"Eugenie Grandet"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how in "Eugenie Grandet", Balzac demonstrates an extensive knowledge of social and historical trends as well as a genius for metaphor, imagery, and insights into human nature. It examines how Balzac depicts provincial life in France as backward and out of touch with urban trends while Paris is portrayed as an advanced commercial society and how this historical pattern represents much more than mere contrast between urban and rural, and becomes a symbol for the context in which Eugenie is situated.

From the Paper:

"The person who exhibits the courage and stamina to oppose Grandet is his daughter Eugenie. In order to portray this opposition, Balzac used the analogy he introduced at the beginning of the house in ruins and desolation. The impetus for Eugenie's emotional awakening is her cousin Charles, and the symbol used is the Garden. First of all, Eugenie is initially portrayed as docile and as corresponding to the most traditional social expectations. A painter of the period would have observed in Eugenie "a typical example of Mary's celestial purity in this world, who expects all women to have those modestly proud eyes perceived by Raphael" (Balzac 57). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Balzac, Honore de. Eugenie Grandet. Trans., Christopher Prendergast. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

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