The Eponymous Heroine of Eugenie Grandet is far too gullible to be a Credible Character
The Eponymous Heroine of Eugenie Grandet is far too gullible to be a Credible Character
Eugenie Grandet is a novel written by Honore de Balzac which narrates the life of Eugenie and her family. The main characters of the novel are Monsieur Grandet, Madame Grandet, Charles Grandet and Eugenie herself. Most characters are stereotypical in some aspects, and this makes us question whether the characters are credible to the readers. By analyzing their personality, consistency, development and depth of the characters their credibility can be checked to see if they are credible enough to make a realistic novel. The three characters which will be analyzed are Eugenie, Monsieur Grandet and Charles.
Eugenie was a very innocent gullible character. She was very naïve and had lived all her live protected by her parents, and she would rarely leave her house, and when she did it was only to go to the church. This took away her independence and made her a very deceivable character. As she was also rich, this made her a very interesting prospect for young men, who tried to marry her while being interested only in her father's money, as this quotation shows: "This underground struggle between the Cruchots and the des Grassins for the prize of Eugenie Grandet's hands was watched by all citizens of Saumur...". However the man who won her heart was her Parisian cousin Charles. She quickly fell in love for him completely and gave him all her money as he was bankrupt, and would leave to try to get rich again.
At a first glance she seems to be the typical young, rich, innocent girl, who wouldn't make her very credible, but soon we can observe the development of her character: "Before her cousin's coming Eugenie might have been compared with the Vurgin before the Annunciaton". This development starts to occur when Charles arrived at the Grandet's house and she fell in love for the first time in her life: "Before her cousin's coming...She carried love as an unborn child". The first sign of her rebellion against her submission to her father was when she asked Nanon to give Charles better food then the one usually served at lunch, and after giving him it and trying their best to hide it from Mr. Grandet, he finds out and Eugenie argues with him. She continues this development, and starts to question her father more often. The main example of this is when she refuses to tell him who she gave her gold to and her father orders her not to leave her room and feeds her only with bread and water. In this event she questions her father many times: "'Father, I do love and respect you, in spite of your anger; but I would like to very humbly point out to you that I am twenty-two years old. You have told me often enough that I am of age, for me to know it. I have done what I chose to do with my money, and you may be sure that it is in good hands...''Whose?' 'That's and inviolable secret,' she said. 'Have you not got secrets of your own?'" Eugenie also develops a lot after the death of her mother, where she has to become the housekeeper and after the death of her father, when she has to take over all her business. Even after these changes she continues with the same personality and her actions then match her actions at the beginning of the novel. These examples of development and consistency on her actions help to build a more credible character.
Eugenie Grandet is a novel written by Honore de Balzac which narrates the life of Eugenie and her family. The main characters of the novel are Monsieur Grandet, Madame Grandet, Charles Grandet and Eugenie herself. Most characters are stereotypical in some aspects, and this makes us question whether the characters are credible to the readers. By analyzing their personality, consistency, development and depth of the characters their credibility can be checked to see if they are credible enough to make a realistic novel. The three characters which will be analyzed are Eugenie, Monsieur Grandet and Charles.
Eugenie was a very innocent gullible character. She was very naïve and had lived all her live protected by her parents, and she would rarely leave her house, and when she did it was only to go to the church. This took away her independence and made her a very deceivable character. As she was also rich, this made her a very interesting prospect for young men, who tried to marry her while being interested only in her father's money, as this quotation shows: "This underground struggle between the Cruchots and the des Grassins for the prize of Eugenie Grandet's hands was watched by all citizens of Saumur...". However the man who won her heart was her Parisian cousin Charles. She quickly fell in love for him completely and gave him all her money as he was bankrupt, and would leave to try to get rich again.
At a first glance she seems to be the typical young, rich, innocent girl, who wouldn't make her very credible, but soon we can observe the development of her character: "Before her cousin's coming Eugenie might have been compared with the Vurgin before the Annunciaton". This development starts to occur when Charles arrived at the Grandet's house and she fell in love for the first time in her life: "Before her cousin's coming...She carried love as an unborn child". The first sign of her rebellion against her submission to her father was when she asked Nanon to give Charles better food then the one usually served at lunch, and after giving him it and trying their best to hide it from Mr. Grandet, he finds out and Eugenie argues with him. She continues this development, and starts to question her father more often. The main example of this is when she refuses to tell him who she gave her gold to and her father orders her not to leave her room and feeds her only with bread and water. In this event she questions her father many times: "'Father, I do love and respect you, in spite of your anger; but I would like to very humbly point out to you that I am twenty-two years old. You have told me often enough that I am of age, for me to know it. I have done what I chose to do with my money, and you may be sure that it is in good hands...''Whose?' 'That's and inviolable secret,' she said. 'Have you not got secrets of your own?'" Eugenie also develops a lot after the death of her mother, where she has to become the housekeeper and after the death of her father, when she has to take over all her business. Even after these changes she continues with the same personality and her actions then match her actions at the beginning of the novel. These examples of development and consistency on her actions help to build a more credible character.
