Goriot—Eugène de Rastignac

Goriot and Eugène de Rastignac form a father-and-son-like bond that gives the novel one of its few relationships not organized solely by calculation. Goriot’s generosity toward Eugène grows out of his devotion to Delphine, but it becomes a genuine affection in its own right: he calls the young man his child, helps him share a home with Delphine, and offers money without demanding repayment on a schedule. Eugène, in turn, answers this paternal care with gratitude and ultimately with the loyalty that Goriot’s own daughters fail to show.

A Place in Goriot’s Family

Goriot describes himself as the unseen author of Delphine and Eugène’s happiness. He recalls proposing that they furnish rooms for Eugène in the Rue d’Artois, presenting his help as the practical means by which the couple could be together. His imagined role is that of a good fairy who can be present everywhere without being seen: he wants to make their happiness possible while remaining unobtrusive. The arrangement also reveals the emotional logic of his fatherhood. Giving is not merely a duty he performs for his daughters; he says that fathers must keep giving if they are to be happy themselves.

The exchange makes Eugène more than a convenient suitor in Goriot’s eyes. When the father jokes that he is nobody, Eugène answers that Goriot knows perfectly well that the word “we” includes him. Goriot welcomes that inclusion, treating the young man as part of the family rather than as an outsider who happens to be attached to Delphine. The intimacy is tender, but it is also asymmetrical: Goriot’s joy rests on his ability to provide, while Eugène is newly entering a relationship whose comforts the older man has helped create.

Money Given as Affection

That asymmetry becomes concrete when the cost of furnishing the rooms comes into question. Goriot produces a worn leather pocket-book and the invoices, explaining that he has already paid for everything. The sum is at most five thousand francs, and he offers to lend it to Eugène himself. He asks only for a receipt on a scrap of paper and says Eugène can return the money at some later time. In a world where financial dependence can bind people to one another, Goriot presents the loan as an act of trust rather than a claim over the recipient.

Delphine and Eugène look at each other in amazement, and tears come to their eyes. Eugène warmly grasps Goriot’s hand; Goriot answers by asking whether the two young people are not his children. The scene makes money the medium of an explicitly familial feeling. Goriot’s support is not abstract benevolence: he has paid the invoices, kept them, and is willing to put his own money behind the life the couple is beginning. His generosity also carries a hidden cost. He admits that the rooms cost more than he has told Eugène, because he feared the young man would be angry if he knew the full expense.

Eugène recognizes the weight of what he has received and cries that he will be worthy of it. Delphine kisses him on the forehead, and Goriot then reveals another sacrifice: Eugène had given up the prospect of marrying Victorine Taillefer and her millions for Delphine. Goriot speaks of this choice as evidence of Eugène’s devotion, and his approval binds the young man more closely to the family he has chosen. The relationship thus joins material generosity to moral obligation, even as Goriot’s delight in giving makes him reluctant to reckon with the burden he takes on.

Care in the Face of Death

When Goriot becomes gravely ill, Eugène’s attachment is tested not by a gift but by the labor and distress of staying with him. After hearing that there is no hope for the old man, Eugène tells Bianchon that he is in hell and must remain there. His words register the suffering of witnessing Goriot’s decline, but also a refusal to retreat into a safer, more modest life simply because the truth of the world has become unbearable. He urges Bianchon to keep to the career he has chosen while Eugène accepts his own painful involvement.

As Goriot’s condition worsens, Eugène tries to answer the old man’s most urgent wish: to see his daughters. Goriot rages that they have forsaken him, then swings back toward hope and asks Eugène to love Delphine and be a father to her. Eugène calls for Bianchon and a cab, promising the sick man that he will fetch the women and bring them back. When Goriot demands that the authorities be made to compel their attendance, the desperation of his request exposes how completely his final comfort depends on the daughters whose lives he has financed. Eugène cannot guarantee their return; he can only go for them and stay with the man who asks.

The Funeral and the Meaning of Kinship

Eugène’s loyalty continues after Goriot’s death. At the funeral, Goriot’s two daughters and their husbands are nowhere to be seen. Rastignac, Christophe, and the two undertaker’s men are the only followers of the hearse. Inside the small, dark chapel at the Church of Saint-Etienne du Mont, Eugène grasps Christophe’s hand and cannot speak. Christophe remembers Goriot as a quiet, worthy man who harmed no one and gave nobody trouble, a modest tribute set against the absence of the family for whom he gave so much.

The contrast completes the relation’s emotional arc. Goriot had welcomed Eugène as a son, and Eugène ultimately performs the acts of care and mourning that kinship demands. The daughters who benefited from their father’s sacrifices do not accompany him to burial; the young man whom Goriot helped instead stands at the graveside and bears witness. Their bond does not erase its unequal foundations in money and dependence, but it gives those transactions a human answer: Eugène’s gratitude becomes presence when Goriot can offer nothing more.