Le Père Goriot

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1835

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Themes

Wealth and Social Class in Restoration France

Père Goriot is set in the wake of the Bourbon Restoration, which represented a return to the highly stratified social classes of prerevolutionary France after the turmoil of the French Revolution and Napoleon’s rule. The Paris the novel portrays is one in which the rich and the poor occupy different worlds. The ornate, lavish ballrooms of Madame de Beauséant and Monsieur de Restaud are juxtaposed against the poverty and misery of the Maison Vauquer; where the rich live in opulent, spacious mansions, the poor are crammed into seedy boarding houses. Likewise, the food the characters consume, the products they buy, and the entertainment they enjoy are vastly different depending on whether they are a member of the wealthy elite of Parisian society. Even movement throughout the city, which would seem to reveal the porousness of the physical and figurative boundaries that separate rich from poor, highlights the separation of the social classes: The luxurious carriages of the rich contrast with the muddy roads used by the poor.

The separation of social classes is rigorously policed in a number of quiet, subtle ways. The rules of etiquette, for example, help ensure that anyone not raised in upper-class households remains outside of elite social circles. One faux pas is almost enough to be banished, as Rastignac discovers when he mentions Goriot’s name to Anastasie. This emphasis on manners highlights that while wealth and class do not always coincide, the latter is no less real in its effects. During the French Revolution, Goriot made a fortune. He hired tutors to prepare his daughters for a life of luxury, teaching them the social etiquette that the revolution was supposed to render meaningless. Goriot himself, however, was not a member of the upper class despite being wealthier than many of the richest members of the Parisian elite. He came from too poor a background, did not know how to comport himself, and—most importantly—his mere presence threatened the idea of fixed, heritable social class that was reinstituted during the Bourbon Restoration.

By contrast, the novel seems to present Rastignac as a force of social mobility. He is a poor student with dreams of entering high society. Importantly, however, Rastignac has a name: He is from a noble family and has connections to Madame de Beauséant, which together permit him to enter upper-class parties. While he may be poor, he quickly learns the rules of social etiquette thanks to the guidance of his cousin. His family and his name thus give him access to resources that most poor people do not have. Rather than challenging the rigid structures of social class, Rastignac underscores that these social classes transcend mere material wealth. Social class is fiercely policed and coordinated by members of the ruling elite—an elite to which his family once belonged and to which he can therefore petition for access.

The Corruption of Parent-Child Relationships

Relationships between parents and children inform the lives of many of the characters in Père Goriot, but these relationships are often imbalanced. Money and class-related concerns prove a particularly corrosive force, suggesting that societal corruption extends even into a realm considered all but sacred in the 19th century: the home.

The titular Goriot, for example, loves his daughters so much that he has spent the vast fortune he made in the business world to ensure that they want for nothing. To Goriot, spending this vast fortune is an expression of devotion. However, while his love for his daughters is profound, it is not necessarily mutual. Delphine and Anastasie are spoiled children. Since they have never wanted for anything—since they have been able to address any issue or barrier in their lives by asking their father for money—they have grown up deeply materialistic. They only care about material possessions, from their fancy carriages to their jewels, their husbands, and their lovers. At no point do they seem capable of returning their father’s profound love; rather, they constantly take as Goriot constantly gives. It is only on his deathbed that Goriot recognizes the unilateral nature of the relationship: After a lifetime of giving everything he has for his daughters, they do not love him enough to come to him in his final moments. Even at his funeral, they only send empty carriages, the hollowness of which symbolizes their utter lack of feeling.

The relationship between Victorine and her estranged father inverts the relationship between Goriot and his daughters. Like Goriot, Victorine’s father is very rich. Unlike Goriot, he has no love for his daughter. Instead, he favors his son and leaves his daughter to languish in the relative poverty of the Maison Vauquer. Similarly, Victorine is quite the opposite of Delphine and Anastasie: She has been mistreated by her father, yet she continues to love him and routinely visits him to petition for him to forgive her mother—the implication being that he disowned Victorine because he suspects she is not his biological child. This in itself speaks to the rampant hypocrisy of Parisian high society, yet the novel strongly suggests that the alleged affair is a pretense. In a conversation with Madame Vauquer, Madame Couture reveals that Victorine’s father excoriated her mother for her poverty, saying that because she brought no money to the marriage, Victorine has no right to an inheritance. Money is thus at the heart of this fractured parent-child relationship as well.

Rastignac becomes close with Delphine, Goriot, and Victorine. During this time, he observes how their lives are influenced by familial relationships. He pities Goriot and Victorine, who have offered up their love without recognition or appreciation, and he grows to resent Delphine, who seems incapable of sincere love for anyone but herself. The more he resents Delphine for the way she treats her father, however, the more he sees himself in her behavior. After arriving in Paris, he relies on his parents for financial support. When their support is not enough, he writes to his mother and sisters, begging them for more money. His mother responds, offering the money he needs but attaching a cautionary note about whether he truly wants to risk the money (which is important to the family) trying to gain entry to Paris’s social elite. Ultimately, Rastignac pays his family back as quickly as possible, settling the financial debt so that his own family will not fall victim to the same forces that have torn apart Victorine’s and Goriot’s.

The Hypocrisy of 19th-Century French Society

At the beginning of the novel, Rastignac is astonished by the glitz and glamor of Paris. He is from a provincial part of France, so the big city has many attractions for him. In particular, he is enraptured by the city’s wealthy elite. The allure of wealth and power is so strong that Rastignac accepts the social implication of the Bourbon Restoration: that the rich and powerful derive their right to rule the country from their moral character. Even poor people such as Madame Vauquer echo these sentiments, presuming that wealth—as well as the manners and social etiquette that often accompany it—is equivalent to morality. As Rastignac spends more time among the wealthy elite, however, he discovers that their morality is a thin veneer. The rich and powerful are no more moral than the residents of the Maison Vauquer. In many cases, they are much less moral. They drink heavily and gamble away their money (acts that would have been viewed as personal failings in Honoré de Balzac’s era). They spend on unnecessary luxuries while poor people go hungry. They gossip, scheme, and lie to one another, and almost all the married people are conducting extramarital affairs, often in full sight. That they present themselves as the dignified trustees of the moral order is merely another facet of their dishonesty, and once Rastignac is welcome into their social circles, he uncovers their hypocrisy for himself.

Rastignac’s experiences in the Maison Vauquer also lay bare the upper class’s hypocrisy. The poor lodgers are some of the most moral people whom Rastignac meets. Goriot earns his sympathy, while Bianchon is a good student resigned to his modest life. Vautrin too makes society’s hypocrisy clear. He describes the innate unfairness of a society that condemns a man for stealing a small amount to survive but praises the daring of someone who steals millions of francs. The poor and the rich, he says, are treated differently by a hypocritical justice system. Notably, Vautrin is himself a criminal, but while he hides his true name from his fellow boarders, he does not hide his opinions. He is direct and honest with Rastignac in a way that contrasts with the hypocrisy of the wealthy elites, and his actions are no worse than those of the novel’s upper-class characters.

After observing the Parisian upper class and interacting with Vautrin, Rastignac rejects the hypocrisy of the system. He resolves not to take from his parents as Delphine and Anastasie have done; he also announces war on Parisian society. However, rather than working to tear down corrupt institutions (as happened during the French Revolution), he resolves to play an inside game. Whether this is in fact any less hypocritical—and whether Rastignac will even maintain his clear-headed assessment of society in the face of so much opulence—is open to interpretation.