“ Le roman prouve, illustre et veut enseigner une leçon.” Discuss in relation to your reading of Balzac’s Le Père Goriot.
The quotation refers implicitly to the “Avant-Propos” to the Comédie Humaine where Balzac proclaims his intention to investigate and illustrate “ l’histoire et la critique de la Société” and “ L’unité de composition” (AP,9) which underlies l’analyse de ses maux et la discussion de ses principles” (AP,32). Taking Balzac’s examination of Goriot’s fatherhood, tried under various conditions, as an example of the major themes of “ les personnes et la représentation matérielle qu’ils donnent de leur pensée” (AP,12) I hope to illustrate the relationship between proof, illustration and didactic intent.

The theories that Balzac aims to “prouve” are elucidated by Festa-McCormick (p.21) who sumarises the intellectual background of St Hilaire, Cuvier and de Bonald. The influence of environment on the individual is a major theme. The novel’s title defines Balzac’s investigative focus, Le Père as divine Father, narrows to the individual - Goriot. Balzac states the “État Sociale” (AP,11) in which Goriot takes “sa forme extérieure” (AP,1). The Vauquer house, sordid in physical and moral terms, smells and feels like a “prison” (p.7) with the reiterated “croisées” (p.28) of windows barring light (El Hajoui,6). Images of “ pestilence” (p.9), the scabrous cupid (p.27), identify the nature of Mmes Vauquer and Michonneau, and establish the unity between them and their physical environment. The classical Télémaque wallpaper (p.28), memorial of earlier stable times and pointing the father theme, is an object of derision. Surfaces are “crasseuse[s]”, “gluant[es]” (p.29). The disgusting imprints of users, food and exhalations gives an impression of permanence, of a past now perished, imposing itself, contrasting with the uncertainties of the present (El Hajoui,9).
References: AP - Balzac, Honoré de, .Avant-Propos à La Comédie Humaine, Béthune et Plon,