On The Value Of Money In Balzac’s Novels

As is closely related to People’s daily life, money becomes more and more embodied in literary works. Balzac, as a master of realism, in his works that highlighted the significance of money.The first chapter of this paper focused on the formation process of Balzac’s works, by understanding the historical background of the society at that time and Balzac’s personal experience to analyze the impact of money on writer’s idea. The second chapter mainly analyzed the connotation of Balzac’s view on money. The meaning of money is more than an economic symbol, but a matter with cultural implication. It deeply influenced humans’ material and spiritual life, and changed their views on love, friendship and kinship. The third chapter focused on Balzac’s various methods to reflect his view on money. For example, the portrait description and social scene description reflected the author’s view on money in profile, and psychological description or philosophizing about human can also show Balzac’s thoughts. The epilogue summarized the whole essay and pointed out the enlightening meaning to the modern world. The meaning of Human Comedy was broad and profound; it was not only a masterpiece on literate, but also a shining beacon of thought.This paper introduced a concept of economics to explain the background of Balzac’s view on money, besides, it discussed money’s deep influence on human relationship. Besides, this paper raised a new concept that scene description can also reflect Balzac’s view on money.