Goriot—Anastasie de Restaud

Goriot and Anastasie de Restaud are bound by a devotion that becomes most visible in moments of financial crisis and, finally, in the interval between a father’s need and a daughter’s arrival. Anastasie asks him to help preserve her life with Maxime de Trailles; Goriot answers with an unconditional willingness to give even what he does not have. At his deathbed, that old generosity returns as accusation and grief: he believes his daughters have learned to take his love for granted, and Anastasie reaches him only when he is almost gone.

The Debt and the Diamonds

Anastasie’s appeal begins with a history of paying Maxime’s bills. She tells Goriot that he had seemed troubled near the beginning of January, and that after she pressed him for two hours, kneeling and imploring him, he admitted owing one hundred thousand francs. She had already consumed what her father could give. Goriot replies that he could not have found the money without stealing it, but insists that he would have done so for her and would do so still.

To save Maxime’s life and preserve the happiness she associates with him, Anastasie goes to the moneylender Gobseck and sells the family diamonds, including jewels belonging to her husband, the Count de Restaud. She describes the act as both a rescue and a ruin: she has saved Maxime, but considers herself lost. Her husband discovers what has happened, confronts her with the recovered casket, and learns that she has disposed of the diamonds. The family jewels thus make the cost of her attachment concrete: money raised for Maxime becomes the evidence through which her husband’s authority closes in around her.

A Further Plea, and Goriot’s Remaining Means

The sale does not settle the crisis. Anastasie tells her father that the diamonds brought one hundred thousand francs, but another twelve thousand remain to be paid. Maxime has promised to abandon gambling and live steadily; she fears that imprisonment at Sainte-Pélagie would ruin his prospects. She says she has sacrificed her fortune, honor, peace of mind, and children for him, and asks Goriot to prevent that further disgrace.

Goriot answers that he has nothing left. His remaining resources are a life annuity of twelve hundred francs, a few silver buckles, and half a dozen spoons and forks—the first silver he ever owned. Even while naming these remnants as all he possesses, he offers them as possible means of help. The exchange sets the relation’s recurring pattern in stark relief: Anastasie arrives with a need created by her attachment to Maxime, while Goriot’s instinct is to absorb its cost, even when doing so threatens the last of his own security.

The Father’s Recognition

When Goriot becomes gravely ill, neither daughter comes promptly. Rastignac reports that Anastasie has returned from a ball at a quarter to five in the morning and is asleep; the servant expects to wait until she wakes before telling her that her father is worse. Goriot hears that his daughters are absent and gives voice to a recognition he says he has resisted for ten years. He imagines that, had he kept his money, they would be attending him in a great house, surrounded by servants and comfort. His bitter conclusion is that money could have brought even his daughters to his side.

His anger does not erase his love. In one moment he curses the women who have left him; in the next, he asks Rastignac to love Delphine and be a father to her, while remembering that Anastasie is unhappy. He calls the daughters’ absence a betrayal and urges that they be told that staying away is tantamount to parricide. Yet even as he recognizes the pattern, he continues to speak as their protector, measuring his own suffering against their possible troubles and prospects.

A Late Arrival

Anastasie eventually appears on the landing and enters the dim room where her father lies close to death. The sight of his nearly lifeless features overwhelms her, and tears flow. She tells Rastignac that she could not escape sooner; he answers with a sad bow. She takes Goriot’s hand and kisses it.

The gesture establishes that she has not arrived without feeling, but its lateness preserves the force of the scene’s contrast: Goriot has spent his remaining life and resources anticipating his daughters’ needs, while his final need goes unmet until his strength is almost gone. The father-daughter bond is therefore neither simple indifference nor a balanced exchange. It is a painful attachment in which Goriot’s boundless giving has helped make his presence seem assured, while Anastasie’s crisis-driven return comes too late to relieve the abandonment he has recognized.