Stephen King has expressed that books are a movable magic, conveying their importance and the imagination they continuously inspire in us through reading. Similarly, Umberto Eco states that we live for books. Considering these two significant statements, along with my own thoughts, I can say that without books, perhaps we would be somewhere we are not today. We would be incomplete beings. Meanwhile, I am reminded of the potter with his clay, shaping it constantly, because without his skill, clay would just be clay. The same goes for us, humans.
The purpose of this writing is to analyze the main character of the novel “Eugénie Grandet” written by the French author Honoré de Balzac. The novel “Eugénie Grandet” is the beginning of “La Comédie Humaine,” which presents a panorama of Parisian life after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815. Balzac was called a realist because he drew his characters from everyday life and took his themes from current events. He was the first writer to highlight how the growing role of money in social life has brought about fundamental changes in people’s habits and psychology. A person’s place in society is not determined by social origin, abilities, or individual values, but by something external to the individual, something called money.
The choice of this work is related to its interesting theme and its relevance to the present day. The way the work and the characters are treated makes it more touching to us as a piece of literature.
Content of the novel:
At the center of the novel is the realistic depiction of the fate of a girl with a rich human world, full of feelings and passions, Eugénie Grandet. Balzac places the events in Saumur, in the house of old Grandet, and presents an ordinary display of provincial life. With a natural style and great skill, Balzac shows the birth, development, and growth of the feeling of covetousness in Eugénie. Old Grandet was once a cooper, now one of the richest men in the area. Since the people of Saumur were not known for their revolutionary feelings, the world took Mr. Grandet as a courageous man, a republican, a patriot, a man who wholeheartedly embraced new ideas, while in reality, he only cared about his vineyards. He had become a slave to money, and nothing else brought him satisfaction. He represented an unworthy husband and the last thread of romantic feelings was lost when he found out that Eugénie had given her money to Charles. Eugénie and her mother represented two women subjected to the ideas of old Grandet. With the arrival of Charles, a close cousin of Eugénie, the son of old Grandet’s brother, the situation in the family became tense because Eugénie was already involved in a passionate world woven by her first love, which she experienced. This flame of love was never extinguished and was always kept in secret by Eugénie. Charles left for India, and Eugénie helped him with the money, and there began the anticipation of a love that was both distant and close at the same time. Eugénie waited a long time for Charles until he sent a letter from India. Charles, now involved in a different sphere of life, under the tension of money, forgets the sensual world, the most fragile and inviolable part of each of us. Now alone, with boundless wealth, Eugénie closes the doors of love forever but still marries a townsperson, and when he dies, she begins to engage in acts of charity. It is clear in this provincial story that the author’s aim is to show the passion turned into an obsession with money, which kills all human feelings.
With the figure of Eugénie, the author describes the consequences of Grandesa’s wild behavior, a woman who suffers from her father’s tyranny. According to Freud, children who are raised in a cold and loveless environment fail to internalize proper standards. Their psyche lacks the tension caused by the conflict between the ego and the superego, making them less sensitive to norms and rules. Thus, we can say that the superego may not have developed properly. However, according to Fromm, being dependent on someone may seem good on the surface but is ultimately unhealthy, as it hinders the development of a sense of identity.
But due to the severe state of subjection to the figure of the father, Eugénie finds a strength to resist, and that is the sincere love she has for Charles. This love reveals her great spirit. She is constantly guided by Eros. The figure of her cousin leads her towards a pleasurable experience. Alongside Eros, she is also guided by Thanatos, caught between the two instincts of sexuality and destruction. She manages to kiss her cousin’s lips and feel the bittersweet taste within, like the taste of the most bitter sins.
The passage:
“I will wait Charles! Oh my God, my father is at the window,” said the cousin, pushing him away because he was approaching to kiss her. She ran under the arbor and Charles followed her. Seeing him, she retreated to the bottom of the stairs and opened the wings of the door. Then, unaware of where she was going, Eugénie found herself near Nanon’s room, in the darkest corner of the arbor. There, Charles, who had followed her, took her hand, brought it close to his heart, held her tightly, and leaned her sweetly against himself. She couldn’t hold back any longer and gave him the purest, sweetest, and fullest kiss that one can have in the world. “My dear Eugénie, a cousin is better than a brother, as he can even marry you,” Charles said. “So be it!” called out Nanon, opening the door to her room. The two trembling lovers entered the room. Eugénie took up her work in her hands, while Charles began to recite the prayers of the Virgin in the Lady Grande’s prayer room.
In the above fragment, we see the power and dominance of the id over the ego. We witness Freud’s internal and external conflict regarding the nature of human beings. He expresses that we are uncivilized at birth, born with the desire for incest and a desire to kill and destroy. Since these behaviors are unacceptable to society, the conflict between society and the individual becomes inevitable. This leads to an unavoidable intrapsychic conflict resulting from the individual’s attempts to conform to society and avoid these behaviors. Being under the shadow of neurotic anxiety, the fear of submitting to the powerful impulse of the id, and moral anxiety caused by desires or thoughts that conflict with the standards we may have regarding good and evil, they managed to experience anxiety in both forms and challenge it with their love for each other. Neurotic anxiety and moral anxiety seem to be too difficult to confront since they are internal, intrapsychic, and cannot be escaped by avoiding them. The deep feeling for Charles leads Eugénie to break old Grandet’s laws, to give Charles her little treasure, and endure all the consequences of her actions. This perhaps expresses the overpowering strength of the id over the ego and superego.
Charles decides to go to India using repression as one of the main mechanisms to protect himself and escape the threats and anxieties generated by Eugénie. Although this defense mechanism keeps Eugénie under control, most of the time it causes more problems than solutions because we can avoid external conflicts but not internal ones. Thus, Eugénie continues to pursue fulfillment, exerting pressure on the ego and consuming more psychic energy to suppress these behaviors. However, Charles used the repression mechanism in collaboration with the formation of reaction to suppress these feelings and behaviors and later turn them into their opposites. He quickly forgot his love for Eugénie with his departure to India…
Meanwhile, Eugénie kept their love pure, experiencing the greatest disappointment in her life. With the arrival of the letter from India, she realized that the dedicated waiting for her feelings would not be rewarded. Initially, she denied the situation (defense mechanism) and then became accustomed to it. Charles had already forgotten and become a slave to money, forgetting his involvement in the sensual world.
According to Fromm, we can say that Charl’s framework of orientation had changed, from a healthy framework of orientation where love was emphasized, to an unhealthy framework of orientation where money was emphasized over sensuality. According to May, love is a rich experience that encompasses all three modes of being: biological needs, relationships with others, and the affirmation of self and others’ values. But not all aspects of love are pleasurable. Love can provoke anxiety and, at times, bring destruction alongside pleasure. Therefore, the ability to love requires a consolidated existence. In contrast, the loss of purposefulness in our society results in an inability to express and live sincere love. Charles had already changed his goals, and Eugénie now tasted the bitterness of an unfinished, enclosed love. Under the agony of lost love, Eugénie marries a city man and after his death, she engages in acts of charity since she possessed an immense wealth. Eugénie displaces (defense mechanism) her feelings for Charles, all the remaining passion nourished over time, and everything she had left to perform acts of kindness.
In this novel, we have a series of incorporations of interpretations of human psychology according to different authors, as the work itself is a dynamic creation, built upon the internal and external conflicts of the individual. Its foundations lie in sexual instincts and instincts of destruction, Eros and Thanatos, and it draws upon the Libido to put them into practice. This book invites us to learn more about the development of the personalities of the characters involved, as well as our own personalities, by confronting the conscious with the unconscious.
It is also worth emphasizing that Eugénie should not leave us with the impression that she is an ideal figure to be taken as an example in every aspect; let us not forget that her scope of interests was too narrow…
