The role of money in modern society - main topic in the works of Balzac.
In creating The Human Comedy, Balzac set himself a task that was still unknown in literature at that time. He strove for truthfulness and a merciless show of contemporary France, a show of the real, actual life of his contemporaries.
One of the many themes heard in his works is the theme destructive power money over people, the gradual degradation of the soul under the influence of gold. This is especially clearly reflected in two famous works Balzac - "Gobsek" and "Eugenia Grande".
Balzac's works have not lost their popularity in our time. They are popular both among young readers and among older people, who draw from his works the art of understanding the human soul, seeking to understand historical events. And for these people, Balzac's books are a real treasure trove. life experience.
The moneylender Gobsek is the personification of the power of money. The love of gold and the thirst for enrichment kill all human feelings in him and drown out all other principles.
The only thing he strives for is to have more and more wealth. It seems absurd that a man who owns millions lives in poverty and, collecting bills, prefers to walk without hiring a cab. But these actions are determined only by the desire to save at least a little money: living in poverty, Gobsek pays 7 francs in tax with his millions.
Leading a modest, inconspicuous life, it would seem that he does not harm anyone and does not interfere with anything. But with those few people who turn to him for help, he is so merciless, so deaf to all their pleas, that he resembles some kind of soulless machine rather than a person. Gobsek does not try to get close to any person, he has no friends, the only people he meets are his professional partners. He knows that he has an heir, a great-niece, but does not seek to find her. He doesn’t want to know anything about her, because she is his heir, and Gobsek has a hard time thinking about heirs, because he cannot come to terms with the fact that he will someday die and part with his wealth.
Gobsek strives to expend his life energy as little as possible, which is why he does not worry, does not sympathize with people, and always remains indifferent to everything around him.
Gobsek is convinced that only gold rules the world. However, the author also gives him some positive individual qualities. Gobsek is an intelligent, observant, insightful and strong-willed person. In many of Gobsek’s judgments we see the position of the author himself. Thus, he believes that an aristocrat is no better than a bourgeois, but he hides his vices under the guise of decency and virtue. And he takes cruel revenge on them, enjoying his power over them, watching them grovel before him when they cannot pay their bills.
Having turned into the personification of the power of gold, Gobsek at the end of his life becomes pitiful and ridiculous: accumulated food and expensive art objects rot in the pantry, and he bargains with merchants for every penny, not yielding to them in price. Gobsek dies, looking at a huge pile of gold in the fireplace.
Papa Grande is a stocky “good guy” with a moving bump on his nose, a figure not as mysterious and fantastic as Gobsek. His biography is quite typical: having made a fortune for himself in the troubled years of the revolution, Grande became one of the most eminent citizens of Saumur. No one in the city knows the true extent of his fortune, and his wealth is a source of pride for all residents of the town. However, the rich man Grande is distinguished by his outward good nature and gentleness. For himself and his family, he regrets an extra piece of sugar, flour, firewood to heat the house; he does not repair the stairs because he is sorry for the nail.
Despite all this, he loves his wife and daughter in his own way, he is not as lonely as Gobsek, he has a certain circle of acquaintances who periodically visit him and maintain good relations. But still, due to his exorbitant stinginess, Grande loses all trust in people; in the actions of those around him, he sees only attempts to make money at his expense. He only pretends that he loves his brother and cares about his honor, but in reality he only does what is beneficial to him. He loves Nanette, but still shamelessly takes advantage of her kindness and devotion to him, mercilessly exploits her.
His passion for money makes him completely inhuman: he is afraid of his wife’s death because of the possibility of division of property.
Taking advantage of his daughter’s boundless trust, he forces her to renounce the inheritance. He perceives his wife and daughter as part of his property, so he is shocked that Evgenia dared to dispose of her gold herself. Grande cannot live without gold and at night she often counts her wealth, hidden in her office. Grandet's insatiable greed is especially disgusting in the scene of his death: dying, he snatches a gilded cross from the hands of the priest.
Gold is the spiritual essence
The entire current society.
O. de Balzac. Gobsek
There are so many examples in the history of mankind when People, overestimating the power of money, became their slaves, losing everything best they had before: moral principles, families, friends. People themselves have turned capital, wealth into a monster, a monster that mercilessly swallows human souls, feelings, destinies.
We encounter the corrupting power of money in the example of many heroes from Honore de Balzac’s novel “Père Goriot.”
The fate of Gorio himself, who was betrayed by his beloved daughters, is terrible. A former vermicelli worker who, with his dexterity, thrift, enterprise, and hard work, managed to amass a decent capital for himself in his youth, Gorio endlessly loved his wife, after whose death he transferred this feeling to his daughters. The happiness of these girls became the only goal in my father’s life, however, in my opinion, he misunderstood the meaning of this happiness, which for him consisted in the satisfaction of all whims and desires, and public honors. From an early age, Goriot's daughters did not lack anything; any of their whims was fulfilled immediately. So they grew up, not knowing the value of money, accustomed to only taking, but not giving, seeing in their father only a source of wealth, unable to appreciate human affection and devotion.
Father Goriot gave his daughters everything he had, everything he once treasured: money, love, soul, his whole life. And he died poor, lonely, sick, among strangers. Two poor students bury him with their last pennies, and the daughters, who sucked the life out of the old man, not only did not give a penny for medicine and funeral, but did not even show up to see their father off on his last journey: “The daughters squeezed the lemon and threw the peel onto the street ". Of course, they were very busy when Father Goriot died - they were preparing for the ball. And after the ball, one of them dealt with the husband who had been deceived by her, and the other, having a runny nose, was afraid of getting even sicker. It seems that everything human in these people died when money took the throne in their souls.
WITH destructive force Eugene Rastignac, who grew up in an impoverished aristocratic family, to whom he was tenderly and wholeheartedly attached, also encountered wealth and capital. Relatives young man, brought up in the provinces, “had to doom himself to severe hardships” to give him the opportunity to live and study in Paris. Great hopes were placed on Eugene, on whose success the happiness and well-being of the entire family depended.
Understanding and appreciating the dedication of his family, Rastignac believes that hard work, abilities, and perseverance will help him make a career, achieve material wealth, and save his family from further impoverishment.
However, life in Paris quickly dispelled his hopes of getting rich by honest work. Eugene understands that without connections, initial capital, deception and hypocrisy, one cannot achieve success in this cruel world. While he is young, he is often naive and simple-minded, honest with himself, capable of sincere manifestations of sympathy and mercy, and this distinguishes him favorably from most representatives high society, where he was introduced by a noble relative. But how long will his virtue last, will he forget about his own family in the pursuit of success and prosperity, if, amazed and outraged by the calculating cruelty of the “world,” he challenges him at the end of the novel, declares war, and does not return to study and work .
It seems to me that, fighting injustice and lack of spirituality with the same methods, a person cannot emerge victorious from the battle, but will only lose those moral values which he had before.
Composition
The role of money in modern society is the main theme in Balzac's work.
When creating "The Human Comedy", Balzac set himself a task that was still unknown in literature at that time. He strove for truthfulness and a merciless show of contemporary France, a show of the real, actual life of his contemporaries.
One of the many themes heard in his works is the theme of the destructive power of money over people, the gradual degradation of the soul under the influence of gold. This is especially clearly reflected in two famous works by Balzac - "Gobsek" and "Eugene Grande".
Balzac's works have not lost their popularity in our time. They are popular both among young readers and among older people, who draw from his works the art of understanding the human soul, seeking to understand historical events. And for these people, Balzac's books are a real storehouse of life experience.
The moneylender Gobsek is the personification of the power of money. The love of gold and the thirst for enrichment kill all human feelings in him and drown out all other principles.
The only thing he strives for is to have more and more wealth. It seems absurd that a man who owns millions lives in poverty and, collecting bills, prefers to walk without hiring a cab. But these actions are determined only by the desire to save at least a little money: living in poverty, Gobsek pays 7 francs in tax with his millions.
Leading a modest, inconspicuous life, it would seem that he does not harm anyone and does not interfere with anything. But with those few people who turn to him for help, he is so merciless, so deaf to all their pleas, that he resembles some kind of soulless machine rather than a person. Gobsek does not try to get close to any person, he has no friends, the only people he meets are his professional partners. He knows that he has an heir, a great-niece, but does not seek to find her. He doesn’t want to know anything about her, because she is his heir, and Gobsek has a hard time thinking about heirs, because he cannot come to terms with the fact that he will someday die and part with his wealth.
Gobsek strives to expend his life energy as little as possible, which is why he does not worry, does not sympathize with people, and always remains indifferent to everything around him.
Gobsek is convinced that only gold rules the world. However, the author also gives him some positive individual qualities. Gobsek is an intelligent, observant, insightful and strong-willed person. In many of Gobsek’s judgments we see the position of the author himself. Thus, he believes that an aristocrat is no better than a bourgeois, but he hides his vices under the guise of decency and virtue. And he takes cruel revenge on them, enjoying his power over them, watching them grovel before him when they cannot pay their bills.
Having turned into the personification of the power of gold, Gobsek at the end of his life becomes pitiful and ridiculous: accumulated food and expensive art objects rot in the pantry, and he bargains with merchants for every penny, not yielding to them in price. Gobsek dies, looking at a huge pile of gold in the fireplace.
Papa Grande is a stocky "good-natured man" with a moving bump on his nose, a figure not as mysterious and fantastic as Gobsek. His biography is quite typical: having made a fortune for himself in the troubled years of the revolution, Grande became one of the most eminent citizens of Saumur. No one in the city knows the true extent of his fortune, and his wealth is a source of pride for all residents of the town. However, the rich man Grande is distinguished by his outward good nature and gentleness. For himself and his family, he regrets an extra piece of sugar, flour, firewood to heat the house; he does not repair the stairs because he is sorry for the nail.
Despite all this, he loves his wife and daughter in his own way, he is not as lonely as Gobsek, he has a certain circle of acquaintances who periodically visit him and maintain good relations. But still, due to his exorbitant stinginess, Grande loses all trust in people; in the actions of those around him, he sees only attempts to make money at his expense. He only pretends that he loves his brother and cares about his honor, but in reality he only does what is beneficial to him. He loves Nanette, but still shamelessly takes advantage of her kindness and devotion to him, mercilessly exploits her.
His passion for money makes him completely inhuman: he is afraid of his wife’s death because of the possibility of division of property.
Taking advantage of his daughter’s boundless trust, he forces her to renounce the inheritance. He perceives his wife and daughter as part of his property, so he is shocked that Evgenia dared to dispose of her gold herself. Grande cannot live without gold and at night she often counts her wealth, hidden in her office. Grandet's insatiable greed is especially disgusting in the scene of his death: dying, he snatches a gilded cross from the hands of the priest.
looked like a poor provincial compared to secular dandies. He was abandoned and left alone, but all the doors were closed in front of him. The illusion he had in his provincial town (about fame, money, etc.) disappeared.
IN "Père Goriot" Rastignac still believes in goodness, is proud of his purity. My life is “pure as a lily.” He is of noble aristocratic origin, comes to Paris to make a career and enroll in law school. He lives in Madame Vake's boarding house with his last money. He has access to the Viscountess de Beauseant's salon. In terms of social status, he is poor. Rastignac's life experience consists of a collision of two worlds (the convict Vautrin and the Viscountess). Rastignac considers Vautrin and his views above aristocratic society, where crimes are petty. “Nobody needs honesty,” says Vautrin. “The colder you expect, the further you will go.” Its intermediate position is typical for that time. With his last money, he arranges a funeral for the poor Goriot.
In the novel "Banker's House"
IN "Shagreen skin"- a new stage in the evolution of Rastignac. Here he is already an experienced strategist who has long said goodbye to all illusions. This is an outright cynic,
- The theme of “loss of illusions” in Flaubert’s novel “Sentimental Education.”
The theme of disillusionment in this novel is related to the life and personality development of the main character, Frederic Moreau. It all starts with the fact that he arrives by boat in Nogent on the Seine to visit his mother after a long study at law college. The mother wants her son to become a big man, she wants to get him into an office. But Frederic strives for Paris. He goes to Paris, where he meets firstly the Arnoux family, and secondly, the Dambrez family (influential). He hopes that they will help him get settled. At first he continues to study in Paris with his friend Deslauriers, he meets different students - the artist Pellerin, the journalist Husson, Dussardier, Regembard, and so on. Gradually, Fredrick loses this desire for a high goal and a good career. He finds himself in French society, begins to attend balls, masquerades, and has love affairs. All his life he is haunted by his love for one woman, Madame Arnoux, but she does not allow him to get closer to her, so he lives, hoping for a meeting. One day he learns that his uncle has died and left him a relatively large fortune. But Feredrick is already at the stage when the main thing for him is his position in this French society. Now he cares not about his career, but about how he dresses, where he lives or dines. He begins to spend money here and there, invests it in stocks, goes broke, then helps Arn for some reason, he does not pay him back, Frederick himself begins to live in poverty. Meanwhile, a revolution is being prepared. A republic is proclaimed. All of Frederick's friends are on the barricades. But he doesn't care about public views. He is more busy with his personal life and its arrangement. He is drawn to propose to Louise Rokk, a potential bride with a good dowry, but a country girl. Then the whole story with Rosanette, when she is pregnant by him and a child is born, who soon dies. Then an affair with Madame Dambrez, whose husband dies and leaves her nothing. Frederic is sorry. He meets Arnu again and realizes that things are even worse for them. As a result, he is left with nothing. Somehow he copes with his position without making a career. Here they are, the lost illusions of a man who was sucked into Parisian life and made him completely unambitious.
- The image of Etienne Lousteau in Balzac's novel Lost Illusions.
Etienne Lousteau - a failed writer, a corrupt journalist, introducing Lucien into the world of unprincipled, lively Parisian journalism, cultivating the profession of “hired killer of ideas and reputations.” Lucien masters this profession.
Etienne is weak-willed and careless. He himself was once a poet, but he failed - he angrily threw himself into the whirlpool of literary speculation.
His room is dirty and desolate.
Etienne plays a very important role in the novel. It is he who seduces Lucien from the path of virtue. He reveals to Lucien the corruption of the press and theater. He is a conformist. For him, the world is “hellish torment,” but one must be able to adapt to it, and then, perhaps, life will improve. Acting in the spirit of the times, he is doomed to live in eternal discord with himself: the duality of this hero is manifested in his objective assessments of his own journalistic activities and contemporary art. Lucien is more self-confident than Lousteau, and therefore quickly seizes his concept, and fame quickly comes to him. After all, he has talent.
- The evolution of the image of a financier in Balzac’s “Human Comedy”.
Balzac:
Gobsek
Felix Grande
Papa Goriot
Father of David Sechard
Rastignac
- The tragedy of Eugenia Grande in Balzac's novel of the same name.
The problem of money, gold and the all-consuming power that it acquires in the life of capitalist society, determining all human relationships, the destinies of individual people, the formation of social characters.
Old Grande is a modern genius of profit, a millionaire who has turned speculation into art. Grande renounced all the joys of life, dried up the soul of his daughter, deprived all his loved ones of happiness, but made millions.
The theme is the decomposition of family and personality, the decline of morality, the insult of all intimate human feelings and relationships under the power of money. It was precisely because of her father’s wealth that the unfortunate Evgenia was perceived by those around her as a way of making substantial capital. Between the Cruchotins and the Grassenists, two opposition camps of the inhabitants of Saumur, there was a constant struggle for Eugenie’s hand. Of course, old Grandet understood that the frequent visits to his house by the Grassins and Cruchots were not at all sincere expressions of respect for the old cooper, and therefore he often said to himself: “They are here for my money. They come here to be bored for the sake of my daughter. Ha ha! Neither one nor the other will get my daughter, and all these gentlemen are just hooks on my fishing rod!”
The fate of Eugenia Grande is the most sorrowful story told by Balzac in his novel. The unfortunate girl, languishing in prison for many years in the house of her miserly father, becomes attached with all her soul to her cousin Charles. She understands his grief, understands that no one in the world needs him and that his closest person now, his uncle, will not help him for the same reason that Evgenia has to be content with bad food and miserable clothes all her life. And she, pure in heart, gives him all her savings, courageously enduring her father’s terrible wrath. She has been waiting for his return for many years... And Charles forgets his savior, under the rule of public sentiment he becomes the same Felix Grande - an immoral accumulator of wealth. He prefers the titled ugly woman, Mademoiselle D'Aubrion, to Eugenia, because he is now guided by purely selfish interests. Thus, Evgenia’s faith in love, faith in beauty, faith in unshakable happiness and peace was cut short.
Evgeniya lives with her heart. Material values are nothing for her compared to feelings. Feelings constitute the true content of her life; for her, they contain the beauty and meaning of existence. The inner perfection of her nature is also revealed in her external appearance. For Evgenia and her mother, whose only joy throughout their lives were those rare days when their father allowed the stove to be lit, and who saw only their dilapidated house and everyday knitting, money had absolutely no meaning.
Therefore, while everyone around was ready to acquire gold at any cost, for Evgenia, the 17 million she inherited after her father’s death turned out to be a heavy burden. Gold will not be able to reward her for the emptiness that formed in her heart with the loss of Charles. And she doesn't need money. She doesn’t know how to deal with them at all, because if she needed them, it was only to help Charles, thereby helping herself and her happiness. But, unfortunately, the only treasure that exists for her in life - family affection and love - was inhumanly trampled, and she lost this only hope in the prime of her life. At some point, Evgenia realized the incorrigible misfortune of her life: for her father, she had always been only the heir to his gold; Charles preferred a wealthier woman to her, disregarding all the sacred feelings of love, affection and moral duty; the people of Saumur looked and continue to look at her only as a rich bride. And the only ones who loved her not for her millions, but for real - her mother and maid Naneta - were too weak and powerless where old Grande reigned supreme with his pockets tightly stuffed with gold. She lost her mother, and now she has already buried her father, who even in the very last minutes of his life stretched out his hands to gold.
Under such conditions, a deep alienation inevitably arose between Evgenia and the world around her. But it is unlikely that she herself was clearly aware of what exactly was the cause of her misfortunes. Of course, it’s easy to name the reason - the unbridled dominance of money and monetary relations that stood at the head of bourgeois society, which crushed the fragile Evgenia. She is deprived of happiness and prosperity, despite the fact that she is infinitely rich.
And her tragedy is that the lives of people like her turned out to be absolutely useless and unnecessary to anyone. Her capacity for deep affection was not responded to.
Having lost all hope for love and happiness, Evgenia suddenly changes and marries Chairman de Bonfon, who was just waiting for this moment of luck. But even this selfish man died very soon after their wedding. Evgenia was left alone again with even greater wealth, inherited from her late husband. This was probably a kind of evil fate for the unfortunate girl, who became a widow at thirty-six years old. She never gave birth to a child, that hopeless passion that Evgenia lived with all these years.
And yet, in the end, we learn that “money was destined to impart its cold coloring to this heavenly life and instill in a woman who was all feeling, distrust of feelings.” It turns out that in the end Evgenia became almost the same as her father. She has a lot of money, but she lives poorly. She lives this way because she is used to living this way, and another life no longer lends itself to her understanding. Eugenia Grande is a symbol of human tragedy, expressed in crying into a pillow. She has come to terms with her condition, and she can no longer even imagine a better life. The only thing she wanted was happiness and love. But not finding this, she came to complete stagnation. And the monetary relations that reigned in society at that time played a significant role here. If they had not been so strong, Charles most likely would not have succumbed to their influence and retained his devoted feelings for Eugenie, and then the plot of the novel would have developed more romantically. But it would no longer be Balzac.
- The theme of “violent passion” in the works of Balzac.
Balzac has a fierce passion for money. These are both hoarders and images of moneylenders. This topic is close to the theme of the image of a financier, because they are the ones who live this frantic passion for hoarding.
Gobsek seems to be a disembodied, dispassionate person, indifferent to the world around him, religion and people. He is far from his own passions, because he constantly observes them in people who come to him for bills. He inspects them, but he himself is in constant peace. In the past, he experienced many passions (he traded in India, was deceived by a beautiful woman), so he left it in the past. Talking with Derville, he repeats the formula of shagreen skin: “What is happiness? This is either strong excitement that undermines our life, or a measured activity.” He is so stingy that in the end, when he dies, there remains a heap of goods, food, moldy from the owner's stinginess.
Two principles live in him: the miser and the philosopher. Under the power of money, he becomes dependent on it. Money becomes magic for him. He hides the gold in his fireplace, and after his death, he does not bequeath his fortune to anyone (a relative, a fallen woman). Gobsek - zhivoglot (translation).
Felix Grande- a slightly different type: a modern genius of profit, a millionaire who has turned speculation into art. Grande renounced all the joys of life, dried up the soul of his daughter, deprived all his loved ones of happiness, but made millions. His satisfaction lies in successful speculation, in financial conquests, in trade victories. He is a kind of disinterested servant of “art for art’s sake,” since he himself is personally unpretentious and is not interested in the benefits that are given by millions. The only passion - the thirst for gold - which knows no bounds, killed all human feelings in the old cooper; the fate of his daughter, wife, brother, nephew interests him only from the point of view of the main question - their relationship to his wealth: he starves his daughter and sick wife, brings the latter to the grave with his stinginess and heartlessness; he destroys the personal happiness of his only daughter, since this happiness would require Grande to give up part of her accumulated treasures.
- The fate of Eugene de Rastignac in Balzac's "Human Comedy".
The image of Rastignac in "C.K." - the image of a young man who wins personal well-being. His path is the path of the most consistent and steady ascent. The loss of illusions, if it occurs, is accomplished relatively painlessly.
IN "Pere Goriot" Rastignac still believes in goodness and is proud of his purity. My life is “pure as a lily.” He is of noble aristocratic origin, comes to Paris to make a career and enroll in law school. He lives in Madame Vake's boarding house with his last money. He has access to the Viscountess de Beauseant's salon. In terms of social status, he is poor. Rastignac's life experience consists of a collision of two worlds (the convict Vautrin and the Viscountess). Rastignac considers Vautrin and his views above aristocratic society, where crimes are petty. “Nobody needs honesty,” says Vautrin. “The colder you expect, the further you will go.” Its intermediate position is typical for that time. With his last money, he arranges a funeral for the poor Goriot.
He soon realizes that his situation is bad and will lead nowhere, that he must sacrifice honesty, spit on his pride and resort to meanness.
In the novel "Banker's House" tells about Rastignac's first business successes. Using the help of the husband of his mistress Delphine, Goriot's daughter, Baron de Nucingen, he makes his fortune through clever play on stocks. He is a classic opportunist.
IN "Shagreen skin"- a new stage in the evolution of Rastignac. Here he is already an experienced strategist who has long said goodbye to all illusions. This is an outright cynic who has learned to lie and be a hypocrite. He is a classic opportunist. In order to prosper, he teaches Raphael, you need to climb forward and sacrifice all moral principles.
Rastignac is a representative of that army of young people who followed not the path of open crime, but the path of adaptation carried out by means of legal crime. Financial policy is robbery. He is trying to adapt to the bourgeois throne.
- Diatribe as a way to identify the most pressing problems of our time in Balzac’s story “The Banker's House of Nucingen”.
Diatribe- reasoning on moral topics. Angry accusatory speech (from Greek) Conversation permeates the entire novel “The Banker's House of Nucingen”; with the help of conversation, the negative sides of the heroes are revealed.
- Images of financiers in the works of Balzac and Flaubert.
The artistic style of the late Balzac. Duology about “Poor Relatives”.
Positive heroes and the role of a happy ending in Dickens's work.
Dickens and Romanticism.
Balzac: in Balzac, in almost every novel of the “Human Comedy” on our list, there is an image of a financier. Basically, these are moneylenders who live with a frantic passion for money, but also some other representatives of the bourgeoisie.
When creating the image of his moneylender, Balzac included it in the context of a very complex social era, which contributed to the revelation of various aspects of this image.
Just like the antique dealer in "Shagreen Skin" Gobsek seems to be a disembodied, dispassionate person, indifferent to the world around him, religion and people. He is far from his own passions, because he constantly observes them in people who come to him for bills. He inspects them, but he himself is in constant peace. In the past, he experienced many passions (he traded in India, was deceived by a beautiful woman), so he left it in the past. Talking with Derville, he repeats the formula of shagreen skin: “What is happiness? This is either strong excitement that undermines our life, or a measured activity.” He is so stingy that in the end, when he dies, there remains a heap of goods, food, moldy from the owner's stinginess.
Two principles live in him: the miser and the philosopher. Under the power of money, he becomes dependent on it. Money becomes magic for him. He hides the gold in his fireplace, and after his death, he does not bequeath his fortune to anyone (a relative, a fallen woman). Gobsek - zhivoglot (translation).
Felix Grande- a slightly different type: a modern genius of profit, a millionaire who has turned speculation into art. Grande renounced all the joys of life, dried up the soul of his daughter, deprived all his loved ones of happiness, but made millions. His satisfaction lies in successful speculation, in financial conquests, in trade victories. He is a kind of disinterested servant of “art for art’s sake,” since he himself is personally unpretentious and is not interested in the benefits that are given by millions. The only passion - the thirst for gold - which knows no bounds, killed all human feelings in the old cooper; the fate of his daughter, wife, brother, nephew interests him only from the point of view of the main question - their relationship to his wealth: he starves his daughter and sick wife, brings the latter to the grave with his stinginess and heartlessness; he destroys the personal happiness of his only daughter, since this happiness would require Grande to give up part of her accumulated treasures.
Papa Goriot- one of the pillars of the “Human Comedy”. He is a bread merchant, a former pasta maker. He carried through his life only love for his daughters: that’s why he spent all his money on them, and they took advantage of it. So he went broke. This is the opposite of Felix Grande. He demands from them only love for him, for this he is ready to give them everything. At the end of his life, he comes up with a formula: everyone gives money, even his daughters.
Father of David Sechard: Stinginess begins where poverty begins. The father began to be greedy when the printing house was dying. He went so far as to determine the cost of a printed sheet by eye. It was controlled only by selfish interests. He placed his son in school only to prepare his successor. This is the Felix Grandet type who wanted David to give him everything while he was alive. When David was on the verge of ruin, he came to his father to ask for money, but his father did not give him anything, remembering that he had once given him money for his studies.
Rastignac(in the "Bankers' House of Nucingen"). This novel chronicles Rastignac's early business successes. Using the help of the husband of his mistress Delphine, Goriot's daughter, Baron de Nucingen, he makes his fortune through clever play on stocks. He is a classic opportunist. “The more loans I take out, the more they believe me,” he says in “Shagreen.”
Flaubert: In “Madame Bovary” the image of the financier is Monsieur Leray, a moneylender in Yonville. He is a fabric merchant, and since this product is expensive, with the help of it he makes a lot of money for himself and keeps many of the inhabitants of the city in debt. He appears in the novel at the moment when the Bovarys arrive in Yonville. Emma's dog Djali runs away, and he sympathizes with her, talking about his troubles with missing dogs.
To unwind, Emma buys new clothes from Leray. He takes advantage of this, realizing that this is the only joy for the girl. Thus, she falls into his debt hole without telling her husband anything. And Charles one day borrows 1000 francs from him. Lere is a clever, flattering and cunning businessman. But unlike Balzac’s heroes, he acts actively - he spins his wealth, lending money.
- The problem of the realistic hero in Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary.
Flaubert wrote Madame Bovary from 1851 to 56.
Emma was brought up in a convent, where girls of average wealth were usually brought up at that time. She became addicted to reading novels. These were romantic novels with ideal heroes. Having read such literature, Emma imagined herself as the heroine of one of these novels. She imagined her happy life with a wonderful person, a representative of some wonderful world. One of her dreams came true: already married, she went to a ball with the Marquis of Vaubiesart at the castle. She was left with a vivid impression for the rest of her life, which she constantly recalled with pleasure. (She met her husband by chance: the doctor Charles Bovary came to treat Papa Rouault, Emma’s father).
Emma's real life is completely far from her dreams.
Already on the first day after her wedding, she sees that everything she dreamed of is not happening - she has a miserable life in front of her. And yet, at first, she continued to dream that Charles loved her, that he was sensitive and gentle, that something had to change. But her husband was boring and uninteresting, he was not interested in the theater, he did not arouse passion in his wife. Slowly he began to irritate Emma. She loved to change the situation (when she went to bed for the fourth time in a new place (the monastery, Toast, Vaubiesard, Yonville), she thought that a new era in her life was beginning. When they arrived in Yonville (Home, Leray, Leon - the notary's assistant -
Creation of the story "Gobsek", characters and composition. Coloring of a portrait and generalization of essential features human nature in the image of a Parisian moneylender. Life story and romantic aspects of the image. Portraying the power of gold and the life of French society.
Gustave Flaubert: "Madame Bovary", "Education of Sentiments", William Makepeace Thackeray: "Vanity Fair", Stendhal: "Red and Black", "Vanina Vanini", Honoré de Balzac: "Père Goriot", "Gobseck", "Brilliance" and the poverty of courtesans", Pr...
Roman L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is a grandiose work not only for what it describes historical events, but also in the variety of created images, both historical and invented. The image of Natasha Rostova is the most charming and natural image.
Balzac's story "Gobsek". Analysis of both sides of Gobsek’s consciousness and clarification of the connections and differences between them. A greedy petty old man profiting from someone else's misfortune. A philosopher who has seen a lot and rethought a lot. The highest sense of justice in Gobsek’s soul.
General characteristics of the theme, plot, exposition, main characters and characters of Balzac's novel "Eugenie Grande". Balzac as a realist psychologist, describing in the image of Grande tendencies typical of historical period development of the French bourgeoisie.
"Lost Illusions" by O. de Balzac is an ideological and semantic plan " Noble nest"I.S. Turgenev. The concept of unrest in novels. The depiction of emotional unrest and experiences in the novel by I.S. Turgenev in the context of comparison with the novel by O. de Balzac.
Description of the fate of Ignat Gordeev, analysis of his personality. Ignat Gordeev is a gifted and intelligent man from the people, greedy for life, “seized with an indomitable passion for work,” a former waterman, and now a rich man - the owner of three steamships and a dozen barges.
An approximate list of exam questions history of foreign literature Medieval literature during the period of the disintegration of the clan system and the emergence of feudal relations.
Francois Mauriac as a famous French writer and poet. The rigid determinism of Mauriac's works and the focus on confrontation between the author and the hero. Weak spots Mauriac's psychologism. The writer's main novels. The reasons for the tragedy of Mauriac's heroes.
The ideological concept of the novel "Madame Bovary". The image of Charles Bovary in context ideological plan novel. Flaubert's worldview and aesthetic principles. An impartial picture of life. The prosperous existence of Charles and the long family agony of Emma.
Analysis of the images of Tatyana Larina and Evgeny Onagin, their romantic relationships in the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". Study of questions: what does love mean for Onegin and Tatiana, why Evgeny and Tatiana did not stay together, and, in general, is this possible.
The artistic system and content of the novel "Crime and Punishment". Problems of money and social justice. Fighting the destructive power of money and making choices life priorities. The collapse of the theory of “fair” distribution of goods based on violence.
"Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert is a scandalous novel that found its way to the reader through a trial. The idea story line and the main images of the novel. Emma Bovary is the fate of a person dissatisfied with society, dreaming of beauty.
Honore de Balzac is a famous French writer, generally recognized as the father of naturalism and realism. Each work of Balzac is a kind of “encyclopedia” of any class, one or another profession. "Typified individuality" according to Balzac.
Report on literature on the topic: Gustave Flaubert. Novel "Salambo". Completed by 10th grade student “B” high school No. 4 Khanakin Pavel. Penza, 2000. Flaubert
Armavir Linguistic University Personal notes of Ivan Komarov on the subject: “ Foreign literature» Armavir 1999 Ancient literature The subject and meaning of ancient literature
Studying the life path of Honore de Balzac, whose novels became the standard of realism of the first half of the 19th century V. Analysis of his works. Study of the specifics of artistic typification of Balzac's characters. Characteristics of the aesthetic origins of critical realism.
The significance of Flaubert in the history of French literature and journalism is so enormous that it is difficult to assess. He brought to literature whole line young talented prose writers, one of whom was, for example, Guy de Maupassant. Flaubert's observations on literary process of their time served and served...
The beginning of a writing career. Balzac's main characters. The role of Balzac's novel "Shagreen Skin" in foreign literature. Depiction of life in the writer’s work. Political Views Balzac. Analysis of the novels "Père Goriot" and " Human Comedy".
2. The main characters of O. Balzac
2.1 Papa Gobsek
Memoirists have left us a description of the appearance of this short man with a lion's mane of hair, who easily wore his plumpness and was bursting with energy. His golden-brown eyes were well remembered, “expressing everything as clearly as a word,” “eyes that could see through walls and the heart,” “before which eagles had to lower their eyes...”
While Balzac was seeking recognition, his contemporaries did not yet suspect that his works, decades and centuries later, would be considered the most reliable and most fascinating evidence of his era. His friends George Sand and Victor Hugo will be the first to understand this.
Gobsek - means “swallowing dry food”, roughly translated - “guzzler”. So Balzac renamed his story in the process of work, which in 1830 still bore the moralizing title “The Dangers of Dissipation.” Its hero, an old moneylender, living alone and poor, without family or attachments, unexpectedly reveals himself as the ruler of hundreds of human destinies, one of the few uncrowned kings of Paris. He owns gold, and money is the key to all human dramas. How many unfortunate people come to beg him for money: “... a young girl in love, a merchant on the verge of bankruptcy, a mother trying to hide her son’s misdeeds, an artist without a piece of bread, a nobleman who has fallen out of favor... shocked... with the power of his word. .." Gobsek charges monstrous interest rates. Sometimes his victims lost their temper, screamed, then there was silence, “like in a kitchen when they kill a duck in it.”
The image of the moneylender fully expressed Balzac's characteristic artistic vision of man. He did not paint mediocre, average people of one social class or profession, but always endowed them with outstanding personal qualities and a bright personality. Gobsek is insightful and prudent, like a diplomat, he has a philosophical mind, iron will, rare energy. He doesn’t just accumulate wealth, the main thing is that he knows the value of his clients, the bankrupt, degraded aristocrats who, for the sake of a luxurious life, “steal millions, sell their homeland.” In relation to them, he is right and feels like a just avenger.
Gobsek's past includes years of wanderings in colonial India, full of romantic vicissitudes. He knows people and life, sees the most secret springs of the social mechanism. But Balzac's thick, sparkling colors help expose him. The perverting power of money manifested itself in Gobsek’s very personality: imagining that gold rules the world, he exchanged all human joys for acquisitiveness, turning into a pathetic maniac by the end of his life. The story ends with a stunning picture of the rotting of various valuables hidden by the miser in his home. This pile, where decaying gourmet foods and precious objects of art are mixed, is a grandiose symbol of the destructive power of acquisitiveness, the inhumanity of the bourgeois system of life and thought.
2.2 Raphael and “shagreen skin”
In 1831, Balzac gained even greater fame with his short novel Shagreen Skin. Can you call it fantastic? In this work there is a magical symbol - skin, which fulfills all the desires of its owner, but at the same time shortens his life according to the strength of desire... The story of Raphael, a lonely and poor young scientist, lost in the “paved desert” of Paris and stopped on the verge of suicide by a magical a gift from a mysterious antique dealer, was entertaining Arabian tales, very popular in those years. And at the same time, this brilliantly written story, full of thought and heartfelt warmth, revealed the true truth about France in the thirties, exposed the hypocrisy of a society that gave power to murderers, endlessly increased selfishness, impoverished and dried out human soul.
2.3 Eugenia Grande
The depiction of life in Balzac's work expanded and diversified. In 1833, in “Eugenie Grande,” Balzac discovered the drama of a seemingly dull provincial existence. This was a very important discovery, a whole revolution in the history of the Western European novel: prose poetry. Against the background of the life of the provincial town of Saumur, Balzac depicted the miser Grandet - a type of the same breed as Gobsek, and at the same time deeply different from him, and his meek, persistent daughter, whose love and life her father sacrificed to his passion for gold .
The writer's political views developed in a unique way. In his journalism, he declared himself a supporter of royal power (in addition, a legitimist) and the ancient aristocracy. Such a self-determination of an artist, whose work carried within itself a powerful charge of denial of social injustice, a thinker who was carried away by many of the achievements of his century, must have seemed strange and paradoxical. But Balzac's monarchism can be explained historically. It was dictated primarily by his disgust for the power of the bourgeoisie; in comparison with it, the ancient nobility had the advantages of culture, traditions of knightly honor and duty. And firm royal power, according to the writer, could restrain the rampant selfish interests that were harmful to France and unite the nation for the common good. Despite Balzac’s deep respect and sympathy for working people, depicted in a number of images, the people as a whole were, in his perception, a passive suffering mass in need of care. L.N. Tolstoy rightly wrote about the property of real talent to peer into people and the phenomena of life in a special way and see the truth; he considered talent to be an “extraordinary light” in an artist, helping to “stand out” from the worldview of his environment.
The characteristic of talent is incorruptibility, and Balzac, as F. Engels noted, knew the value of “his beloved aristocrats” and described them sharply satirically, with bitter irony. And he clearly saw that the most noble and heroic individuals are those who rebel against the current society in the name of social justice. Over time, he will write the novel “Lost Illusions,” where he will depict, next to the corrupt Parisian journalists, a community of young people working for the future, and the most attractive of them will be the chivalrous republican Michel Chrétien, who died on the barricade in the Parisian uprising of 1832. Engels would call this ability to rise above his own political prejudices one of “the greatest victories of realism” and one of “the greatest traits of old Balzac” 3 .
Artistic clairvoyance led Balzac to a vivid depiction of the departure of the nobility from the historical stage; None of the 19th-century writers in the West delivered a more damning and better-founded verdict on the bourgeoisie than Balzac. And it is not surprising that neither his enemies nor his friends took his legitimacy seriously.
3. "Human Comedy"
Creative plans Balzac's works grew and at the same time acquired a more definite shape. Everything that had already been created and was being created, and everything that he would ever write again, was seen by him as a kind of integral “portrait of the century.” All of France was supposed to be expressed here - all the main contradictions and conflicts of the era, all human types, classes, professions. In a huge mosaic panorama there will be a capital, a province and a village, here there are ministers, scientists, lawyers, traders, peasants. Balzac painted an intense struggle of passions, the story of precious human energy wasted in bourgeois society on base goals; the history of crimes against morality, not prosecuted by law, but claiming thousands of lives. In the early forties, the author called this building he was erecting “The Human Comedy,” defining its three main sections: “Etudes on Morals,” “Philosophical Etudes,” and “Analytical Etudes.” “Studies on Morals” were divided by Balzac into Scenes of private, provincial, Parisian, military, political and village life. Thus, individual works of Balzac merged into a grandiose epic, covering all aspects of social life.
In this unprecedented complex of works of art, the same characters appear repeatedly in different links. But there is no direct chronological continuation of lives and events; the situation is more complicated. The same person appears either as the main character or as a secondary character, at different moments and at different stages of his life. It either appears in one episode, then passes in the background, making up the background or forming the atmosphere of the action, then appears in the perception of many, different persons, which themselves are reflected in their ideas about him. This achieves an unusually versatile illumination of the character in the current time, the relief of the characterization; the hidden corners of his soul and life, his desires and possibilities are highlighted. A person invariably appears in relationships with a mass of other persons, with society, which has a decisive influence on him. The technique of “returning characters”, invented by Balzac, gives a high artistic and educational effect.
Balzac’s recognized masterpieces include the novel “Père Goriot,” created at his usual almost unimaginable pace and intensity of work. The novel is relatively short, but different highest degree the drama inherent in all Balzac’s work, the richness and severity of conflicts resolved in intense struggle. The excited tone of the narrative is one of the integral features of the novel, captivating the reader and introducing him to the suffering of the heroes, to the vicissitudes of their destinies and their internal development.
Goriot is called the bourgeois King Lear; indeed the same situation is depicted here; but not the king, but the former vermicelli merchant, having given his two daughters in marriage with honor, divides his entire fortune between them, and then becomes superfluous to them. Having experienced prolonged moral agony, the torment of disappointment and trampled paternal love, Gorio dies on the straw, abandoned by everyone. What Balzac shares with Shakespeare is the energy of passions and the general scale of the conflict and heroes.
But Balzac's art is new, and it corresponds to the new time. The novel contains a memory of Goriot's past, of the wealth acquired through grain speculation during the years of revolution and famine; there is Madame Boke's boarding house with its motley parasites (such boarding houses appeared only after violent political upheavals and often provided shelter for various kinds of social debris). The image of Eugene Rastignac, a typical figure of a young aristocrat, who, after a short struggle with himself, surrenders his moral positions for the sake of money and success in society, also belongs to modern times.
In a conversation between two students, Rastignac and Bianchon, the first asks the question that has since become famous: should we agree or not to kill an old mandarin in distant China, if at such a price one can buy personal well-being? This question (of course, symbolic) poses a moral dilemma: is it permissible to build one’s happiness on the misfortune of another person? Bianchon refuses. After some time, Rastignac, gaining experience in the Parisian world, will say that his mandarin is “already wheezing”...
Goriot's line in the novel is closely related to Rastignac's line, not only because both live in the same miserable boarding house, but that Rastignac meets both of the old man's daughters in the living rooms, studies them and decides to make the younger one an instrument of his career. More important than this purely plot connection between Rastignac and Goriot is their connection in terms of the moral problematics of the novel: the monstrous ingratitude of the daughters, the loneliness of Goriot and all the bitterness of his death serve as an object lesson for Rastignac in the process of his re-education - this is what high society reward of selfless feeling. Vautrin is right, at least he’s not being a hypocrite...
The escaped convict Jacques Collin, who lives with the same Madame Vauquer under the name Vautrin, is a figure large scale, like 3 and Gobsek. Endowed with devilish energy and insight, he sees perfectly and proves to the student with crushing eloquence that people at the top of society - politicians, financiers, social beauties - live by the same laws of robbery as the world of hard labor; morally, both worlds are worth each other.
Eugene’s elegant relative, Viscountess de Baussant, teaches him, based on bitter experience, the same thing as “this tornado called Vautrin”: “Strike without mercy, and they will fear you... look at men and women as shifting horses, to whom They let you die at every station...”
Thus, everything in the novel is interconnected. The picture of society, drawn in a deeply moving way, reveals its ins and outs. “Père Goriot” is not a love story (the love story between Rastignac and Delphine is not the main plot point); it has secrets, surprises, cunningly organized crimes, but it is clear that this is not an adventure novel. All its elements are united by the theme of Rastignac’s “education”: the behavior of Goriot and his daughters, the activities of Vautrin, the fate of Bossin, the life of the boarding house and the life of the living rooms. “Père Goriot” is a novel about a society plowed up by the French revolution, about the primacy of the bourgeois spirit in it, a novel full of bitter truth. He is imbued with the indignation and fearlessness of a researcher who discovers the underside of things behind their elegant surface. "The world is a quagmire." “I am in hell and will remain in it,” declares Rastignac, who has made his choice.
Balzac captivated readers. And yet the bourgeois press constantly attacked the author " Shagreen leather", "Eugénie Grande", "Père Goriot", these "imperishable books", as George Sand called them. Most readily they accused him of implausibility and immorality. The first is because he gave typical circumstances modern life the most distinct, complete and complete expression. He considered the enlargement and condensation of reality in art to be an aesthetic law. In the novel “Lost Illusions,” the writer d'Artez expresses the author's thought: “What is art? A clot of nature.” Another favorite accusation was based on the immorality of his heroes; the moral qualities of the characters were attributed to the author himself.
Balzac had long been short of a day, not enough life to realize his plans. From his letters to his sister Laura, to his friend, to E. Ganskaya, a picture emerges of ever-renewing labor, often eighteen or more hours a day, night and day, with the shutters and candles closed; labor that crowds out everything else from life except the “fight against the avalanche” of multiplying plans. He writes several works at the same time and edits countless proofs. He calls himself “a prisoner of an idea and a cause, as inexorable as creditors.” “If only you knew what it means to process ideas, give them shape and color, how exhausting it is!” “Burning nights are replaced by other flaming nights, days of reflection are replaced by new days of reflection, from writing you move on to plans, from plans to writing.” He is afraid of going crazy from overexertion. His work is a battle; this comparison appears many times in his correspondence, as does the comparison of himself with a plowman, a mason, and a foundry worker. And just as often as complaints about the overwhelming load of work, courage, determination not to retreat, and notes of hope for victory are heard in his correspondence. He likens himself to a Republican general leading a campaign without bread or boots (an image suggested by recent events military history French Revolution). In the novel “Cousin Betta,” reflecting on labor as the first law of creativity, he obliges the artist to work “like a miner buried in a landslide.”
He allowed himself, much less often than he wanted, to travel around France or abroad, including to Russia. Balzac dreamed of having a family, a home. One day they brought him a letter from Russia with the signature “Stranger” - a response to his works that attracted his attention, and later an acquaintance followed. He went to St. Petersburg and to her estate in the Kyiv province to the woman who wrote the letter, the Polish Countess Evelina Ganskaya, with whom he wanted to connect his fate. She, a wealthy landowner, was afraid of his debts and instability. The marriage with her took place only eighteen years after her letter, in the year of his death. Balzac considered the novel to be his “main” genre - large and free literary form, the capabilities of which corresponded well to his plans: to draw complex social connections between many characters, to reflect the course of history... At the same time, he often turned to the “small genre” - the story (novella), a story with elements of a novella; the diversity of genres reflected the versatility of his talent. There are few heroes in a story, there is usually only one line of action, but a small form has its advantages. Just a small volume of work, with a skillful choice of content, can contribute to the concentration of expressiveness.
Balzac's stories and tales are always large-scale: behind one incident or one chain of events in someone's private life, thanks to their deeply revealed roots, an important side of reality is outlined that goes beyond the life of this one person (for example, in “Gobsek”). Balzac in the stories remains a “doctor of social medicine” and a great heart specialist.
In the story “Colonel Chabert” (1832), the action grows out of an extraordinary situation: a man who was considered killed in battle and buried, turned out to be only seriously wounded, miraculously escaped mass grave and for eight long years he sought to have him, poor and unrecognizable due to wounds and illness, officially recognized by the bureaucratic machine of society as alive...
Balzac has no plots that are not related to the analysis of society and era. A desperate struggle of passions, life paths heroes, full of surprises and twists and turns, tragic mental crises grow out of strictly truthful historical circumstances. In "Colonel Chabert" the development of action is directly influenced by the difficult situation in France in the first decades of the century, the change political regimes in the country. Chabert, a pupil of a foundling asylum, having neither wealth nor privileges, straightforward and noble by nature, received the title of count and rank from Napoleon for his personal bravery. He was considered dead in the battle of 1807, during the time when Napoleon was emperor. Chabert's wife, beneficially and happily for herself, remarried a man from an old aristocratic family - the political situation favored such a mixed union. But the Empire gave way to the Bourbon restoration, and Rose's second husband Chabert began to secretly regret his marriage, which was now hindering his career. Thus, all historical process in the country passes before us in the vicissitudes of the fate of one married couple. Clinging to your happiness ex-wife Shabera, the countess, with animal egoism refused to recognize him - she pushed him back into the grave. But, in spite of her, with the support of a talented lawyer (this is Derville, familiar to us from Gobsek), Chabert finally received everything Required documents. Then his wife changed tactics. Playing on the feelings of her husband, who still retained his love for her, acting like a skilled actress, she persuaded him to voluntarily give up - for the sake of her happiness - everything that he had regained at the cost of heroic efforts in a duel with her and with society.
But chance revealed to Chabert all her baseness: having achieved her goal, to be sure, she decided to deprive him and good name, was ready to slander, lock me up in a madhouse...
Shocked, he refuses - no longer out of love, as he wanted before, but out of contempt for both her and the general falsehood - not only from property, but also from his place in society and his very name. As a nameless tramp, he sinks to the bottom.
The unexpected tragic outcome is not exhausted by this (here is an example of the drama inherent in Balzac's narrative). A full twenty years later, Derville discovers Chabert, apparently mentally retarded, among the inhabitants of the almshouse. But it turns out that both the mind and patriotic feelings of the old warrior are alive. He wears a mask of madness, like Shakespeare's Hamlet, this is his form of rejection of the environment with its bestial morals. He is not able to defeat this environment, but it did not defeat his spirit.
“What a fate! Spend your childhood in a foundling asylum, die in an almshouse for the elderly, and in between help Napoleon conquer Europe and Egypt.” At the end of the story, two experienced lawyers confirm that Chabert’s story, while seemingly unusual, is in fact typical: “I’ve already seen enough of all this while working for Desroches...”
Chabert's spiritual inflexibility and his adherence to moral sense are characteristic of art world"The Human Comedy". This world is populated by crowds of moneylenders, careerists, bankers, convicts, brilliant egoists with cold hearts. But the other pole is also fully represented in it: Eugenie Grandet, Chabert, Michel Chrétien and the entire Commonwealth of d'Artesa, lawyer Derville (about whom his high-society client says ironically: “You will never achieve anything, but you will be the happiest and best of people”) In Balzac's novels, selfless seekers selflessly pursue their ideas: scientists, artists, inventors. In the story "Colonel Chabert" Derville expresses a brilliantly simple observation: one of the properties of virtue is not to be an owner. This idea is confirmed in Balzac by a string of images of people from the people.
4. “Mass of the Atheist” as a continuation of the collection
Balzac always sees broadly the area of reality that he undertakes to depict, and each of his works is characterized by multi-themes and multi-problems. The same is true in this story, where there are only three characters: the famous surgeon Desplaines, the doctor Bianchon, who appeared in many of Balzac’s works, and the worker Bourges from the province of Auvergne. Sketching a characterization of Desplein (this character had a living prototype, the surgeon Dupuytren), built on a surprisingly lively combination of contradictory traits, the author raised the question of the difference between genius and talent, the universality of knowledge and breadth of outlook, and the importance of a philosophical mind for a specialist. Balzac constantly cared about the fascination of his plots, and here the action is based on revealing the mystery: why does Desplein, a convinced atheist, attend church? But a fascinating plot is never an end in itself; it certainly serves the truth of the characters, reveals the truth about the society in which the heroes live. The mystery is clarified through Desplaine's account of his past.
He had difficult years of study; subject young talent, dying without support in poverty and loneliness, was touched upon more than once in The Human Comedy; it was also personally close to Balzac. In “The Atheist’s Mass” it is repeated in the biography of Bianchon, who became his teacher’s assistant and friend. With the irresistible power of feeling inherent in Balzac, meager pages were written about the selfishness of rich mediocrities, which “are encountered at every step in high society,” about the “army of pygmies” that trample down the talent and the very life of the poor. His only friend turned out to be a simple water-carrier, who in his heart understood the human value of a poor student and, selflessly and delicately helping, gave him the opportunity to complete his course and defend his diploma. And the famous surgeon, who could not be further from sentimentality, through the decades carried passionate gratitude to his named father, “like a fire that burns to this day!” In memory of him, Desplein is ready to rush to the aid of any other worker who in any way resembles the late Bourges.
For judging Balzac’s values, the image of Bianchon is also important - “direct, incapable of any compromise in matters of honor” (it was he who refused to “kill the mandarin” in “Père Goriot”). He is a wonderful comrade, a courageous and at the same time light-hearted man, not averse to pleasure, but “locked” his lusts and passions “within the limits of incessant work.” Thus, in a short story, the charge of humanity characteristic of all the work of its author was fully embodied.
Balzac thought deeply about the problems of art and wrote several stories about artists. It would be fair to call “The Unknown Masterpiece” the pearl of the entire series.
This story has its own amazing story. It was published in 1831, then thoroughly revised and took its final form only in 1837, incorporating the creative experience of Balzac, by that time already the author of “Gobsek”, “Colonel Chabert”, “Eugenie Grande”, “Père Goriot” , "Search for the absolute." “The Unknown Masterpiece” is a story about the paths of art, extremely rich in thought (it is classified by the author in the section of “philosophical studies”); the thought was embodied in living, visible images and an exciting plot. The action takes place at the beginning of the 17th century; Like any significant work from the distant past, the story vividly resonates with the present.
A mysterious painter who has comprehended the deep secrets of craftsmanship has created an image beautiful woman, so perfect that it seems to blur the line between art and nature. And later, the same artist, taking the wrong path, ruined his painting, unnoticed by himself turning it into a chaos of lines and colors. Realizing this, he committed suicide.
What was the secret of his success? And what was the cause of the crash?
In the mouth of Frenhofer, when he corrects Porbus's painting as an instruction to his fellows, thoughts about great art resulted in popular verbal formulas. “The task of art is not to copy nature, but to express it! You are not a pathetic copyist, but a poet! And this idea is further explained by comparing a simple plaster cast of a woman’s hand (the cast doesn’t seem to lie) with an image of the same hand made by an artist: the cast is “the hand of a corpse, and you will have to turn to a sculptor, who, without giving an exact copy, will convey the movement and life." It is impossible to better imagine the essence and truth of art, its magical power. The artist is not limited to the surface of things, like a craftsman taking a cast. "Impression! Impression! But they are only accidents of life, and not life itself!.. Neither an artist, nor a poet, nor a sculptor should separate the impression from the cause, since they are inseparable - one in the other.” The sources of facial expression are in the past of a lifetime. This means that the artist explores his model with inspiration. Frenhofer is right a thousand times: he is not a pathetic copyist...
The artist Frenhofer is a fictitious person. The artists Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and France Porbus (1569-1622) are historical figures, as is the mentioned “Frenhofer’s teacher” Mabuse (Jan Gossaert). Balzac skillfully finds reference points for his fiction in reality. the artist explores his model with inspiration. He reflects specifically on the role of air and light in painting - he breaks up the rigid outline of objects, creating “a haze of light and warm undertones,” prophetically anticipating the discoveries of the Impressionists.
What happened next that led Frenhofer to a dead end? This question is not easy to answer, especially since there is more than one reason. Balzac, as usual, sees the problem “comprehensively,” including many of its roots and sides.
The clearest warning is against deceiving subjective perceptions; creative person in a passion for his idea, in a thirst for absolute perfection, he may, unnoticed by himself, lose the correct judgment about his work, about its value, its suitability for its purpose. The author has penetrated into the complex area of the psychology of creativity. Through the mouth of Porbus, Balzac also warns the artist against theorizing in isolation from the immediate creative work: “Artists should reason only with a brush in their hands.” Of course, the content of the psychological study is not exhausted by this. It is not exaggerating to call it inexhaustible. In this sense, it resembles Leonardo da Vinci’s world-famous painting La Gioconda,” like this painting, it retains something mysterious in itself. But to understand this, you need to learn to understand painting and its history. For now, we will limit ourselves to providing other evidence in favor of the depth and prophetic power of the story. In our time, Stefan Zweig wrote: “It is the artists who feel that never before has the most intimate secret of art, the desire for perfection, been so violently brought to tragic proportions.” The famous painter Paul Cezanne recognized himself with great excitement in the personality of Frenhofer. Pablo Picasso, famous artist XX century, made by a short story eighty illustrations.
The fate of this story is unprecedented. In addition to countless articles, special books have been written about him in French and English languages. Interest in the “Unknown Masterpiece” increases over time, as art develops.
This book includes selected works of Balzac from the thirties. IN last decade The writer's life "The Human Comedy" continued to grow. Novels increased in volume, covering ever new aspects of reality, justifying ever more numerous and complex connections between characters. Let’s name at least the most important ones: “Lost Illusions”, “Dark Affair”, “A Bachelor’s Life”, “Cousin Betta”, “Cousin Pons” are finished.
Conclusion
Balzac was fifty-one years old when death interrupted his work. So many plans, fragments, and new titles were discovered in his papers that one of the researchers rightfully suggested: no matter how long this extraordinarily prolific writer lived, The Human Comedy would still not have been completed, because as plans were implemented, new ones would appear. ; there would be no end to it, just as there is no end to the life of society.
Balzac died on August 19, 1850. Over his grave, Victor Hugo, the author of Les Miserables, said prophetic words: “... Whether he wanted it or not, whether he agreed with it or not, is the creator of this huge and unprecedented work was from a strong breed of revolutionary writers... Balzac has a stranglehold on modern society. His scalpel penetrates the soul, the heart, the brain... into the abyss that everyone carries within themselves. And so Balzac, after these terrible labors that led Moliere to melancholy and misanthropy - Rousseau, comes out smiling and bright.”
Balzac can be read superficially, at the level of changing dramatic events. In this case too, he gives a lot. And you can read more and more thoughtfully, at the same time trying to understand the human scientist, the reliable historian, the “doctor of social medicine.” Then Balzac is not an easy read. But he rewards with the fullest measure.
Bibliography
1. Balzac O. Collection. Op. in 24 volumes - M.: Leningrad State University Publishing House, 1960.
2. Grigorieva E.Ya., Gorbacheva E.Yu. French literature. – M.: Infra-M, 2009. – 560 p.
3. Balzac O. Gobsek. Father Goriot. Evgenia Grande. Unknown masterpiece. – M.: Bustard, 2007. – 656 p.
4. Zhirmunskaya N.A. From Baroque to Romanticism: Articles on French and German literature. – M.: Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. – St. Petersburg: 2001. – 464 p.
5. Tolstoy L.N. Full Collection Op. in 30 volumes, 30 volumes - M.: GIHL. 1951.
6. Maurois A. Literary portraits. – M.: Progress, 1970. – 455 p.
7. Balzac in the memoirs of his contemporaries. – M.: Fiction, 1986. – 559 p.
8. Zweig St. Balzac. – M.: Young Guard, 1961. – 768 p.
9. Hugo V. Collection. Op. in 15 volumes. T. 15 – M.: - 1956.
Balzac O. Collection. Op. in 24 volumes - M.: Leningrad State University Publishing House, 1960.
Grigorieva E.Ya., Gorbacheva E.Yu. French literature. – M.: Infra-M, 2009. – 560 p.
Balzac O. Gobsek. Father Goriot. Evgenia Grande. Unknown masterpiece. – M.: Bustard, 2007. – 656 p.
Zhirmunskaya N.A. From Baroque to Romanticism: Articles on French and German literature. – M.: Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. – St. Petersburg: 2001. – 464 p.
Tolstoy L.N. Full Collection Op. in 30 volumes, 30 volumes - M.: GIHL. 1951.
Maurois A. Literary portraits. – M.: Progress, 1970. – 455 p.
Balzac in the memoirs of his contemporaries. – M.: Fiction, 1986. – 559 p.
Zweig St. Balzac. – M.: Young Guard, 1961. – 768 p.
Hugo V. Collection. Op. in 15 volumes. T. 15 – M.: - 1956.
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