, my good Eugene, employment which included all our desires. Agathe jumped for joy."
Rastignac " - Oh yes, "said Eugene, yes, fortune at all costs! treasures would not pay this dedication. I would give them every happiness together. Fifteen hundred and fifty francs," he said after a pause. must Each piece bears blow! Laure is right. The name of a woman! "I have only coarse linen shirts. For the happiness of another, a young girl becomes tricky as a thief. Innocent for her foresight and for me it is like an angel from heaven who forgives the sins of the earth without understanding them. "
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