Father Goriot · Chapter
Father Goriot explained
Eugène de Rastignac receives money from his family, including his mother's sacrifice and his sisters' savings, which stirs remorse and self-reflection.
What happens
Eugène de Rastignac receives money from his family, including his mother's sacrifice and his sisters' savings, which stirs remorse and self-reflection. Vautrin reveals to Rastignac that Father Goriot melted down his silver to pay his daughter's debts, exposing the corrupt and mercenary nature of Parisian society. The chapter also details the decline of Goriot's fortunes and the gossip surrounding him at the Maison Vauquer, including suspicions about his past and his secret visits from a young woman.
Themes in this chapter
Paternal Love and Sacrifice
Goriot melts down his cherished silver to pay his daughter's debts, demonstrating extreme paternal devotion.
Money and Materialism
The chapter emphasizes how money drives relationships and social standing, as seen in Goriot's sacrifice and Rastignac's family's financial strain.
Corruption and Morality
Vautrin's speech exposes the moral decay of Paris, where theft and virtue are judged by wealth, and Goriot's sacrifice is contrasted with Rastignac's remorse.
Characters to notice
- Eugène de Rastignac
Receives money from his family, feels remorse for his ambitions, and learns of Goriot's sacrifice from Vautrin.
- Father Goriot
Melted down his silver posset-dish to pay his daughter's debts, showing his paternal sacrifice; subject of gossip at the boarding house.
- Vautrin
Reveals Goriot's actions to Rastignac and cynically explains the corrupt nature of Parisian society.
- Madame Vauquer
Gossips about Goriot's past and his financial decline, and speculates about his character.
- Anastasie de Restaud
Implied to be the recipient of Goriot's financial help; her debts are the reason for his sacrifice.
- Victorine Taillefer
Returns from a visit to her father Taillefer with red eyes, indicating rejection.
Key passages
“Your mother has broken up her jewels for you... you have selfishly sacrificed others to your own future, and she sacrifices her father to her lover; and of you two, which is the worse?”
Rastignac realizes that his own ambition has caused his family to sacrifice their treasures, just as Anastasie sacrifices her father for her lover, and he questions who is more blameworthy.
Rastignac's internal conflict highlights the theme of moral comparison between his actions and those of Anastasie.
“The mud splashes you as you drive through it in your carriage—you are a respectable person; you go afoot and are splashed—you are a scoundrel. You are so unlucky as to walk off with something or other belonging to somebody else, and they exhibit you as a curiosity in the Place du Palais-de-Justice; you steal a million, and you are pointed out in every salon as a model of virtue.”
Vautrin argues that in Paris, respectability depends on wealth and appearance, not on actual morality; a poor thief is punished while a rich one is celebrated.
Vautrin's cynical observation underscores the theme of corruption and the hypocrisy of social judgment.
“He cried while he was breaking up the cup and plate. I happened to see him by accident.”
Goriot wept as he destroyed his silver keepsake, showing the emotional cost of his sacrifice for his daughter.
This moment emphasizes Goriot's deep paternal love and the pain of his material loss.