Honore de Balzac is the greatest French writer who, during his lifetime, was able to earn the fame of one of the most talented prose writers of the 19th century. The writer's works have become a real innovation in the literary life of Europe.
Balzac became the first author who moved away from the subjective assessment of the individual, embodying in his heroes all the shortcomings and virtues that were inherent in society, and not in an individual person. One of the most famous works of Balzac, which have fallen in love with many generations of readers, is the story "Gobsek".
Summary and Analysis
The story begins from a conversation that is being conducted in the salon of a noble Parisian lady, Viscountess de Granlier. The viscountess does not want to give her only daughter in marriage to the impoverished Comte de Restaud. Her guest, lawyer Derville, tries to convince the lady by telling her the story of how her future son-in-law lost his wealth.
The main character in Derville's story is the usurer Gobsek, because of whose greed the de Resto family suffered. Derville met Gobsek as an assistant lawyer, they lived next door in one of the boarding houses in Paris.
The usurer shunned communication with people, as he was completely absorbed in making money, which represented his main life priority. Gobsek's greed allowed him to accumulate impressive capital by the age of forty.
The usurer openly deceived people, lending them money at high interest rates, and profited from their hopeless life situations.
Despite friendship and close communication, Derville also fell into the ranks of deceived debtors. The young man managed only five years later to pay the interest that Gobsek had set for him.
With a request to lend money to Gobsek, a well-known reveler in Paris and a card player, Count de Tray, turned. The usurer stubbornly refused him, because he was not sure of his ability to pay. To the rescue of de Tray came his lover, the Countess de Restaud, who offered Gobsek a pledge as her husband's family estate.
Taking a receipt from the countess, Gobsek provided her lover with the necessary amount of money. However, a few days later, the husband of the Countess herself came to him, demanding the return of the receipt, which his wife had illegally given, back. Gobsek, in turn, begins to blackmail the count, demanding to pay for the return of the document an amount several times higher than the loan.
The Comte de Resto had no choice but to agree to Gobsek's conditions and buy his estate from him. A few years later, the Comte de Restaud dies. His wife, remembering that after the death of the count, all the property of the family should pass into the hands of Gobsek, begins to look for a will. During her search, Gobsek and Derville enter the room.
The frightened countess mixed up the documents and threw into the fire Gobseck's receipt, in which he renounces the count's property. Thus, the family estate passed into the hands of the usurer. Derville urged Gobsek to give up his claims to the estate, trying to pity him that the countess and her young son (the younger Comte de Restaud) were left with nothing. However, our usurer remained adamant.
Until his last days, Gobsek remained greedy and cruel, counting every penny, he denied himself the most necessary things. Even the mansion of the de Resto family, the usurer preferred to rent out, receiving money for it.
Lesson topic. The story of Honore de Balzac "Gobsek": the problems of the work, the socio-historical conditionality of the characters. The ambiguity of the image of Gobsek.
Money is the main law of the world
balzac
Target: to acquaint students with the content of the work, the problems and socio-historical conditionality of the characters; explore the main methods and means of characterizing the heroes of the story, reveal the destructive power of the "power of gold" on people, on interpersonal and social relations, find out the essence of Gobsek's philosophy, the ambiguity of this image; develop the skills of ideological and artistic analysis of the work; to promote the formation of ideas about true life values.
Lesson type: content-search.
Lesson form: a lesson in communication with elements of theatricalization and discussion.
Working methods: problematic discussion, theatricalization, commented reading, drawing up a supporting summary.
During the classes
1. Creating a problem situation (teacher-student dialogue)
- Do you want to have more money?
- And for complete happiness, how much money would you like to have?
Now we will see an unfortunate person who had a lot of money, but wanted to have more and more.
Schubert's Symphony No. 8 sounds, a scene from A. Pushkin's drama "The Miserly Knight" is played against the background of the melody - the monologue of the Miserly Knight.
- Who is it? Did you know? Where else have we met such characters?
(Harpagon in the comedy "The Miser" by Molière, Plyushkin in the poem "Dead Souls" by N. Gogol. We will also meet with the image of the old money-lender in the novel "Crime and Punishment")
2 . Introductory speech of the teacher.
Today we will get acquainted with the story of Honore de Balzac "Gobsek". Despite the fact that it was created almost 200 years ago, its subject matter is in many ways consonant with our time. The problems of moral choice that Balzac's heroes solve are the problems of today. Understanding and evaluating this choice means developing your own point of view.
Who to be? What to be? What to strive for? What to make the meaning of your life? What to accept and what to reject? We will reflect on these questions in today's lesson, analyzing the story "Gobsek", which deals with the power of money over people. The main character owns the words that make up the essence of the nineteenth century.
“In gold are concentrated all the forces of mankind. As for morals, man is the same everywhere: everywhere there is a struggle between the poor and the rich, everywhere. And it's inevitable."
The main problem of the work - the influence of the "golden bag" on the inner world of a person - is still relevant today. After all, we, like the heroes of Balzac once, live in an era of capital accumulation. Therefore, it is useful for us to take a closer look at the character, whose main and only passion has become profit, and at those heroes who surround him.
3. Performances of students with individual cards - informants.
1 card - informant. The history of the story.
- Why did Balzac choose this version of the name?
Balzac writes about his hero: "By an amazing whim of fate ... the old man's name was Gobsek (zhivoglot)." Gobsek indeed consumes many human lives, as a spider weaves webs around the victim. He is a predator and does his dark deeds for personal enrichment.
4. Teacher's conversation with students on the content of the story, work on the image of Gobsek.
2 card - informant. Gobsek's appearance.
- If you were to paint a portrait of Gobsek, what tones would you prefer? What background would you choose for the painting?
Creation of Gobseck's definition scheme with metaphors from the author's text.
Prove that one of the metaphors is the most successful
- Does the portrait of Gobsek correspond to his essence? What is it, in your opinion?
Gobsek believes in the limitless power and power of gold. “You believe everything, but I believe nothing. Well, save your illusions if you can. I will now sum up the human life. What is considered a vice in Paris is recognized as a necessity outside the Azars. There is nothing lasting on earth, there are only conventions, and in each climate they are different ... all our moral rules and beliefs are empty words ... Live with me, you will find out that of all earthly blessings there is only one reliable enough to make a person worth chasing behind him. Is this gold. All the forces of mankind are concentrated in gold... As for morals, man is the same everywhere: everywhere there is a struggle between the poor and the rich, everywhere. And it is inevitable. So it’s better to push yourself than to let others push you.”
Thus, Gobsek argues that there are no absolute values and truths in the world. Different peoples have their own morality, their own laws, their own concept of morality.
And only gold is the absolute truth and value in all countries and at all times. Only gold can give a person absolute, real power over the world.
- What do we learn about Gobsek's past? Find evidence in the text of the great trials that fell to the lot of Gobsek.
“Mother attached him as a cabin boy on a ship, and at the age of ten he sailed to the Dutch possessions of the East Indies, where he wandered for twenty years. The wrinkles of his yellowish face held the secret of terrible trials, sudden terrible events, unexpected fortunes, romantic vicissitudes, immense joys, hungry days, trampled love, wealth, ruin and newly acquired wealth, mortal dangers, when a life hanging by a thread was saved by instantaneous and, perhaps cruel actions justified by necessity.”
Before Maxime de Tray visits Gobseck, the usurer prepares his pistols, saying:
“... I am confident in my accuracy, therefore I happened to walk on a tiger and on the deck of a ship to fight in a boarding battle not to the stomach, but to death ...”
In a conversation between Derville and the Comte de Restaud, the lawyer says of Gobseck's past: “I know nothing about his past. Perhaps he was a corsair; perhaps he wandered all over the world, trading in diamonds or people, women or state secrets; but I am deeply convinced that not a single human soul has received such cruel hardening in trials as he did.
Appeal to the painting by Theodore Géricault "The Raft of the Medusa" - 1818-1819
If you carefully read the work, seriously thought through the questions given to the house, then you will immediately feel the inner connection between Theodore Gericault's painting “The Raft of the Medusa” and the story, because Gobsek was not born a usurer. Once he was a knight of profit. Perhaps he was a corsair.
- What moral lessons, ideals did Gobsek learn from his turbulent youth and adventurous maturity? By what rules does he live? What is his life philosophy?
Gobsek is a product of his time, a true product of the bourgeois world. He lives according to the laws of this world, accepts the established rules of the game and honestly (!) fulfills them. It is no coincidence that Derville, in a conversation with the Comte de Restaud, directly says about Gobsek: "...outside of these matters, he is a man of the most scrupulous honesty in all of Paris."
Gobsek seems ruthless, but if he is even once generous, he will go bankrupt. It is no coincidence that Gobsek forever remembered how he once “spared one woman” and “confided in her”, and she “plucked” him great. Gobsek is a skeptic and a materialist, he has experienced a lot, therefore he does not believe in the inviolability of universal values, for him there is neither religion nor morality. Perhaps he himself regrets this when he notes “with tenderness” that the seamstress Fani “…believed in something.” And he doesn't believe in anything. Therefore, the hero himself creates his own teaching, where the main truth is gold. And in terms of power, he almost equaled himself with God. It is no coincidence that Gobsek says: "I have a look like God's: I read in the hearts."
Does not like luxury; lives rationally; tends to be invisible. It retains a sense of inner freedom, but at the cost of losing a high human content. Learned to suppress natural feelings and desires. Contempt for the rich made Gobsek unshakable, impassive, cruel.
5. Dramatization of the story(To better understand the essence of the protagonist, let's turn to the pages of the story)
Characters: Derville, Gobsek, Countess Anastasi de Resto, Fanny Malvaux
- How does Gobsek behave in these situations? Define your attitude to Gobsek.
The first impression of the image of Gobsek is sharply negative. This is due to his profession (usurer) and the defining character trait (stinginess). Balzac denounces the spiritual impoverishment of the hero, the desire to get rich at the expense of the weaknesses and misfortunes of other people. There is not a single positive feature in this image, therefore neither the author nor the readers feel any sympathy for him.
Teacher. So, at first glance, it seems Gobsek. But his image is much deeper.
Let's try to understand this by creating a table of "contradictions" of Gobseck's behavior and character.
The ambiguity of the image of Gobsek
Gobsek is a rich man. (only five people in Paris can compare with him in terms of wealth) | Leads a miserable existence. Afraid to advertise his wealth (did not pick up gold) |
Misanthrope. Hates all his family. | Maintains friendly relations with Derville |
He concentrated power over the world in his hands (“... I own the world without tiring myself”) | At the same time, he goes to clients and humiliatingly collects payments. |
A hero devoid of any human feelings whatsoever: “man is an automaton”; | Magnanimous man: experienced "a feeling of pity" at the sight of impending poverty threatening the Comtesse de Resto; Gobsek "almost touched" when he saw the seamstress Fanny's room |
"Savage" (experienced the "evil triumph of the savage who took possession of the shiny pebbles" after acquiring the Countess's diamonds). | An educated person: knows all the subtleties of jurisprudence, is well versed in politics, art (it is no coincidence that the author compares him with a statue of Voltaire - one of the most educated people of his time) |
Moneylender. | "Gobsek is an honest man" |
They live in it "a miser and a philosopher" he is "an old man and a child" "mean creature and sublime" "old baby" |
So, Gobsek is a complex and controversial personality.
- How did Gobsek use his best qualities? Maybe he saved someone? Helped someone? Or brought happiness, joy to others? Who won in the soul of Gobsek?
In Gobsek, everything is subordinated to one passion - money. The dark forces of his nature have won. At the end of the story, we see how he finally degrades. With his death, everything falls apart. Gobsek's wealth did not bring happiness to him or others, life was in vain.
Reading the death scene of Gobsek
“He sat up in bed; his face, clear as bronze, loomed on the white pillow. Stretching out his withered hands, he grabbed the blanket with his bony hands, as if he wanted to hold on to it, looked at the fireplace, as cold as his metallic gaze, and died in full consciousness, showing his porter, the invalid ... an image of watchful attention, like the elders of ancient Rome , which Lethierre depicted behind the consuls in his painting The Death of the Children of Brutus.
Well done, you old miser! - the invalid rapped like a soldier.
The destructive power of gold on the inner world of man, on human feelings and passions. At the same time, the writer emphasizes that a poor man can have nobility, virtues, spiritual purity.
6. The word of the teacher.
The great realist Balzac showed all the social strata of the ruling elite.
Anastasi de Resto - a beautiful, intelligent woman - became an intriguer, burned securities, left her children without an inheritance.
Maxime de Tray is Anastasi's lover, an egoist, a vile person. Lives for his pleasure.
- Can a person resist the power of money?
The author's answer is yes. Proof of this are the images of Derville and Fanny Malvo. They retained human dignity, honesty, nobility. Derville helped the children of the Comte de Restaud to keep the inheritance and married Fanny).
Does it all come down to money? This question comes at the end of the story. What do you think about it? Let's check our homework and listen to essays-reasoning on this topic.
Students read creative work
7. The final word of the teacher.
This question is complex, and it is solved by everyone in different ways:
Devote all days to debauchery, entertainment, like Anastasi and Maxim;
Lose your mind over chests of gold, as happened with Pushkin's Miserly Knight.
Better to be a victim than a tormentor;
It is better to give money than to get it dishonestly;
It is better to die without money, remaining a worthy person, than to die for them.
8. Grading for the lesson.
9. Homework.
2). Prepare quotes for the topic “Artistic features of the novel by O. de Balzac “Gobsek”.
The "enormity" of Gobseck's figure is based not only on comparisons. The humble pawnbroker's past would make any adventurer die of envy; his knowledge, interests and connections with the world simply cannot be counted - he is truly omnipresent and omnipotent. Before us is a typical romantic hero: he lives in a world of absolute values and measures himself with the gods - nothing less; he knows everything, he has comprehended everything, although he is infinitely alone in the surrounding crowd, without which, however, he does very well. Time, like petty domestic troubles, has no power over him - only fatal beginnings, passion can determine such a nature.
Gobsek's passion is power and gold, and since these are idols of many eras, and even more so of the bourgeois one, the romantically depicted usurer fits perfectly into the generally realistic picture of human relations created by Balzac. In addition, the author of The Human Comedy himself would not refuse a number of Gobsek's achievements (mostly fictional); many of the bitter truths about the world around which the usurer shares with Derville clearly go back to the ideas and aphorisms of Balzac. Thus, such an ambiguous hero is also somewhat close to the author. Let us now consider what has been said in more detail and evidence.
The information that Derville gives about Gobsek's past is more suitable for the world of stories of "A Thousand and One Nights" than for the story of an old man who lives in a poor Parisian quarter and is busy all day fiddling with securities and squeezing money from clients. But Balzac himself, as you know, was endowed with a rich imagination and often gave free rein to his imagination in quite ordinary circumstances: remember his walking sticks, the Beduk ring, faith in the extraordinary and greatness of his fate, constant projects of fabulous enrichment ...
“Mother placed him as a cabin boy on a ship,” says Derville about Gobsek’s past, “and at the age of ten he sailed to the Dutch possessions of the East Indies, where he wandered for twenty years. The wrinkles of his yellowish forehead kept the secret of terrible trials, sudden terrible events, unexpected fortunes, romantic vicissitudes, immense joys, hungry days, trampled love, wealth, ruin and newly acquired wealth, mortal dangers, when a life hanging by a thread was saved by instantaneous and, perhaps cruel actions justified by necessity.
There are many characteristic romantic exaggerations here, which will be repeated and multiplied in the future, but Balzac remains true to himself: continuing his story, Derville among Gobsek's acquaintances names both genuine (Lally, Suffren, Hastings, Tippo-Saib) and fictional historical figures - characters "The Human Comedy" (Kergaruet, de Pontaduer). Thus, with thin and subtle threads, the writer interweaves the creation of his own fantasy with real life.
Further it turns out that Gobsek did business with the entourage of the famous Indian rajah, lived among pirates and knew the most famous of them; he also looked for the legendary Indian treasure in the vicinity of Buenos Aires and "was involved in all the vicissitudes of the war for the independence of the United States." Such a track record could decorate the biography of the character of an adventure novel. The list of exotic countries and activities of Gobsek also brings to mind the works of romantic writers: in an effort to get away from the prose of everyday life and boring everyday life, they willingly sent their heroes to distant lands in search of dangerous adventures.
How does all this compare with the realistic, socially meaningful portrait of France contemporary to Balzac in the same work? Balzac worked in an era when the heroes of Byron, Walter Scott, Victor Hugo were the idols of the public. Realism still had to win and strengthen its position in world literature, and Balzac was one of those who did a lot to establish new approaches to depicting the world and man in literature. At the same time, which is quite natural in a transitional era, Balzac himself was influenced by the aesthetics of romanticism in literature and the corresponding type of behavior in life.
It is not surprising that the image of the usurer is built by the writer simultaneously according to realistic and romantic canons. Researchers have noticed: Balzac tends to be excessive in his descriptions, piling up qualities one on top of the other; this leads to obvious exaggerations, but does not at all contradict the poetics of romanticism. So, the mentioned description of Gobsek's personality allows Derville to sum up in a conversation with Comte de Resto: "... I am deeply convinced that not a single human soul has received such cruel hardening in trials as he did."
No less high opinion of himself and the character himself. He unashamedly declares to Derville: “I appear as retribution, as a reproach of conscience ... I love to stain the carpets of rich people with dirty shoes - not out of petty pride, but to make you feel the clawed paw of Inevitability.” There is a feeling that Gobsek considers himself an instrument of Providence, a kind of sword in the hands of Fate. However, it immediately turns out that he aims much higher.
“I own the world without tiring myself, and the world has not the slightest power over me,” says Gobsek, and in support of this he describes his relationship with those who were in his power.
“Isn't it curious to look into the innermost curves of the human heart? Isn't it curious to penetrate into someone else's life and see it without embellishment, in all naked nakedness? ... I have a look, like the Lord God: I read in the hearts. Nothing is hidden from me."
This is already very reminiscent of the rivalry with the Creator, which attracted Balzac himself when creating his grandiose epic. Gobsek became one of those heroes whom the author who created them allowed to fulfill some of his cherished dreams.
Firstly, Gobsek is rich, and this has always remained a passionate, but unattainable dream of the writer. Secondly, he comprehended the essence of the surrounding world, the mechanisms and laws that govern it, and put them at his service. The way Gobseck understands and interprets the truths of the world brings to mind the keynote speech of Balzac himself, which he prefaced the entire Human Comedy.
“You are young, your blood is playing, and there is fog in your head. You look at the burning brands in the fireplace and see women's faces in the flames, but I see only coals. You believe everything, but I believe nothing. Well, save your illusions if you can. I will now sum up the human life for you ... What causes delight in Europe is punished in Asia. What is considered a vice in Paris is recognized as a necessity outside the Azores. There is nothing lasting on earth, there are only conventions, and in each climate they are different ... Only one single feeling, embedded in us by nature itself, is unshakable: the instinct of self-preservation. In the states of European civilization, this instinct is called self-interest.
I traveled, I saw that all over the earth there are plains and mountains. The plains are boring, the mountains are tiring; in a word, in what place to live - it does not matter. As for morals, man is the same everywhere: everywhere there is a struggle between the poor and the rich, everywhere. And it is inevitable. So it’s better to push yourself than to allow others to push you. ” Such is the manifesto of Gobsek, with which he appears before Derville during their first conversation in private. Now let's turn to the "Foreword to The Human Comedy". Balzac immediately declares that the idea of the epic was suggested to him by a comparison of humanity and the animal world. Referring to the theory of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire about the unity of organisms, to the statements of other scientists of recent centuries close to this idea, Balzac himself formulates a “wonderful law” that, in his opinion, underlies the unity of organisms: “every one for himself”.
And further: “The Creator used the same model for all living beings. The living entity is the basis; receiving its external form, or, more precisely, the distinctive features of its form, in the environment where it is destined to develop ...
Having penetrated this system long before it aroused controversy, I realized that in this respect Society is like Nature. After all, the Society creates from man, according to the environment where he acts, as many diverse species as there are in the animal world. The difference between a soldier, a worker, an official, a lawyer, an idler, a scientist, a statesman, a merchant, a sailor, a poet, a pauper, a priest, is just as significant, although more difficult to grasp, as is what distinguishes a wolf, a lion, a donkey from each other, crow, shark, seal, sheep, etc.” .
So, the conclusions of Balzac and his hero boil down to the following: the world is driven by the struggle for existence, which, depending on social, national-cultural, geographical, etc. conditions, gives rise to social human species similar to species in the animal world.
The path of knowledge itself, which is preferred by the author and his hero, is also similar: it is an insight into the essence of some absolute world truth, which allows in many respects to intuitively understand the secret springs of governing society. It is not for nothing that Balzac, even before mentioning the works of famous naturalists who influenced him, speaks of “the amazing works of mystical writers” (Swedenborg, Saint-Martin, etc.), whose views, as you know, he largely shared.
Gobseck claims that he replaced "your scientific curiosity, a kind of duel in which man is always defeated ... by penetration into all the motives that move mankind" . Derville admits that the old usurer had an amazing, unusual look, "by which one could think that he had the gift of clairvoyance." Later, he is surprised at the sagacity of Gobsek, who predicted the fate of the Countess de Resto four years in advance.
This desire for absolute knowledge, achieved intuitively, also brings Balzac closer to the literature of romanticism. As you know, romantic writers in their understanding of the world and man proceeded from the so-called dual world, which implies the parallel existence of the world of everyday life (which often limits the horizons of ordinary people), and the higher world, where the fate of people is decided and the secret mechanisms of everything that happens to them are hidden.
Penetrating into this other, higher world can only be chosen personalities, who perceive the surrounding reality deeper and more subtle than others - poets, artists, clairvoyants, scientists. It seems that it is no coincidence that Gobsek, starting a conversation about his entertainment, suddenly calls himself a poet:
“- And in your opinion, only the poet who prints his poems? he asked, shrugging his shoulders and narrowing his eyes contemptuously.
"Poetry? In such a head? I was surprised, because I didn’t know anything about his life then.
The strange usurer really had an imagination worthy of his creator: “I understood that if he had millions in the bank, then in his thoughts he could own all the countries that he had traveled, searched, weighed, appreciated, robbed.”
We have already mentioned the romantic aspects of the image of Gobsek: his mysterious and adventurous past, his claims to the possession of absolute truth, which the author not only does not correct, but also portrays with a certain sympathy. To this we can add the usurer's inherent gift of penetrating people's souls and the ability to foresee their fate, as well as the widespread use of romantic contrasts and exaggerations in characterizing the characteristics of his personality and behavior.
As we already know, Gobsek managed to travel almost the whole world, he knows everything about life and people. He is the owner of an extraordinary clairvoyant look, perfectly wields a pistol and a sword, is endowed with great physical strength (remember how he threw aside the eldest son of the Count de Resto in the scene at the deathbed of the Count), instantly passes from wild, animal joy at the sight of rare diamonds to marble courtesy in a conversation with a debtor. Derville believes that “two creatures live in it: a miser and a philosopher, a vile creature and an exalted one. If I die leaving young children, he will be their guardian.”
Analysis of Balzac's story "Gobsek"
Introduction
1. The image of the usurer. Portrait in the spirit of Rembrandt
2. The "enormity" of Gobseck's figure as a typical romantic hero
3. Image of the power of gold
4. Features of the socio-historical conditionality of the characters in the story
List of used literature
Introduction
The story "Gobsek" did not immediately find its final form and place in the "Human Comedy"; it belongs to the works, the very history of creation of which sheds light on the formation of the titanic Balzac idea.
It first appeared (in April 1830) under the heading "The Perils of Debauchery" in the first volume of Scenes from a Private Life. The first chapter of this work a little earlier, in February 1830, was published in the form of an essay in the magazine Fashion and was called The Pawnbroker. In 1835, the story was included in a new edition of "Scenes of Parisian Life" and was entitled "Papa Gobsek." And finally, in the landmark year 1842, Balzac included her in the "Scenes of Private Life" of the first edition of the "Human Comedy" under the title "Gobsek".
Initially, the story was divided into chapters: "The Pawnbroker", "The Lawyer" and "The Death of a Husband". This division corresponds to the main thematic episodes that make up the work: the story of the usurer Gobsek, the years of apprenticeship and the beginning of the career of the solicitor Derville, the love drama of Anastasi de Resto, which largely led to the premature death of her husband.
Of all the "Human Comedy", the story "Gobsek" is most closely connected with the novel "Father Goriot", where, against the backdrop of the development of the main storyline, the story of the disastrous relationship between Anastasi de Resto and Maxime de Tray, the secret sale of family diamonds by the countesses and the struggle of the Comte de Resto for the rest of his fortune.
In addition to the novel "Father Goriot", the main characters of the story "Gobsek" (the pawnbroker and the solicitor) are found in a number of other works of the "Human Comedy". Gobsek - in "Caesar Biroto", "Officers" and "Marriage Contract", Derville - in "Colonel Chabert", "Shine and Poverty of Courtesans" and "Dark Matter".
As in any large-scale project consisting of many elements, The Human Comedy has its own masterpieces and boring creations of a brilliant pen, on which the author not only rested, but, let's say, gathered strength. "Gobsek" is the unconditional success of the writer, and the central image of the Dutch pawnbroker forever entered the history of world literature. That is why the story "Gobsek" can be considered as one of the keys to understanding the originality of the Balzac epic as a whole, and "Preface to the" Human Comedy "as a kind of author's commentary on" Gobsek ".
The very composition of the story sets the reader up to perceive the events described as observations, excerpts from a large epic canvas covering the lives of hundreds of people with whom many different stories happened. The narration is organized according to the principle of "a story within a story" and is conducted on behalf of an observer, a minor participant in the events - the attorney Derville. The finale of the framing story - the love story of Camille de Granlier and Ernest de Resto - remains open, and even Derville's story about Gobsek has neither beginning nor end: the usurer's past is shrouded in a meaningful fog, and nothing is said at all about the fate of his fantastic riches.
No wonder - the novel "Shine and Poverty of the Courtesans", in which Esten van Gobseck "received" the inheritance immediately after her suicide, was completed by Balzac in 1847, that is, twelve years after the last edits were made to the story "Gobseck".
1. The image of the usurer. Portrait in the spirit of Rembrandt
One of the most important components of the image of the old usurer is his portrait. It consists of a number of characteristics, but the richest Balzac comparisons play a decisive role in recreating the appearance of Gobsek. They are dominated by features of lifelessness and colorlessness. The narrator most often emphasizes Gobsek's resemblance to dim inanimate objects, mechanisms, those creatures in whom the breath of life is barely noticeable, or to predators.
Gobsek's face Derville calls "the face of the moon", because its yellowish color "resembled the color of silver, from which the gilding had peeled off. My pawnbroker's hair was perfectly straight, always neatly combed and heavily greyed-ash gray. His features, motionless, impassive, like those of Talleyrand, seemed to be cast in bronze. His eyes, small and yellow, like those of a ferret, and almost without eyelashes, could not stand bright light, so he protected them with a large visor of a tattered cap. The sharp tip of a long nose, pitted with mountain ash, looked like a gimlet, and the lips were thin, like those of alchemists and ancient old men in the paintings of Rembrandt and Metsu. ... From the first minute of awakening to the evening coughing fits, all his actions were measured, like the movements of a pendulum. It was some kind of automatic man who was turned on every day.
Further, Derville compares the behavior of Gobsek with a disturbed wood lice; recalls that the frantic screams of his victims were usually replaced by "dead silence, like in a kitchen when a duck is slaughtered in it." No wonder the moneylender was endowed with a strange speaking surname - Gobsek in French means "dry throat" (gober - swallow, sec - dry, dried up), or, more figuratively, - "slow throat".
The impassive coldness of Gobsek leaves Derville completely bewildered - he appears to the novice lawyer as a sexless creature, devoid of any religious sympathies and generally indifferent to everything in the world.
“He, as usual, sat in a deep armchair, motionless as a statue, his eyes fixed on the ledge of the fireplace, as if rereading his accounting receipts and receipts. A smoky lamp on a shabby green stand cast light on his face, but this did not in the least enliven it with colors, but seemed even paler.
However, sometimes Gobsek even laughed, and then his chuckle "reminded the creaking of a copper candlestick moved on a marble board." The bald skull of a usurer once flashed before the eyes of a lawyer looks like old yellow marble; breaking away from the contemplation of the diamonds he loved so much, Gobsek becomes "suave, but cold and hard, like a marble pillar."
The surrounding interior was in perfect harmony with the way of life and appearance of the usurer.
“Everything in his room was worn and tidy, from the green cloth on the desk to the rug in front of the bed, just like in the cold abode of a lonely old maid who cleans and waxes the furniture all day. In winter, firebrands smoldered a little in his fireplace, covered with a mound of ash, never flaring up with a flame ... His life flowed as silently as sand pours in a trickle in an old clock.
The house where Derville lived in the neighborhood of Gobsek was gloomy and damp, all the rooms, like monastic cells, were of the same size and opened onto a dim corridor with small windows. However, the building was indeed once a monastery hotel. “In such a gloomy abode, the lively playfulness of some secular rake immediately faded away, even before he entered my neighbor; the house and its tenant were matched to each other - just like a rock and an oyster clinging to it.
Another curious feature of the image of the mysterious usurer is that he is not only devoid of signs of sex and any human traits, he also seems to exist outside of time. “His age was a mystery: I could never understand whether he had grown old before his time, or whether he was well preserved and would remain youthful for all eternity.” It is not surprising that, having again got into Gobsek's room after a long break, Derville found it exactly the same: “In his bedroom everything was the same as before. Its furnishings, which I know well, have not changed at all in sixteen years - every thing seemed to be preserved under glass.
This feature of Gobseck receives an unexpected development in various comparisons, which the narrator now and then resorts to, characterizing his hero in various life situations.
We have already encountered the assimilation of the usurer to Talleyrand, as well as alchemists and ancient old men in the paintings of Rembrandt and Metsu. During the visit of Maxime de Tray, Gobsek, sitting in an armchair by the fireplace, looks like "... like a statue of Voltaire in the peristyle of the French Comedy, illuminated by evening lights." A little later, he looks at Maxim and his mistress, the countess "... with such a look, which, probably, in the sixteenth century, an old Dominican monk looked at the torture of some two Moors in the deep dungeon of the holy Inquisition."
The diamonds of the Comte de Restaud, which Gobsek managed to get at an incredibly low price, make him throw off his mask for some moments and reveal the emotions that struck Derville, who was present at this scene: » .
The triumph, although short-lived, of primitive, animal passion is important for understanding the image of Gobsek, but more often he is compared with much more civilized and even aristocratic persons. The Comte de Resto, deciding to make inquiries about the strange usurer, came to the conclusion that he was "a philosopher from the school of cynics"; a little later, in negotiations with the same Count Gobsek, "with cunning and greed, he would have outshone the participants of any diplomatic congress by the belt."
Why did Balzac need to resort to such vivid comparisons when creating a portrait of a modest Parisian usurer who prefers to be as inconspicuous as possible in the eyes of others? Firstly, it allows the author to make the image more prominent, interesting, to open up aspects in it that are closed to the usual everyday description. A simple statement of the facts of reality would allow the reader to see only a dirty old man with a repulsive appearance, who is mainly engaged in boring financial transactions, only does what he works, and has no personal life. A kind of hybrid of Akaky Akakievich from N.V. Gogol's "Overcoat" and the old pawnbroker from F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". Meanwhile, the image of Gobsek is much more interesting and broader than how this hero is displayed in a few everyday situations.
The story "Gobsek" was written in 1830. Later, in 1835, Balzac edited it and included it in The Human Comedy, linking it to the novel Père Goriot with the help of the so-called "passing character".
So, the beautiful Countess Anastasi de Resto, one of the debtors of the usurer Gobsek, turns out to be the daughter of Goriot, a ruined manufacturer-vermicellier.
Both in the story and in the novel, Balzac refers to the original properties of human psychology - stinginess ("Gobsek"), selfless paternal love for children ("Father Goriot").
Balzac is a researcher of psychology, a master of detail, a connoisseur of the social life of different layers of human society of his time. Gobsek is not a “model of a miser”, but a living visible person, a usurer of the Restoration era. The pleasure of this accumulator is not just the possession of money, but the secret power over people, which money gives.
Gradually, the sound ability to acquire capital and multiply it turns into a painful passion that deprives Gobsek of human traits and kills him, first morally, and then physically.
Stocks of very expensive foie gras are rotting, poisoning the air of the apartment with a stench - and this is an image of human decay. The sophisticated reader will immediately see the relationship of the hero Balzac with Plyushkin from N.V.'s "Dead Souls". Gogol.
Virtue and vice are interconnected. Father Goriot is a loving bourgeois father, able to express his affection for his daughters only with the help of money and expensive gifts. Having corrupted them with excessive favor and forgiveness, he himself becomes the culprit of their selfishness and his own death in loneliness. However, no less - and even more! - guilty and a society that offers as perfect models of success betrayal, cynicism, the ability to adapt and flatter. Pity, sympathy, sincere love are not fashionable and not appropriate in this world. However, some characters combine sober calculation, the ability to love, and remorse. So, Vicomtesse de Beauséant gives her distant relative Rastignac good advice - to succeed by having an affair with a rich woman. However, she herself decides to leave the light when her lover finds himself a profitable bride.
Rastignac himself is a type common in society and literature of that time: Balzac repeatedly chooses for his novels the plot of a young provincial who decided to conquer Paris. This young man is ambitious, full of determination, ready to part with romantic illusions - but, nevertheless, he is able to sincerely become attached to Delphine and feel pity for her unfortunate pathetic father, even spending his last money on his funeral. As long as there is a tendency in society to achieve success by "walking over heads", Balzac's Human Comedy will not lose its significance.
