An Old Man's Blindness

By: Henrique Vasconcellos

The title character may not be the main character of the story’s narrative, but Peret Goriot is by far the character that the author developed its deepest analysis. Peret Goriot is Balzac`s interpretation of man’s irrational side. A man who has an irrational passion that takes control over his entire rational being, almost an animal in a human form.

Balzac was very careful to utilize of this character to develop the story and add to its climax. The wealthy merchant was overwhelmed by the love he had for his two daughters, making him blind to the world and losing his perspective of reality. Goriot lived exclusively for his daughters, sacrifice after sacrifice, he bled off his own money and desires, and further on, his own life.

Balzac is a very critical author, he was very careful to create his characters on point so that every aspect of their personalities represent a specific critic to the French society. Vautrin, is the opposing side of Goriot, he thinks about himself first, and always pursuits his own interests, regardless of the ethics on doing so. While Goriot represents an animalistic love, a selfless being who’s life does not belong to himself anymore. This strange passion culminated on blindness, the lack of vision and capacity of reasoning, almost as if Goriot was deemed to a certain destiny: sacrifice.
Balzac, in one passage states; “A man who boast that he never changes his opinion is a man committed always to follow a straight line, an idiot who believes in infallibility” (Balzac, 102). Even though the sentence was not directed to Goriot it was almost a prophecy of what would come to happen to Old Goriot. Blindness.


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