Analysis of Plots in The Novel Pere Goriot

In the first paragraph of his novel Pere Goriot, Balzac describes his primary setting, the Maison Vauquer, as a "respectable establishment" that has never been sullied by any "breath of scandal" (1). This statement significantly defines the house in terms of scandal, the author choosing to reference its purity only through exclusionary description --- there is no direct mention of morality, rather Balzac chooses to frame the Maison Vauquer within a construction of secrecy and conspiracy. This authorial choice establishes the focus of the novel on the world of conspiratorial plots right from the beginning, because it centers the reader not on what is right within this Parisian world, but what is wrong --- purity is the exception, as we come to see, in this small microcosm of the Parisian landscape. The whole of Pere Goriot exists within and between these different plots, creating a type of suspended system in which all characters are related, and our protagonist Eugene serves as tour guide through the intricate weavings of this treacherous world.

Once introduced to this house of awaited-scandal, we meet its characters, a sort of microcosmic social physiology of 19th century Paris. This tendency toward social categorization is pervasive throughout the novel, which helps underscore the conspiratorial network of plots woven within; as each person typifies a certain social type or function, they thusly serve to illuminate a particular plotline that is specified to their personal situation. The boarders "all viewed each other with a mixture of mutual indifference and distrust deriving from their respective situations" (14). Most significantly, Pere Goriot has no major plot, meaning there is no specific goal or conflict set up in the beginning for the reader. Rather, numerous smaller plotlines gradually build up until together they construct the large facade of one major story line; yet when this facade is examined, one begins to see that in fact both at the beginning and at the end we have but fractured stories that all happen within one small geographic and societal area. This idea of containment cannot be emphasized enough---at the boarding house Madame Vauquer provided "cells [that] belonged to her. She fed these convicts serving a life sentence and wielded over them an authority they respected," (14) and the quartier in general felt "like a prison" (2). Balzac calls attention again and again to the enclosed feeling of the novel's space, thus creating in the reader a habitual association of imprisonment with the boarding house and all related to it. This trend wraps another layer of secrecy around the novel, so when Balzac finally reveals the protagonist Eugene, the introduction seems fitting for this secretly plotting world:

"Without his observant curiosity and the skill with which he contrived to enter the Parisian social scene, this narrative would have lacked the stamp of authenticity which it surely owes to his shrewdness and his desire to probe the mysteries of a dreadful situation that was carefully concealed both by those who had created it and by the victim of it" (8).

Balzac, we see, has consciously made the choice to foreshadow the rest of the work in this one short introduction, creating a narrative of the parvenu based in and built around melodramatic intricacies of Parisian society.

We see these complexities most strikingly in the relationships Eugene builds with the various other characters of the novels. Interestingly, every single one of the relationships connects with others in the novel except for Eugene's relationship with Bianchon, who is also his only friend from a plotless world, the world of academia. Bianchon, however, does get exposed to the conspiracies at the end of the novel, but he only comes in and leaves again, never getting caught in the web of relations that ultimately terrorizes both the Maison Vauquer and the upper class of the Faubourg St. Germain. We can find the best examples of this world of plots in its characters: Pere Goriot serves as the incarnate of the secrecy and paranoia that characterize this world, while Vautrin symbolizes the crime, hiding, and treachery. These two characters are often found juxtaposed within Eugene's consciousness, creating a dialogue between evil and good that caters to the topos of duality found throughout the novel: Vautrin is both an asset and a detriment to the boarding house, Pere Goriot is both in control and in utter servitude, Mlle. Victorine is both a pauper and a member of the noblesse. Goodness and evil are found in everyone, and thus everyone has to hide one or both of them. Eugene serves as the tableau against which all these conflicting emotions and plotlines are played out while he strives to make his way in society. Even Vautrin has merit; "In a word, that villain has told [Eugene] more about virtue than [he had] ever got from men or books" (104). The complication becomes even deeper when Eugene begins to unravel what is going on late at night at the boarding house.

"He was about to return to his room when he suddenly heard a sound hard to describe...he suddenly saw a dim glow on the second floor, coming from Monsieur Vautrin's room.

'What a lot of mysterious goings-on for a family boarding house!' he said to himself. He went down a few steps, began to listen and caught the sound of gold chinking...'You need to stay up all night if you want to know what is going on around you in Paris!'" (33)

This passage is the first moment when Eugene becomes aware of the conspiracies that will eventually enfold him. Though he does not know why exactly, he is "distracted by suspicions" (33). The novel is constructed in a very precise manner---the chapter titles segment the work into specifically-themed scenes, and the scenes all come artfully together at the end, when a tragic death conveniently brings everyone both physically and thematically together. Yet beneath this construction there is a world of small and significant bonds---Pere Goriot to his two daughters, the daughters to each other, Eugene to his aunt, his aunt to the upper crust of society, and that society to the Maison Vauquer, through the connection of Pere Goriot and Eugene. Also significant are the connections within the boarding house itself, because it figures in as the juxtapositional setting to the salons of the upper society. It is between these two worlds that Eugene navigates.

Money is also a huge factor in the binding of conspiracy to the novelistic plot. Everyone in the book either has tons of it or none of it---significantly, there is no middle ground, creating both a metaphorical and physical no man's land that Eugene passes through, and never notices, on his way between these two poles. There is never any physical description of his voyage, as if there was nothing at all to see, as if he went through a world that doesn't exist. And any type of legitimate job does not make accumulation of wealth possible, as Vautrin cunningly points out to Eugene:

"'You have ten years of hardship, you need to spend a thousand a month, have a library, chambers, lead a social life, kiss the hem of some solicitor's gown to get briefs, lick up the dust of a law court with your tongue. If such a career led to anything worthwhile I wouldn't say no, but try to find five advocates in Paris earning more than fifty thousand a year at fifty! Bah! I'd rather take to piracy than be reduced to that...Do you know the way to get on here? Through brilliant intelligence or skillful corruption. It's no good being honest'" (96-7).

This statement is the most overt recognition of the novelistic plot in the work---it is almost metaliterary in its self-awareness. Vautrin is both the master conspirator of the Comdie Humaine and the spatial narrator of the work---he is the one that lays out for the reader the moral probematik of the work, as well as the blunt truth of it, all mixed in with conspiracy. Perhaps this is the fundamental strength behind the binding of such plots with the novelistic plot---in essence, the conspiracies are where the truth hides in 19th century society, while the lies reside in the overt quotidian world.