Le Père Goriot

“The pallid corpulence of this dumpy woman is the product of this sort of life, as typhus is caused by the effluvia of a hospital.”

Honoré de Balzac presents the Maison Vauquer boarding house as a rundown, filthy place. In this way, it reflects the moral character and physical appearance of its owner, Madame Vauquer. The opening of the novel establishes a clear symbolic connection between the characters and their environments that the novel will later subvert. The wealthy characters, Rastignac discovers, are immoral and cynical, while those who live in the poorest, most rundown rooms—such as Goriot or Bianchon—are better people.

“If Pere Goriot had daughters as rich as all the women who come to see him appear to be, he would not be living in my house, on the third floor, at forty-five francs a month, and he would not dress like a pauper.”

Madame Vauquer is confidently wrong about everything, including Goriot. She has no interest in learning more about the world around her; she would rather project her misguided assumptions onto everything and then loudly proclaim her opinions to the world. She is incurious and unrepenting in her ignorance.

“You are still too young to know Paris properly.”

Rastignac is still new to the city, so his understanding of the intricacies of Paris is young and naïve. He is still dazzled by the shining lights and the luxurious homes, so he does not yet understand the moral rot that is hidden beneath these fancy veneers—particularly The Hypocrisy of 19th-Century French Society. Vautrin may be a cynic and a criminal, but he is not wrong about Paris’s immorality.