The accuracy and breadth of the depiction of French reality is combined by Honore de Balzac with the depth of penetration into internal patterns public life. It reveals the class conflicts of the era and reveals the bourgeois nature of the social development of France after the revolution of 1789. In the images of merchants, moneylenders, bankers and entrepreneurs, he captured the appearance of the new master of life - the bourgeoisie. He showed people who were greedy and cruel, without honor or conscience, making their fortunes through open and secret crimes.
The pernicious power of capital penetrates into all spheres human life. The bourgeoisie subjugates the state (“Dark Business”, “Deputy from Arsi”), rules the countryside (“Peasants”), and extends its pernicious influence on the spiritual activity of people - on science and art (“Lost Illusions”). Destructive action " financial principle“It also affects people’s private lives. Under the poisonous effect of calculation, the human personality degrades, family ties and family disintegrate, love and friendship collapse. Selfishness that develops on the basis of monetary relations becomes the cause of human suffering.
The harmful effects of money on human personality and human relations with great artistic expression shown in the story.
At the center of the story is the wealthy moneylender Gobsek. Despite his million-dollar fortune, he lives very modestly and secluded. Gobsek rents a room reminiscent of a monastic cell in a gloomy, damp house that was formerly a monastery hotel. On interior decoration his home, his entire way of life bears the stamp of strict economy and moderation.
Gobsek is lonely. He has no family, no friends, he broke all ties with relatives, because he hated his heirs and “didn’t even think that anyone would take possession of his fortune, even after his death.” One single passion - the passion for accumulation - has absorbed all other feelings in his soul: he knows neither love, nor pity, nor compassion.
Balzac uses the details of the portrait to reveal the inner essence of his hero. In Gobsek’s appearance there is immobility, deadness, detachment from all earthly things, human passions combined with something predatory and sinister. Ash-yellow tones and comparisons with precious metals make it clear to the reader that it was the passion for gold that destroyed the human element in him, making him dead during his lifetime.
The story depicts the social environment in which Gobsek operates; the two opposite poles of his contemporary society are precisely outlined. On the one hand, the poor, honest workers, doomed to a dull existence (the seamstress Fanny Malvo, the lawyer Derville), on the other, a handful of rich people who spend their days in pursuit of luxury and pleasure (the young Comte de Tray, Countess de Resto), whose moral character presented in a sharply repulsive manner.
Possessing extensive practical experience and a penetrating mind, Gobsek deeply comprehended the inner essence of his contemporary society. He saw life in its nakedness, in its dramatic contrasts, and realized that in a society where there is a struggle between rich and poor, genuine driving force social life is money. Gobsek says: “What is life if not a machine that is set in motion by money,” “of all earthly goods there is only one, reliable enough for a person to chase after it. Is this gold". Gobsek's passion for hoarding is a natural product of the bourgeois system, a concentrated expression of its inner essence.
Using the example of Gobsek, Balzac shows that money not only kills the human personality, but also brings destruction to the life of the entire society. Gobsek, isolated in his cell, is not at all as harmless as it might seem at first glance. His moral: “It’s better to push yourself than to let others push you.”
Of all the possible forms of communication with people, he retained only one - the relationship between a creditor and debtors. And in this role he is terrible. People come to Gobsek’s cold room with prayers, but no one has yet managed to touch the moneylender’s heart. The source of Gobsek’s enrichment is human misfortunes, vices, and need. Gobsek's predation and parasitism cause especially deep indignation when they manifest themselves in relation to honest people such as Fanny Malvo and Derville.
The destructive nature of Gobsek's hoarding is revealed with stunning force at the end of the story. Towards the end of his life, his greed turns into an insane mania. He becomes an insatiable “boa constrictor”, completely absorbing various gifts brought by clients. When, after Gobsek’s death, his storerooms were opened, it turned out that huge masses of goods lay rotting in them without any use.
The writer masterfully shows those destructive processes that take place both in the spiritual and in material spheres bourgeois society.
Option I
It's amazing how money changes and enslaves people! “If the king himself owed me, Countess, and did not pay on time, I would sue him...” - this is what the moneylender Gobsek says to Countess de Resto, who is ruining her children for the sake of the scoundrel Maxime de Tray. The moneylender is entertained by the opportunity to look into the innermost depths of the human heart, into someone else's life without embellishment. An ingot of metal in the hands of a human automaton is equivalent to a human heart: “I see only hunted deer, chased by a whole pack of lenders.” The secret price of bills falling into the hands of a usurer is despair, stupidity, rashness, love or compassion. Gobsek compares his clients to actors giving a theatrical performance for him, and himself to God, reading in their hearts. He loves to stain the carpets of luxurious houses with his dirty shoes - not out of petty pride, but to make him feel the clawed paw of Inevitability.
Gobsek believes that there is nothing vicious on earth, there are only conventions, only the feeling invested by nature is unshakable -> the instinct of self-preservation. Of all earthly goods, he singles out only one thing that is reliable enough to be worth pursuing - gold. And his only joy is vanity. Gold contains in embryo human vices and whims, material possibilities. Gobsek's gold owns the world, this is his happiness and joy, he has fun controlling the destinies of people and observing their passions. The moneylender claims that he is rich enough to buy the conscience of clients, to control all-powerful ministers. Gobsek is the ruler of the destinies of Parisians, quiet, unknown to anyone. For him, all life is a machine that is set in motion by money, gold is the spiritual essence of the whole society. But the moneylender hates his heirs and does not allow the thought that someone will become the owner of his fortune.
None of his neighbors know whether he is poor or rich, or whether he has relatives or friends. Due to excessive secrecy and caution, Gob-sek refused his own gold coin, which fell out of his pocket and was kindly picked up by his neighbor. His wrinkles keep the secret of terrible trials, sudden terrible events, unexpected successes, wealth and ruin, mortal dangers. The moneylender tried all the possibilities for enrichment, even tried to find gold buried in America.
Over the years, Gobsek, who became rich, turned into a secret behind seven seals, into a golden idol, not knowing that in the world there is a woman’s love and happiness, feelings, there is God. For Gobsek, the world existed only in order to travel around it and rummage it, weigh it, evaluate it and rob it. But everything is, of course, relative. And Gobsek dies completely alone, and, as you know, you cannot take money and palaces with you to the grave.
Option II
The pinnacle of French critical realism is the work of Honore de Balzac, the greatest master of the realistic novel.
One of Balzac's best works is the story "Gob-sec", the hero of which is the personification of the power of gold over people. Gobsek, who was already 76 years old, rented two poorly furnished rooms in one of the gloomy, damp houses in Paris. He was an “automatic man,” concerned with collecting high interest rates on time from the bills of his victims who borrowed money from him, or, since “things ended that way, appropriating their property and jewelry.”
Gobsek, having gained confidence in Derville, shared his thoughts with him. He had a consistent, but frightening in its frankness, its cynicism, system of views in which we, readers, can easily discover the everyday philosophy of a miser.
“Of all earthly blessings,” said Gobsek, “there is only one that is reliable enough for a person to pursue it. This...
gold. Money is a commodity that can be sold with a clear conscience, high or low, depending on the circumstances.
Gobsek did not believe in the morality of people, in their decency. “Man is the same everywhere: everywhere there is a struggle between the poor and the rich, everywhere it is inevitable. So it’s better to push yourself than to allow others to push you.” Gobsek is a moneylender of a time when money becomes the most important force in social life. People like Gobsek, owning them in unlimited quantities, control in their hands businessmen and businessmen, ministers and aristocrats of the Saint-Germain suburb, writers and artists. Controlling the destinies, and perhaps the lives of these people who consider themselves the “salt of the earth,” dictating their terms to them, witnessing their humiliation—that’s what Gobsek is intoxicated with.
“My gaze is like the gaze of God,” says Gobsek. - I read in hearts; nothing is hidden from me, nothing is denied to the one who tightens and unties the money bag. I am rich enough to buy the conscience of those who manage ministers, from clerical servants to their mistresses. Isn't this power? I can, having the most beautiful women, enjoy their most tender caresses. Isn’t this pleasure?”
Gobsek embodies the most negative traits acquisitiveness. He is endowed with a remarkable mind, capable of broad generalizations. His views on life are based on the philosophy of an entire era: “In gold,” says Gobsek, “all human powers are concentrated.”
Derville believed in human nobility, from Gobsek he learned the truth about the brutal struggle, the more tragic the scenes associated with the ruin of the Resto family, which he witnessed, seemed to Derville.
Derville understood the sinister reason for Gobsek’s dominance over many people, as well as the real reason their tragedies, which always had a common basis: one took money from the other. “No, really, it all comes down to money!” - he exclaims. For Balzac, Gobsek is the living embodiment of that predatory force that persistently makes its way to power.
What is being done now, have we gone a step forward or remained in place? Everyone claims that we are moving towards progress, but is this true? All relationships are built on money, nothing happens without it. Marriages based on true love. And I would like to ask, do gobseks exist now?
Yes! Our world, our time is simply filled with such stingy people who work only for money. How can culture and education develop if we stand still? The destructive power of money has taken over humanity. We can only save ourselves with capes.
Option III
The coupon and rent are more than any good for them...
Balzac saw the “nerve of life” of his time, the “spiritual essence of all modern society,” at the same time as the Evil and Divinity of the bourgeois world in the monetary relations that dominated everything. The new deity, fetish, idol - money, distorted human lives, took children away from their parents, wives from their husbands... All these problems lie behind individual episodes of the short story "Gobsek".
At the center of the story is the figure of the moneylender Gobsek, who embodies the essence of a monetary society. Gobsek is a dry, sharp-nosed old man, hiding yellow, ferret-like eyes without eyelashes under the large visor of a shabby cap, with a pale, impassive face, “as if cast from silver,” the personification of stinginess. He lives in a poor room with a thin rug by the bed and a peephole front door, lives on bread and coffee with milk, walks in shabby clothes, and in his pantry there are mountains of food rotting, heaps of gold and silver are piled up, which he does not trust to the bank. His stinginess turned into a manic passion, senseless hoarding on the threshold of death acquired the character of madness. The rich man withers and languishes among the treasures. Debtors pay Gobsek both in money and in kind; they bring him silverware and boxes of family jewelry, baskets of fresh fish and pates. He could sell these supplies to some shop owner, but he is afraid that he will give a price less than the market price. And the supplies are rotting. The stench of decay, dead piles of goods under the castle - and among them a dying old man shaking over his treasures. Accumulation turned into an end in itself for Gobsek. Greedy passion consumed him.
The outcome of the moneylender's life is worthy of him - he dies alone, despised by everyone, in a dirty room. One of the bloodsuckers passes away, leaving behind millions made from tears and blood.
The novella contains many features of romantic aesthetics. The romantic exaggeration of the mystery and power of Gobsek gives him an almost supernatural being. Balzac was an opponent of romantic effects, but here, apparently, he wanted to show the destructive power of money. But Gobsek’s life could have turned out differently! Since his mother assigned him as a cabin boy on a ship, he lived a long life, full of vicissitudes and dangers: he starved, endured violence and cruelty, was a pirate, a spy, a gold miner, but always and everywhere he was possessed by an irrepressible thirst for wealth. By the time the novella takes place, Gobsek is a silent, outwardly inconspicuous old man, who is in fact one of the rulers of Paris. Gobsek secretly managed banks, stock exchange affairs, trade, and loans. This unspoken association of financiers turns out to be the only real power in France.
Gobsek's life, or rather its ending, could not have been different. In the whole tragic situation, Gobsek sees only his own entertainment - he does not sympathize with any of the people, he does not try to save anyone from suicide or execution. The thirst for gold has eradicated even kindred feelings in his soul: his only heiress commits suicide in unbearable need.
He takes extortionate interest from Derville, and leaves Count de Resto’s family without funds, taking advantage of a fictitious will and the confusion of the countess. Gobsek has a wolfish rule: not to feel sorry for anyone, not to help anyone, but to take advantage of what you can take for free.
Gobsek despises people for their inability to use wealth, for their inability to save gold, because only it, in his opinion, gives true strength and power. Aristocrats grovel before him, society ladies are ready to crawl on their knees, because he has their vile secrets in his hands, and bills in his pocket. His reasoning is frank and cynical: “I am rich enough to buy human conscience, to control all-powerful ministers through their favorites, starting with clerical servants and ending with mistresses. Isn’t this power?.. But don’t power and pleasure represent the essence of your new bourgeois system?”
Balzac makes the final conclusion that the old man knew how to weigh everything, take it into account, never compromised on his benefits, but he “did not take into account” only one thing, that hoarding cannot be the goal of a rational human life.
IV option
The central image of Balzac’s short story “Gob-sec” is an image of great generalizing power. It embodied one of main topics world literature is a theme of stinginess. Moliere's Harpagon, Gogol's Plyushkin, Pushkin's Miser - people who felt the power that money gives to its owner, and submitted to this power. Gobsek is another striking figure in this gallery of types.
Gobsek's profession is a moneylender. This profession gives you the opportunity to get rich without doing anything, by giving money as collateral. Gobsek learned well main principle relations in society: “It’s better to push yourself than to allow yourself to be pushed.” He went through a harsh school of life: “At the age of ten... he sailed to the Dutch possessions of the East Indies, where he wandered for twenty years.” He served as a cabin boy, was a gold miner, a pirate, a spy. Years of wandering, the absence of love, warmth, and participation in the hero’s life gave rise to the philosophy of a spider with a death grip.
Behind the colorless, inconspicuous appearance of the hero hides a predator waiting in the wings. His wealth is also hidden from human eyes behind the beggarly surroundings. Here the firebrands barely smolder, and the desk is covered with worn cloth. The reader involuntarily asks himself the question: why does this “man save money, if even it does not bring him any joy. Wealth in itself, money for the sake of money - this is the goal of Gobsek’s life, who knows neither sympathy nor compassion , "bill man."
Having taken possession of the wealth of the Resto family, Gobsek does not want to part with it, even anticipating death. Already seriously ill, he is involved in a major scam, does not disdain bribes, gifts: “Every morning he received gifts and greedily looked at them, like some minister or a nabob considering whether it was worth signing a pardon for such a price. The dying Gobsek, already losing his last strength, gets out of bed: it seems to him as if gold is rolling around the room.
Lecturing the young lawyer Derville, Gobsek asserts that there is nothing durable in the world, that the concept of morality is conditional, and the laws of morality are verbiage, and “of all earthly goods there is only one that is sufficiently reliable... This is... gold.” He claims that the basis of relationships between people is selfishness. He reveals to Derville the secret springs of the structure of society, the state, where “to protect their property, the rich elected tribunals, judges, and the guillotine.”
Indeed, next to the moneylender Gobsek, Balzac shows secular society, in which money rules over people. Drawing the image of Countess de Resto, the author tears off the mask of decency, sophistication, and piety from the aristocracy. The Countess rummages through the documents of her just deceased husband in fear of poverty and in the struggle for inheritance. Exposed in connection with an insignificant person, she is not tormented by remorse; her conscience is money. The large inheritance received by the young de Resto reconciles the family of Camille Granlier with the scandalous reputation of his mother. Money is the law of life not only for the bourgeoisie, but also for the aristocracy.
In the story “Gobsek” Balzac shows that money can completely subjugate a person, deprive him of everything human. This story is a stern warning to the reader: empty hoarding leads to spiritual death.
Each era has its own problems and priorities. In France in 1789 the first place was financial well-being. But the writer showed what destructive power gold can have. After all, while providing people with greater opportunities for well-being and achieving their goals, at the same time, the precious metal puts material values on a pedestal. Society, in its race for wealth, forgets about the spiritual. The French bourgeoisie of those times: merchants, bankers, moneylenders, entrepreneurs - that’s new image master of life, the embodiment of success. But Honore de Balzac focused the attention of readers precisely on negative impact wealth, which turns a person into a greedy, cruel creature, ignorant of conscience and honor, ready to commit not only secret, but also overt crimes for the sake of his fortune.
The destructive power of capital creeps into all spheres of public and private life. Gold, like a poison, changes a person's personality. As a result, he degrades, his needs are reduced to the level of an animal. In such an atmosphere, family ties are not valued, there is no respect for family, friendship and love collapse. The rich have selfish natures and make those who are not under the destructive influence of money suffer.
The power of gold is very expressively shown by Balzac in the guise of Gobsek, a wealthy moneylender. He managed to become a millionaire, but this in no way affected his lifestyle. He is still closed and modest, does not have his own home, but rents a tiny room in a damp and gloomy house. He became a victim of his own unhealthy economy and regularity.
Wealth made Gobsek lonely. But it doesn't seem to bother him at all. He himself would not allow anyone to inherit all his savings after his death. Therefore, he has no friends and family, and he has cut off all family ties. Normal human feelings are alien to him: pity, sympathy, love and friendship. His only passion is to accumulate.
Honoré de Balzac specifically details the portrait of the main character in such a way as to demonstrate his true essence as much as possible. His external deadness, immobility and detachment from everything earthly is transformed into sinister and predatory features. It was gold that made him dead during his lifetime and killed the human element in him.
Gobsek is presented in the work against the backdrop of a two-sided social environment. These are rich people who devoted their lives to pleasure and luxury. Their moral character is shown repulsively. On the other hand, they are poor, but at the same time honest workers. They are doomed to a miserable and dull existence, and sometimes even survival. Gobsek, seeing such a contrast in society, quickly decided which side he wanted to be on. He realized that main force V modern life is precisely money. The moneylender emphasizes that only financial well-being can be life goal. This is the reliable support that makes you confidently live the days allotted by fate.
Gobsek owes his passion for hoarding to the bourgeois system that divided society into rich and poor. And he had a choice: either they would crush him, or he himself would do it to others. Gobsek chose the latter, since no one wishes the worst for themselves.
It cannot be said that absolutely any relationship is alien to the main character. But again, the only ones that were in his life were of a business nature. We are talking about the creditor-debtor relationship. True, in this role Gobsek is still devoid of any humanity. He is terrible at communicating with people. No one has yet managed to pity him. He profits from needs, vices, grief and absolutely does not feel remorse.
At the end of the story, the destructive power of gold is revealed to its full potential. Gobsek's greed and insatiability in old age develops into madness and mania for hoarding. After his death, a lot of damaged property was found in the storerooms. And no one regretted Gobsek’s death...
The destructive power of money is not the only thing Balzac wrote about:
- Brief summary of Honore de Balzac's story "Gobsek"
- “Gobsek”, artistic analysis of the story by Honore de Balzac
- Essay based on Honore de Balzac's story "Gobsek"
1. The theme of the power of money in the world and in the human soul.
2. Hoarding and waste.
3. Moral degradation of the individual.
Death awaits you - so spend your wealth without sparing;
But life is not over: take care of what is good.
Only that person is wise who, having comprehended both,
He saves good in moderation and spends it in moderation.
L. Samossky
One of the leading motives in O. de Balzac’s story “Gobsek” is the power of money over people. In Balzac's story this power is visibly embodied in the image of a moneylender with a telling surname: Gobsek means “live-lot” in Dutch. The theme that Balzac touched on in his work is one of the eternal themes. Many writers have turned to the image of the miser, who is both comical and tragic at the same time. It should be noted that Balzac’s Gobsek is far from clear-cut. The author shows this character through the eyes of the young lawyer Derville, who at first met the main character could not understand what kind of person he was: “Did he have family, friends? Was he poor or rich? No one could answer these questions." Derville talks about “a tragicomic incident from the life of Gobsek: an old moneylender accidentally dropped a gold coin, and when it was handed to him, he resolutely declared that this money was not his: “But would I live like that if I were rich!”
The remark is very sensible - indeed, it is difficult to believe that a rich man would live the way Gobsek, the “automatic man”, “bill man”, lives. However, as it becomes clear from the subsequent narration, Gobsek’s exclamation is most likely a maneuver intended to divert attention. Like a typical miser, he fears that no one will find out about his wealth.
Gobsek's only interest is the acquisition of wealth - it should be noted that in this area the talents of this person are truly large-scale. Gobsek also has his own philosophy, in which money takes pride of place. As the main value in life, the concentration of all opportunities and aspirations, material wealth appears: “When you live with me, you will learn that of all earthly blessings there is only one, reliable enough for a person to pursue it. Is this gold. All the forces of humanity are concentrated in gold.”
So, here is the answer to Derville’s unspoken question: does Gobsek know about God, does he believe in Him? What religion is this person committed to? Gold is the only power that the old moneylender recognizes: “To fulfill our whims, it takes time, we need material opportunities or efforts. Well then! In gold everything is contained in the germ, and it gives everything in reality.” Gobsek enjoys the consciousness of his power, which he has thanks to money. He sincerely believes that nothing in the world has power over him. However, Gobsek's power in to a greater extent manifests itself in the realm of the speculative than in reality. Of course, the moneylender shakes out substantial money from his clients, but this is where the manifestations of his power end. Gobsek lives as if he does not have a huge fortune. To the old moneylender, like Pushkin's stingy knight, it’s enough to think that he could have everything he wants. But the worst thing is that the hero no longer wants anything except the money itself. Talking about their power, Gobsek almost becomes a poet for a few moments - this single topic inspires him so much.
“This wizened old man suddenly grew in my eyes, became a fantastic figure, the personification of the power of gold. Life and people filled me with horror at that moment.
“Does it really all come down to money?” - this is Derville’s reaction to Gobsek’s revelations. And yet, despite his millions, his power, Gobsek is at the same time pitiful. At least the young lawyer at one point looked at the moneylender as if he was “gravely ill.” And he is really sick - spiritually sick. He has no family, no children, he is old and weak. For whom is he amassing untold wealth? Why does he live like a poor man with millions? Nothing in the world has power over him except money, his idol. Gobsek enjoys the ghost of power that money has. Actually, he needs money not as a means of acquiring various things, but as a way to exercise power over others. Balzac, showing the power of money over people, did not limit himself to the traditional image of a miser-usurer. Money doesn't play a role in Countess Resto's life either. last role. It should be noted right away: the Countess, unlike Gobsek, views money precisely as a means by which she maintains the external gloss of a society lady and retains her lover, a vicious man with an angelic appearance. The need for money, which her lover constantly demands, forces the Countess to turn to a moneylender. The fear that her husband will deprive her younger children of their inheritance pushes her to unworthy intrigues - the woman is ready to take advantage of her eldest son’s affection for her and his father, just to get her hands on the will of the dying count.
So, Balzac contrasts two ways of relating to money - the accumulation of wealth for its own sake and unbridled extravagance, clearly showing the inferiority of both positions. It is no coincidence that the author described and last days Gobsek's life. The old man is sick, lying in bed, he understands that his days are numbered - and yet the mechanism of enrichment continues to operate. Gobsek's stinginess reaches terrifying proportions and loses all logic. Clients brought him various gifts - products, silver dishes, which he sold to stores. But due to the reluctance of the stingy old man to sell the goods a little cheaper, the products spoil. Money and goods matter when they are used - that is the meaning of the picture of rotting food in the apartment of the late Gobsek. And who will his fortune go to? A prostitute, his distant relative. It can be assumed that this woman will most likely quickly spend her easy money and again slide into the usual abyss. “Yes, I have everything, and I have to part with everything. Well, well, daddy Gobsek, don’t be a coward, be true to yourself...” - these are the last words of the old moneylender. No regrets about a joylessly spent life devoted to acquiring money that he himself hardly used, no thoughts about his soul - nothing... And what is the soul for a person who recognizes gold as the only power in the world?
So, Balzac showed the power that money has over a person. But it is necessary to note the following: it is not money that makes a person a miser or a spendthrift. Only the person himself determines what is for him main value. While a person is alive, it is not too late to reconsider his position if following it negatively affects inner world and the external life of the individual. After all, it was not money that destroyed the countess’s family and caused the death of her husband, but this woman’s lifestyle. Cause moral ruin Gobsek, which occurred long before his physical death, also lies not in money as such, but in the attitude of this man towards it, who, like the Jews brought out of slavery, bowed before the golden calf, forgetting about the eternal greatness and power of God.
Topic: Honore de Balzac. The story "Gobsek". Image destructive power money in O. de Balzac's story “Gobsek”
Goal: to help students deeply and consciously learn ideological content story, formulate the problems posed in it; improve the ability to characterize images of heroes, analyze literary text, compare images; develop logical and abstract thinking, coherent speech; cultivate high moral qualities.
Equipment: portrait of Balzac, illustrations for the story, tables, epigraph on the board.
Lesson form: lesson – press conference
Two creatures live in it:
miser and philosopher, vile
being and sublime
O. Balzac
Lesson progress
I. Org. moment.
II. Greeting from the teacher.
Hello students, hello teachers and guests. I'm glad to see everyone in our lesson. And today’s lesson will not be easy, its topic is ________________________________________________________________. Our lesson will be held in the form of a press conference, so now I invite you to take your seats characters our conference is ahead of the class, and the rest today are not just students, they are correspondents of various well-known Ukrainian and foreign publishing houses. They will express their opinions, ask our heroes various tricky problematic questions, and also show their knowledge and skills.
ІІІ. Opening remarks teachers.
Great writers, like Columbus, perfecting their immortal feat, open new worlds to us. Balzac amazed his contemporaries with his discovery in society. An abyss appeared before the artist’s astonished gaze. He looked into it and realized that no work, even a perfect one, could contain the drama of modern life. He dedicated all his work to her.
Let's imagine that the writer Balzac is present in our lesson, some of his literary heroes, literary critic. They will tell us about themselves, about the era in which they lived.
Question for Balzac.
What can you tell us about yourself?
Balzac: Born in Tours, France, in 1799. I am the son of a rich peasant named Balse, which upset me extremely, so I changed the name to “Balzac” and added a “de” in front - a sign of noble origin.
Question for Balzac.
Tell us about your years of study and creative activity.
Balzac: Studied at college, then at law school. He worked as a scribe in a notary's office, but without interest. I asked my father for a two-year term to become a writer. Received meager allowance.
Literary critic: (adds and reads quickly)
“The attic walls let in the winter cold. It blows from all the cracks. The young man tangles himself in an old shawl that his sister sent him, tucks his cold feet under him, warms his reddened fingers with his breath and writes, writes. While working, he even forgets that he is hungry, and he is always hungry this winter. His parents send him very little money. He was free to take up the dubious craft of literature, abandoning the honorable career of a lawyer! But neither the father nor the strict and wayward mother managed to break the rebellious one. The young man is firm in his decision. He didn’t yet know what and how he would write about, but he was convinced that he was creating something great and significant.”
Question for Balzac.
What was characteristic, in your opinion, of the era in which you lived?
Balzac: The 20-30s were a time of rapid development of natural sciences and philosophical thought in Europe. In France, this is the period of the Restoration and the June Monarchy. I'm the first in Western European literature tried to start artistic research structures of modern society, their daily life, their struggle for power and gold, their intrigues and secrets. It seemed that I was able to penetrate into the most hidden corners of the human heart, depicting the prose of life.
Question for Balzac.
When did fame come to you?
Balzac: The first novel from which one can consider me an accomplished writer is “The Chouans” (1979), then in 1830 I wrote the stories “The House of the Cat Playing Ball”, “Matrimonial Consent”, “Gobsek”, “Silhouette” women" and many others, which are combined into the cycle " Human comedies».
Question for Balzac.
Have you conceived a work about modern society, but didn’t this task seem overly difficult to you?
Balzac: Yes, if I undertook to write only one novel and in it to say everything about my time, it would be impossible. But I decided to write 144 novels, combining them common name"Human Comedies". I managed to write 95.
Question for Balzac.
Where did you find strength and source of inspiration?
(tell us a little about Balzac’s acquaintance with Evelina Ganskaya).
Question for Balzac.
How do you connect your life with Ukraine?
IV. Teacher's message about the history of the story.
The story “Gobsek” became one of the pinnacles of Balzac’s work and all world literature. It has three editions. The first version was created in 1830 (I wrote an essay for Fashion magazine, which was called “The Moneylender”). In 1835, a new edition of “Papa Gobsek” appeared, the third - “Gobsek”.
In terms of genre and composition, this is a complex work. Genre of the work: short story epic work with a plot, often an unexpected ending). Almost all elements of this genre are present in the work.
V. Questions from the teacher to all correspondents.
What can you say about the composition of the story? What makes it special?
Gobsek's story is a story within a story. The extraordinary figure of the moneylender Gobsek is told not by the author-narrator, but by the narrator, the lawyer Derville. (The composition is circular, retrospective, it was intended for a more complete and profound disclosure of the image of the main character of the work).
Question to Derville:
What is your social status, profession? How does the author treat you?
Derville: I come from a democratic environment, a lawyer, a lawyer, a man of high integrity, knowledgeable, modest, with good manners, I became a friend of the Granlier family. With his behavior towards Madame de Granlier, he achieved honor and clientele in best houses Saint-Germain suburb"
(10 years of dating)
Derville: Firstly, I am his friend, and secondly, we are people of the same profession. This may be immodest, but I am an experienced lawyer with excellent knowledge of the “kitchen” of entrepreneurship and the sphere of hoarding. Thirdly, Balzac himself sympathizes with me.
Question to Derville:
Who was the first to hear your story about Gobsek?
Derville: Members of the de Granlier family.
Question to Gobsek:
What is your background? What does your last name mean?
Gobsek: Translated from English as “guzzler”.
Tell us about your youth and youth.
Gobsek: Mother is Jewish, father is Dutch, full name Jean Esther van Gobseck. At the age of 10, my mother gave me a job as a cabin boy on a ship (sailed from the East Indies, where I wandered for 12 years. I tried everything to get rich: I was looking for treasure, had a relationship with the ups and downs of the American War of Independence, was a corsair, etc.)
Question to Gobsek:
Which moral lessons, did you carry away ideals from your turbulent youth and maturity?
Gobsek: Often, saving my life, I was forced to sacrifice moral principles. “Of all earthly goods, there is only one that is reliable enough for a person to pursue it. Is this gold. All the forces of humanity are concentrated in gold... Man is the same everywhere: everywhere there is a struggle between the poor and the rich, everywhere. And it is inevitable. It’s better to push yourself than to let others push you.”
Question to Gobsek:
Why did you choose to become a moneylender? Who are your clients?
Gobsek: I got rich from criminal operations and now I don’t need to risk my life for the sake of wealth. My position is strong and stable in society. Under my control are the golden youth, actors and artists, secular people, players are the most entertaining part of Parisian society.
Question to Gobsek:
What is your life credo? What do you believe?
Gobsek: Money is a commodity that can be sold and bought at a profit. I believe in the limitless power and authority of gold. “Gold is the spiritual value of today’s society.” Only gold can give a person absolute, real power over the world.
Question to Fanny Malvo:
How is your destiny connected with dad Gobsek? How are yours and Derville getting along?
Why does Balzac mercilessly criticize in his story not Gobsek, but the representatives high society: Countess de Resto and Maxime de Tray?
In the character of Maxime de Tray we will not find any positive trait. The narrator calls him an "elegant scoundrel." “Fear him like the devil,” Derville whispered in the old man’s ear. “This is a real killer.”
Question to Derville:
What is the power of Maxime de Tray’s influence on people?
He knows how to cleverly manipulate people. He is able to find the innermost strings in every person and play the right melody on them.
Question for a literary critic:
Who is Maxime de Tray? What relationship does he have with Countess de Resto?
How did Countess de Resto stain herself?
What episode did Derville see that horrified him?
Do you think that Maxime de Tray is a kind of double of Gobsek in the story?
Yes, because the hero himself says about it: “You and I are necessary for each other, like soul and body.”
Gobsek is a shrewd man, he knows very well the low and insidious nature of people like Maxime de Tray, so he refuses to accept his challenge to a duel, ending his speech with very precise words: “To shed your blood, you must have it, my dear, but you have instead of blood there is dirt.” The author says: “In this major situation, Gobsek was an insatiable boa constrictor.” What kind are we talking about?
He received a fidelkomissi, i.e. legal right use someone else's property to transfer it later to a third party.
How does Gobsek behave in this situation?
(He behaves with dignity, he did not take advantage of the advantageous situation and did not “warm his hands” on the count’s inheritance, but, on the contrary, increased it).
Until he came of age, Gobsek provided the son of Count de Resto, Ernest, with an extremely meager allowance. How does he explain this decision?
Gobsek (you can ask the class a question):
“Adversity is the best teacher. In misfortune he will learn a lot, he will learn the value of money, the value of people - both men and women. Let him swim on the waves of the Parisian sea. And when he becomes a skilled pilot, we will promote him to captain.”
Question to Derville:
Have you solved Gobsek's riddle? What did you see in Gobsek’s office when the disabled person came for you? (p. 67-68, read out)
“Although I set myself the goal of studying him, I must, to my shame, admit that until the last minute his soul remained a secret behind seven locks for me.”
“Does it really all come down to money?” - this question tormented Derville.
VII. Checking homework.
The author concludes his story about the life and death of a moneylender with a description of his wealth. The outcome of the hero’s life is deplorable, all the goods he acquired fell into disrepair and remained unclaimed. Profit, the power that Gobsek possessed, swallowed up best values peace: friendship, love of loved ones.
Let's listen to how the “sharks of the pen” answered this question.
(Students read out their miniature essays)
VIII. Final word teachers.
The image of a stingy man appears in the poem “Dead Souls” (Plyushkin). “The miser” is found in Molière’s comedy, Alena Ivanovna (the old money-lender) in Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment,” and the moneylender from Gogol’s story “Portrait.” All these characters are negative; their authors denounce them for spiritual impoverishment and the desire to get rich at the expense of the weaknesses and misfortunes of other people.