In the 30s, Balzac turned entirely to the description of the morals and life of modern bourgeois society. The origins of the “Human Comedy” lie in the short story “Gobsek,” which appeared in 1830. Although outwardly it seems to be a novella entirely of portraiture, a kind of psychological sketch, it nevertheless contains all the key moments of Balzac’s worldview.

The short story, along with the novel, was Balzac's favorite genre. Moreover, many of Balzac's short stories are built not around a specific center - although they sometimes tell very dramatic twists and turns - but around a certain psychological type. Taken together, Balzac's short stories are like a portrait gallery of various types of human behavior, a series of psychological sketches. In the general concept of The Human Comedy, they are, as it were, preliminary developments of characters, which Balzac later releases as heroes on the pages of his major plot novels.

And it is extremely significant that the first to appear in this gallery of types is Gobsek, the moneylender, one of the key, main figures of the entire bourgeois century, as if a symbol of this era. What is this new psychological type? In our critical literature, unfortunately, the image of Gobsek is often interpreted one-sidedly. If you do not read the story itself, but read other critical opinions about it, then we will be presented with the image of a kind of spider sucking the blood from its victims, a man devoid of any mental movements, thinking only about money - in general, this figure, as one can imagine, depicted by Balzac with hatred and disgust.

But if you carefully read the story itself, you will probably be somewhat confused by the categorical nature of these strictly negative judgments. Because in the story you will often see and hear something completely opposite: the narrator, a completely positive and honest person, lawyer Derville, speaks about Gobsek, for example, like this: “I am deeply convinced that, outside of his usurious affairs, he is a man of the most scrupulous honesty in all of Paris. Two creatures live in him: a miser and a philosopher, an insignificant and sublime creature. If I die, leaving young children, he will be their guardian. I repeat, this is said by the narrator, who clearly speaks on behalf of the author.

Let's take a closer look at this strange character. Gobsek is, without a doubt, ruthless towards his clients. He strips them, as they say, of three skins. He “plunges people into tragedy,” as they said of old.

But let's ask a logical question - who is his client, from whom does he take money? The novel features two such clients - Maxime de Tray, a socialite, gambler and pimp who squanders his mistress's money; the mistress herself is Countess de Resto, blindly in love with Maxim and robbing her husband and children for the sake of her lover. When her husband becomes seriously ill, his first concern is to make a will so that the money is left not to the wife, but to the children; and then the countess, truly losing her human form, protects the dying count’s office with vigilant surveillance in order to prevent him from handing over the will to the notary. When the count dies, she rushes to the dead man's bed and, throwing the corpse against the wall, rummages through the bed!

Do you feel how this complicates the situation? After all, these are different things - does the moneylender Gobsek rob just helpless people in trouble, or people like these? Here we must, apparently, be more careful in our assessment of Gobsek, otherwise we will logically have to feel sorry for poor Maxime de Traya and Countess de Resto! But maybe Gobsek doesn’t care who to rob? Today he squeezed the Countess and Maxim, tomorrow he will squeeze a decent man?

We are assured that he almost drinks human blood, but he throws it in Maxime de Tray’s face: “What flows in your veins is not blood, but dirt.” He tells Derville: “I appear to the rich as retribution, as a reproach of conscience...”

It turns out that what kind of Gobsek is! But maybe this is all demagoguery, but in reality Gobsek takes just as much pleasure in fleecing the poor and honest people? Balzac, as if anticipating this question, introduces into his short story the story of the seamstress Fanny - Gobsek feels sympathy and passion for her.

You don’t need to have any special instinct to see that the hero’s speeches here are not hypocritical: they sound completely sincere, they were composed by Balzac in order to highlight the human essence of Gobsek! True, in the same scene, Gobsek, getting emotional, almost offers her a loan of money at the minimum rate, “only 12%,” but then changes his mind. This seems to sound sarcastic, but if you think about the situation, it is again more complicated. Because Balzac has no ridicule here - on the contrary, the whole stronghold of Gobseck’s existence is shaking here! He is a moneylender, a seemingly ruthless character, he himself is ready to offer to lend money, and he forgets himself so much at the sight of Fanny that he is ready to demand the minimum interest rate in his understanding. Isn’t it obvious that here it is important for Balzac not to mock Gobsek’s sentimentality, but to emphasize precisely his shock - clearly human, humane feelings began to speak in him! His professional instinct remained stronger, but it is curious that his rejection of this idea was not due to greed, but to skepticism, distrust of people: “Well, no, I reasoned with myself, she probably has a young cousin who will force her to sign bills and will cleanse the poor thing!" That is, Fanny alone Gobsek was still ready to show kindness! Here we have before us not so much sarcasm or satire, but Balzac’s deep psychological insight; here the tragic sides of human psychology are revealed - even trying to do good to worthy people, he does not dare to take this step, because his entire psychology is already poisoned by distrust of people!

The entire plot of the story convinces us of the complexity of Gobsek’s character and the remarkable human resources of his soul. After all, at the end of it, it is Gobsek who is trusted by the dying Count de Resto to protect his children from the intrigues of his own mother! The Count, therefore, implies in him not only honesty, but also humanity! Further, when Derville is about to found his own notary office, he decides to ask Gobsek for money because he feels his friendly disposition. Another brilliant psychological detail follows - Gobsek asks Derville for the minimum amount of interest in his practice, he himself understands that it is still high, and therefore almost demands that Derville bargain! He is literally waiting for this request - so that, again, he himself does not violate his principle (not to take less than 13%). But ask Derville, he will reduce the amount even more! Derville, in turn, does not want to humiliate himself. The amount remains 13%. But Gobsek, so to speak, organizes for him additional and profitable clientele free of charge. And as a farewell, he asks Derville for permission to visit him. In that scene you see again not so much a spider as a victim of his own profession and his own distrust of people.

So Balzac, with subtle psychological skill, exposes to us the secret nerves of this strange soul, “the fiber of the heart.” modern man“, as Stendhal said. This man, supposedly bringing “evil, ugliness and destruction,” is in fact deeply wounded in his soul. His insightful, sharp mind is cold to the extreme. He sees the evil reigning around, but he still convinces himself that he This is all he sees: “If you live like me, you will learn that of all earthly blessings there is only one reliable enough for a person to pursue it. Is this gold".

Balzac shows us the path of thought that led the hero to such ethics, he shows us in all its complexity the soul that professes such principles - and then these words already sound tragic. Gobsek turns out to be a deeply unhappy man; the surrounding evil, money, gold - all this distorted his fundamentally honest and kind nature, poisoned it with the poison of distrust of people. He feels completely alone in this world. “If human communication between people is considered a kind of religion, then Gobsek could be called an atheist,” says Derville. But at the same time, the thirst for real human communication in Gobsek has not died completely, it is not for nothing that his soul was so drawn to Fanny, it is not for nothing that he becomes so attached to Derville and, to the meager measure of his strength, strives to do good! But the logic of the bourgeois world, according to Balzac, is such that these impulses most often remain just fleeting impulses - or acquire a grotesque, distorted character.

In other words, Balzac depicts here not the tragedy of Maxime de Traya and Countess de Resto, who fell into the clutches of a usurer spider, but the tragedy of Gobseck himself, whose soul was distorted and twisted by the law of the bourgeois world - man is a wolf to man. After all, how senseless and tragic at the same time the death of Gobsek! He dies completely alone next to his rotting wealth - he dies like a maniac! His usury, his tight-fistedness is not a cold calculation, but a disease, a mania, a passion that consumes the person himself. We must not forget about his vengeful feelings towards the rich! And it is no coincidence, of course, that this whole story is put into the mouth of Derville, who tells it in a high-society salon - this story is clearly built on the fact that Derville is trying to dissuade his listeners, in any case, to tell them the truth about Gobsek’s life. After all, his listeners know this story from the same Gobsek victims - from the same Maxim, from the same Countess de Resto. And they, of course, have the same idea about Gobsek as in the critical judgments I quoted above - he is a villain, a criminal, he brings evil, ugliness, destruction, and Derville, a lawyer by profession, builds his entire story on mitigating circumstances. And so, paradoxically, it is Gobsek’s fate that becomes a condemnation of bourgeois society - his fate, and not the fate of Maxim and Countess de Resto!

But having realized this, we also realize Balzac’s serious artistic protest in this image. After all, in pronouncing a condemnation of mercantile ethics, Balzac, as the main victim and accuser, chooses, of course, a figure who is not the most suitable for this role. Even if we assume that there were such moneylenders, it can hardly be assumed that such a moneylender’s fate was typical. She is definitely an exception. Meanwhile, Balzac clearly raises this story above the framework of a particular case; he gives it a general, symbolic meaning! And in order for Gobsek’s role as an accuser of society to look legitimate, so that the author’s sympathy for the hero looks justified, the author not only gives a subtle psychological analysis Gobsek’s soul (which we saw above), but also reinforces this with a kind of demonization of the image. And this is a purely romantic procedure. Gobsek is shown as a brilliant but sinister expert on human souls, as a kind of explorer of them.

Balzac essentially elevates the private, everyday practice of the moneylender to majestic proportions. After all, Gobsek becomes not only a victim of the golden calf, but also a symbol of enormous practical and educational energy! And here the purely romantic manner of depicting irresistible demonic villains, for whose villainy the world is to blame, invades the methodology of the remarkable realist. And not themselves.

Very little time will pass, and Balzac will become much more unambiguous and merciless in his portrayal of bourgeois businessmen - this will be the image of old Grandet. But now, in Gobsek, he is still clearly wavering on a very important point - the question of purposefulness, the moral cost of bourgeois energy.

By creating the figure of the all-powerful Gobsek, Balzac clearly pushes immorality into the background ultimate goal usury - pumping money out of people that you, in essence, did not give them. Gobsek’s energy and strength still interest him in themselves, and he is clearly weighing for himself the question of whether this practical energy is for good. That’s why he clearly idealizes and romanticizes this energy. Therefore, it is in matters of the ultimate goal that Balzac looks for Gobsek to mitigate mitigating circumstances that mystify the real state of affairs - either for Gobsek it is a study of the laws of the world, or observation of human souls, either revenge on the rich for their arrogance and heartlessness, or some kind of all-consuming “one single passion.” Romanticism and realism are truly inextricably intertwined in this image.

As we see, the entire story is woven from the deepest dissonances, reflecting the ideological fluctuations of Balzac himself. Turning to the analysis of modern morals, Balzac still mystifies them in many ways, overloading the fundamentally realistic image symbolic meanings and generalizations. As a result, the image of Gobsek appears on several levels at once - he is both a symbol of the destructive power of gold, and a symbol of bourgeois practical energy, and a victim of bourgeois morality, and also simply a victim of all-consuming passion, passion as such, regardless of its specific content.

The story "Gobsek" was written in 1830. Later, in 1835, Balzac edited it and included it in the “Human Comedy”, connecting it with the novel “Père Goriot” using the so-called “transitional character”.

Thus, the beautiful Countess Anastasi de Resto, one of the debtors of the moneylender Gobsek, turns out to be the daughter of the bankrupt manufacturer-“noodle maker” Goriot.

Both in the story and in the novel, Balzac turns to the original properties of human psychology - stinginess (“Gobsek”), selfless fatherly love for children (“Père Goriot”).

Balzac - researcher of psychology, master of detail, connoisseur social life different layers of human society of his time. Gobsek is not a “model of a miser,” but a living, visible person, a moneylender of the Restoration era. This hoarder derives pleasure not just from having money, but from the secret power over people that money gives.

Gradually, the common sense ability to acquire capital and increase it turns into a painful passion that deprives Gobsek of his human traits and kills him, first morally and then physically.

Stocks of very expensive goose liver pates are rotting, poisoning the air of the apartment with a stench - and this is an image of human decay. A sophisticated reader will immediately see the relationship between Balzac’s hero and Plyushkin from “ Dead souls» N.V. Gogol.

Virtue and vice are interconnected. Father Goriot is a loving bourgeois father, able to express his affection for his daughters only with the help of money and expensive gifts. Having corrupted them with excessive favor and forgiveness, he himself becomes the culprit of their selfishness and his own death alone. However, no less - and even more! — a society that offers betrayal, cynicism, the ability to adapt and flatter as perfect models of success is also guilty. Pity, sympathy, sincere love are not fashionable and not appropriate in this world. However, some characters combine sober calculation, the ability to love, and repentance. Thus, the Viscountess de Beauseant gives her distant relative Rastignac good advice- succeed by having an affair with a rich woman. However, she decides to leave the world when her lover finds himself a profitable bride.

Rastignac himself was a common type in society and literature of that time: Balzac repeatedly chose for his novels a plot about a young provincial who decided to conquer Paris. This young man is ambitious, determined, ready to give up romantic illusions - but, nevertheless, he is able to sincerely become attached to Delphine and feel pity for her poor pathetic father, even spending his last money on his funeral. As long as there are tendencies in society to achieve success by “walking over our heads,” Balzac’s “Human Comedy” will not lose its significance.

Refers to scenes of private life (trying to penetrate and analyze history through private history).

The story "Gobsek" under the title "The Dangers of Dissipation" was published in 1830 as part of "Scenes of Private Life", its first chapter was published separately in early 1830 under the title "The Moneylender"; as “Papa Gobsek”, this story was included in the “Scenes of Parisian Life” in 1835; it received its final name “Gobsek” and a place in “Scenes of Private Life” in 1842. long history publications and “transitions” of the story from one section to another indicate the complexity of the work’s problems and its significance in the system of the entire series of Balzac’s novels. The main figure of the story is the moneylender Gobsek, his surname translated from Dutch means “guzzler”, which fully corresponds to the character’s life function; Balzac plays on the internal form of the surname - his hero, like a boa constrictor, strangles his victims with monstrous interest and swallows them and their fortunes. In accordance with his principle of depicting “men, women and things,” the writer gives a detailed, characterizing portrait of the hero, giving comparisons with things that reveal the author’s understanding of the facts. Gobsek had a “lunar face, for his yellowish pallor resembles the color of silver from which the gilding has peeled off”: the colors of money are noted in his appearance - gold And silver The moneylender's impassiveness is reflected in his motionless features, they seemed cast from bronze His eyes were “small and yellow, like a ferret’s.” His long nose looked like gimlet- with his help, the hero seemed to penetrate into all the secrets hidden from others. “His age was a mystery.” The ominous appearance of Gobsek is repeated in his subject environment: he lives “in a damp and gloomy house.” There is usually such dead silence in his office. In his study of the world, Gobsek proceeds from the fact that everything is determined by money. In the world, he sees a constant struggle between rich and poor and prefers to “press yourself” rather than “allow others to push you.” Balzac shows that moneylenders, like spiders, weave their webs throughout society, but the writer does not lose sight of the fact that this society itself is no better than moneylenders. Who gets caught in Gobsek's network? Maxime de Tray is a male prostitute, a socialite who makes money by selling his so-called “love.” Countess de Resto, deceived by de Tray, but in turn deceiving her husband and ruining and abandoning her father. In the struggle of all against all, Gobsek fundamentally denies feelings, because he sees that they become a trap into which the naive and simple-minded fall. He evaluates people's relationships only with money. The author emphasizes the sinister character of Gobsek with a brief excursion into his past, where only isolated strokes give the path to wealth: the almost romantic mystery that shrouds the origin of his wealth is associated with crimes. However, in the present he is devoid of romance. For Balzac, it is important that his hero is not only a private person - he is a pillar of the modern state, the government needs his help. And at the same time, the author sees that this is a rotten pillar. This is evidenced by the picture of the death of a moneylender, when all the wealth he accumulated remains unnecessary to anyone, when all kinds of supplies rot in his closets. Fearing to sell things too cheap, he doomed his treasures to destruction. We see a colossal picture of the destruction of personality under the influence of money, when the monetary value of things itself loses all meaning.

To expand the scope of observations, the author resorts to a unique composition: “Gobsek” is a story within a story. The “framework” for the moneylender’s story was a conversation in de Granlier’s salon about Camille de Granlier’s fiancé, the eldest son of Count de Resto, who is distrustful because his mother has stained herself with dishonor. But the question of morality disappears when a person with a dubious reputation ends up with a lot of money.

Gobsek is the case in which the laws of social life are revealed.

Genre. Tale

Subject: depiction of the influence of the "golden bag" on inner world person.

Idea: money is not to blame, since it is only a convention that people came up with; it matters who owns them and for what purpose they use them.

Conflict: feelings - reason, bourgeois society - talented personality.

System of images. Lawyer and notary Derville, Viscountess de Granlier and her daughter Camilla, moneylender Gobsek, seamstress Fanny Malva, Anastasi de Resto, her husband Count de Resto and son Ernest de Resto, Maxime de Tray

The action in the story takes place in the winter of 1829-1830. This is France period recent years Bourbon rule on the eve of the July bourgeois revolution of 1830

Composition. Frame composition: a story within a story. Lawyer Derville tells the Countess de Granlier a story that concerns the very beginning of his career and may change the view of the highest circle of Parisian society on the situation of Ernest de Resto, who is in love with Camille de Granlier.

The work is included in the “Etudes on Morals” (“Scenes of Private Life”). It depicts a social phenomenon (“the power of gold,” which becomes the main one in society), explores the “history of the human heart” (the loss of true life guidelines by Gobsek) and the “history of society” (in which “gold is a spiritual essence”).

Features of realism and romanticism in the story “Gobsek”

Features of realism

• description of life in France 1829-1830. (historical specifics)
• accuracy of details;
• description of financial actions;
• typicality of situations;
• social and everyday characteristics of the heroes.

Traits of Romanticism

• the loneliness of the main character;
• Gobsek's past is a mystery;
• Gobsek is a strong and unusual personality;
• the enormous scale of Gobsek’s activities;
• Gobsek's exceptional mind, his romantic worldview.

The “enormousness” of Gobsek’s figure is based not only on comparisons. The humble moneylender's past would make any adventurer die of envy; his knowledge, interests and connections with the world simply cannot be taken into account - he is truly omnipresent and omnipotent. Before us is a typical romantic hero: he lives in a world of absolute values ​​and measures himself against the gods - no less; he knows everything, he has comprehended everything, although he is infinitely alone in the surrounding crowd, without which he, however, gets along just fine. Time, like minor everyday troubles, has no power over him - only fatal principles and passion are capable of determining such a nature.

Gobsek's passion is power and gold, and since these are idols of many eras, and especially the bourgeois one, the romantically depicted moneylender fits perfectly into the generally realistic picture of human relations created by Balzac. In addition, the author of “The Human Comedy” himself would not refuse a whole series of Gobsek’s achievements (mostly fictional); Many of the bitter truths about the world around us, which the moneylender shares with Derville, clearly go back to the ideas and aphorisms of Balzac. Thus, such an ambiguous hero also turns out to be close to the author in some ways. Now let's look at what has been said in more detail and evidence.

The information that Derville provides about Gobseck's past is more suitable for the world of stories of the Arabian Nights than for the story of an old man who lives in a poor Parisian quarter and is busy all day fiddling with securities and squeezing money from clients. But Balzac himself, as we know, was endowed with a rich imagination and often gave free rein to his imagination in quite ordinary circumstances: let us remember his canes, the Beduk ring, faith in the unusualness and greatness of his destiny, constant projects for fabulous enrichment...

“His mother assigned him as a cabin boy on a ship,” Derville says about Gobsek’s past, “and at the age of ten he sailed to the Dutch possessions of the East Indies, where he wandered for twenty years. The wrinkles of his yellowish forehead kept the secret of terrible trials, sudden terrible events, unexpected successes, romantic vicissitudes, immeasurable joys, hungry days, trampled love, wealth, ruin and newly acquired wealth, mortal dangers, when a life hanging in the balance was saved by instantaneous and, perhaps cruel actions justified by necessity.”

There are many characteristic romantic exaggerations here, which will be repeated and multiplied in the future, but Balzac remains true to himself: continuing his story, Derville among Gobsek’s acquaintances names both real (Lally, Suffren, Hastings, Tippo-Sahib) and fictional historical figures - characters "The Human Comedy" (Kergarouette, de Pontaduer). In this way, with thin and unnoticeable threads, the writer interweaves the creation of his own fantasy with real life.

It further turns out that Gobsek did business with the entourage of the famous Indian Raja, lived among pirates and knew the most famous of them; he also searched for a legendary Indian treasure in the vicinity of Buenos Aires and “had to do with all the vicissitudes of the war for the independence of the United States.” Such track record could decorate the biography of a character in an adventure novel. The list of exotic countries and activities of Gobsek also brings to mind the works of romantic writers: trying to get away from the prose of everyday life and boring everyday life, they willingly sent their heroes to distant lands in search of dangerous adventures.

How does all this relate to Balzac's realistic, socially conscious portrait of contemporary France in the same work? Balzac worked in an era when the idols of the public were the heroes of Byron, Walter Scott, and Victor Hugo. Realism had yet to conquer and strengthen its position in world literature, and Balzac was one of those who did a lot to establish new approaches to depicting the world and man in literature. At the same time, which is quite natural in a transitional era, Balzac himself was influenced by the aesthetics of romanticism in literature and the corresponding type of behavior in life.

It is not surprising that the writer builds the image of the moneylender according to both realistic and romantic canons. Researchers have noticed: Balzac tends to be excessive in his descriptions, piling qualities one on top of another; this leads to obvious exaggerations, but does not at all contradict the poetics of romanticism. Thus, the mentioned description of Gobseck’s personality allows Derville to summarize in a conversation with Count de Resto: “... I am deeply convinced that not a single human soul has received such cruel hardening in trials as he has.”

The character himself has no less high opinion of himself. He unashamedly declares to Derville: “I appear as retribution, as a reproach of conscience... I love to stain rich people’s carpets with dirty shoes - not out of petty pride, but to make one feel the clawed paw of Inevitability.” There is a feeling that Gobsek considers himself an instrument of Providence, a kind of sword in the hands of Fate. However, it immediately turns out that he is aiming much higher.

“I own the world without tiring myself, and the world does not have the slightest power over me,” Gobsek asserts and, in confirmation of this, describes his relationships with those who are in his power.

“Isn’t it interesting to look into the innermost folds of the human heart? Isn’t it curious to penetrate into someone else’s life and see it without embellishment, in all its nakedness?... I have the gaze of the Lord God: I read in hearts. Nothing can be hidden from me."

This is already very reminiscent of the rivalry with the Creator, which attracted Balzac himself when creating his grandiose epic. Gobsek became one of those heroes whom the author who created them allowed to realize some of his cherished dreams.

Firstly, Gobsek is rich, and this has always remained a passionate but unattainable dream of the writer. Secondly, he comprehended the essence of the surrounding world, the mechanisms and laws that govern it, and put them at his service. The way Gobsek understands and interprets world truths makes us recall the programmatic speech of Balzac himself, which he prefaced the entire “Human Comedy”.

“You are young, your blood is pumping, and your head is foggy. You look at the burning brands in the fireplace and see in the lights women's faces, but I only see coals. You believe everything, but I believe nothing. Well, save your illusions if you can. I'll sum it up for you now human life... What causes delight in Europe is punished in Asia. What is considered a vice in Paris is recognized as a necessity in the Azores. There is nothing durable on earth, there are only conventions, and in each climate they are different... Only one single feeling is unshakable, embedded in us by nature itself: the instinct of self-preservation. In the states of European civilization this instinct is called personal interest.

I traveled and saw that all over the earth there are plains and mountains. The plains bore you, the mountains tire you; in a word, in what place to live - it doesn’t matter. As for morals, people are the same everywhere: everywhere there is a struggle between the poor and the rich, everywhere. And it is inevitable. It’s better to push yourself than to allow others to push you.” This is Gobsek’s manifesto, with which he appears before Derville during their first face-to-face conversation. Now let’s turn to the “Preface to the Human Comedy.” Balzac immediately states that the idea of ​​the epic was suggested to him by the comparison of humanity and the animal world. Referring to Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s theory of the unity of organisms, to statements of other scientists of recent centuries that are close to this idea, Balzac himself formulates a “wonderful law” that, in his opinion, underlies the unity of organisms: “each for himself.”

And further: “The Creator used the same model for all living beings. living creature- this is the basis; receiving its external form, or, more precisely, distinctive features of its form, in the environment where it is destined to develop...

Having been imbued with this system long before it aroused controversy, I realized that in this respect Society is like Nature. After all, Society creates from man, according to the environment in which he acts, as many diverse species as exist in the animal world. The difference between a soldier, a worker, an official, a lawyer, a loafer, a scientist, statesman, a merchant, a sailor, a poet, a poor man, a priest, is just as significant, although more difficult to grasp, as what distinguishes a wolf, a lion, a donkey, a raven, a shark, a seal, a sheep, etc. from each other.” .

So, the conclusions of Balzac and his hero boil down to the following: the world is driven by the struggle for existence, which, depending on social, national-cultural, geographical, etc. conditions, gives rise to social human species, similar to species in the animal world.

The path of knowledge itself, which the author and his hero prefer, is also similar: it is an insight into the essence of some absolute world truth, which allows one to largely intuitively understand the secret springs of governing society. It is not for nothing that Balzac, even before mentioning the works of famous naturalists who influenced him, speaks of “the amazing works of mystical writers” (Swedenborg, Saint-Martin, etc.), whose views, as is known, he largely shared.

Gobsek claims that he replaced “your scientific curiosity, a kind of duel in which a person is always defeated... by penetration into all the motivating reasons that drive humanity.” Derville admits that the old moneylender had an amazing, extraordinary look, “by which one might think that he had the gift of clairvoyance.” Later, he is surprised by Gobsek’s foresight, who foresaw the fate of Countess de Resto four years in advance.

This desire for absolute knowledge, achieved intuitively, also brings Balzac closer to the literature of romanticism. As is known, romantic writers, in their understanding of the world and man, proceeded from the so-called dual world, which presupposes parallel existence the world of everyday life (which often limits the horizons of ordinary people), and the higher world, where the destinies of people are decided and the secret mechanisms of everything that happens to them are hidden.

Penetrate this other one upper world Only selected individuals can perceive the surrounding reality more deeply and subtly than others - poets, artists, clairvoyants, scientists. It seems that it is no coincidence that Gobsek, starting a conversation about his entertainment, suddenly calls himself a poet:

“- In your opinion, only the poet who publishes his poems? - he asked, shrugging his shoulders and narrowing his eyes contemptuously.

"Poetry? In a head like this? - I was surprised, because I didn’t know anything about his life then.”

The strange moneylender really had an imagination worthy of his creator: “I understood that if he had millions in the bank, then in his thoughts he could own all the countries that he had traveled, rummaged, weighed, appraised, robbed.”

We have already mentioned the romantic aspects of Gobsek’s image: his mysterious and adventurous past, his claims to possess absolute truth, which the author not only does not correct, but also portrays with a certain sympathy. To this we can add the moneylender’s inherent gift of insight into people’s souls and the ability to foresee their fate, as well as the widespread use of romantic contrasts and exaggerations in characterizing the characteristics of his personality and behavior.

As we already know, Gobsek managed to travel almost the whole world, he knows everything about life and people. He is the owner of an extraordinary clairvoyant gaze, has excellent command of a pistol and a sword, is endowed with great physical strength (remember how he threw aside the eldest son of Count de Resto in the scene at the count’s deathbed), instantly goes from wild, animal joy at the sight of rare diamonds to marble courtesy in conversation with the debtor. Derville believes that “two creatures live in him: a miser and a philosopher, a base creature and a sublime one. If I die leaving young children, he will be their guardian."