In the first paragraph of his novel Père Goriot, Balzac describes its main setting, the Maison Vauquer, as a “respectable establishment” which has never been sullied by any “breath of scandal.” " (1). This statement significantly defines the house in terms of scandal, with the author choosing to refer to its purity only through exclusive description --- there is no direct mention of morality, Balzac chooses rather to frame Maison Vauquer in a construction of secrecy and conspiracy. This authorial choice places the novel at the center of the world of conspiratorial intrigues from the beginning, because it centers the reader not on what is good in this world. Parisian, but about what is wrong - purity is the exception, as we see, in this small microcosm of the Parisian landscape. The whole of Père Goriot exists within and between these different plots. creating a kind of suspended system in which all the characters are linked, and our protagonist Eugene serves as a tour guide through the intricate weaves of this treacherous world Say No to Plagiarism Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Don't. should not be banned”?Get the original essayOnce introduced into this house of expected scandal, we meet its characters, a sort of microcosmic social physiology of 19th century Paris. This tendency towards social categorization is pervasive throughout the novel, which helps to underline the conspiratorial web of intrigue that is woven within it; as each person represents a certain social type or function, they thus serve to illuminate a particular plot that is specific to their personal situation. The residents “all looked at each other with a mixture of mutual indifference and distrust arising from their respective situations” (14). Most importantly, Father Goriot has no major plot, meaning there is no specific goal or conflict set out for the reader at the beginning. Rather, many smaller plots build gradually until together they construct the grand facade of a major plot; Yet when we examine this facade, we begin to see that in fact, at both the beginning and the end, we only have fractured stories that all take place in a small geographic and societal area. We cannot overemphasize this idea of ​​confinement: at the boarding house, Madame Vauquer provided “cells [which] belonged to her. She fed these lifers and exercised an authority over them that they respected” (14). The neighborhood in general looked like “a prison” (2). Balzac constantly draws attention to the feeling of confinement in the space of the novel, thus creating in the reader a habitual association of imprisonment with the pension and everything related to it. This tendency wraps another layer of secrecy around the novel, so when Balzac finally reveals the protagonist Eugène, the introduction seems appropriate to this secretly plotted world: "Without his attentive curiosity and the skill with which he managed to enter the Parisian social scene, this story would have lacked the stamp of authenticity that it surely owes to its sagacity and its desire to probe the mysteries of a terrible situation carefully concealed both by those who created it and by its victim. (8). Balzac, we see, consciously chose to foreshadow the rest of the work in this short introduction, creating an upstart narrative based and constructed around the melodramatic subtleties of Parisian society. more striking way in the relationships that Eugene builds with the various other characters in the novels It is interesting to note that each of the relationships is linked to the.others in the novel, with the exception of Eugène's relationship with Bianchon, who is also his only friend from a world without intrigue, the academic world. Bianchon, however, is exposed to the conspiracies at the end of the novel, but he only enters and leaves, without ever getting caught up in the web of networks. relationships which end up terrorizing both Maison Vauquer and the upper class. company of Faubourg Saint-Germain. We find the best examples of this world of intrigue in his characters: Father Goriot embodies the secrecy and paranoia that characterize this world, while Vautrin symbolizes crime, dissimulation and betrayal. These two characters are often found juxtaposed in Eugène's consciousness, creating a dialogue between evil and good which responds to the topos of duality that we find throughout the novel: Vautrin is both an asset and a disadvantage for the pension, Father Goriot is both in charge and in total servitude, Mlle. Victorine is both a poor woman and a noblewoman. Good and evil are found in everyone, and so everyone must hide one or both. Eugene serves as the tableau against which all of these conflicting emotions and intrigues play out as he struggles to make his way in society. Even Vautrin has merit; “In a word, this scoundrel told [Eugene] more about virtue than [he had] ever learned from men or books” (104). The complication becomes even deeper when Eugene begins to understand what is happening late at night at the boarding house. "He was about to return to his room when he suddenly heard a sound difficult to describe... he suddenly saw a faint glow on the second floor, coming from Mr. Vautrin's room. "What mysterious things for a guesthouse! he said to himself. He went down a few steps, began to listen and heard the sound of tinkling gold... "You have to stay up all night if you want to know what's going on around you. in Paris!" 33) This passage is the first moment when Eugene becomes aware of the plots that will eventually surround him. Even if he does not know exactly why, he is "distracted by suspicions" (33). The novel is constructed in a very precise manner: the chapter titles segment the work into specifically thematic scenes, and the scenes all come together cleverly at the end, when a tragic death conveniently brings everyone together, both physically and thematically Yet, beneath this construction, there is a world of small and significant links: Father Goriot with his two daughters, the girls with each other, Eugène with his aunt, his aunt with high society, and this society with Maison Vauquer. . , thanks to the connection between Father Goriot and Eugène. The relationships within the boarding house itself are also significant, as it provides a setting for juxtaposition with the salons of high society. It is between these two worlds that Eugène navigates. Money is also an important factor in the connection between conspiracy and romantic intrigue. Everyone in the book has tons of it or nothing at all --- significantly, there is no middle ground, creating a no-man's land both metaphorical and physical that Eugene walks through and never notices on its path between these two poles. There is never a physical description of his journey, as if there was nothing to see, as if he was crossing a world that does not exist. And any type of legitimate work does not allow the accumulation of wealth, as Vautrin astutely points out to Eugène: "'You have ten years of poverty, you have to spend a thousand a month, have a library, rooms, conduct a social life. , kiss the bottom of a lawyer's robe to get underpants, lick the dust of a courthouse with my tongue If such a career led to something worthwhile, I wouldn't say no, but.