Finally, I finished reading the opening play of “Human Comedy” – “Old Man Gao”. I am curious why Balzac would use such a work as the beginning of the grand world he has created with all his efforts. This is a sad story, and the human comedy has stepped onto the stage of the reappearance of capitalist social scenes with such “joy from sorrow”.
The plot of the whole book is not complicated. What impressed me most is the protagonist, Old Gao, a flour merchant who started his business during the French Revolution and lost his wife in middle age. He devoted all his love to his two daughters, doting on them in every way and trying to make them live a life of rich clothes and jade food.
In order to squeeze them into the upper-class society, they were given a good education when they were young, and they were given a dowry of 800000 francs each when they got married, so that the eldest daughter would marry the Earl of Lestow, and the youngest daughter would marry the banker Newzingen. He thought that if his daughters stepped into the upper class, he would be able to enjoy happiness with them.
Unexpectedly, after a while, these two people thought he was not decent enough and kicked him out.
But in order to make his daughters happy, he would rather do everything to sell the real estate store and share the money with his two daughters, but he lived in an apartment.
The two daughters were vanity and extravagant, and they were relieved to squeeze their father’s little life support money for a long time. The retired father is willing to be masochistic and wants to bear all the pain for them.
In order to satisfy their various extravagant desires, he kept lowering his living standard and realizing the softness around him until the end of the day.
The old man Gao, who was bedridden and ill, still blessed his two daughters when he died, but his two daughters lived a dissolute life and spent money like dirt. None of them could come to the bedside to bring tea and water, and none of them paid to bury him after death.
The dying tragedy of old man Gao is mainly due to his deep belief that his daughters are unfilial, and must have had to suffer. If there is any mistake, it is the son-in-law’s fault, the lover’s fault, and the father’s own fault. Anyway, it’s someone else’s fault. The girls are angels and can’t be wrong! However, his daughters, who gnawed at the old people, were intent on extracting his last remaining value from him.
When I saw this, I remembered a piece of news that I saw in the Chinese Business Newspaper not long ago – “The lazy boy asked his father for money, but hurt his father and was detained by the Yulin police”
A 30-year-old man in Hengshan District, Yulin City was lazy and asked for money from his father. He beat his father with a kitchen knife and was detained recently.
It is understood that Liu Moumou is 30 years old. After his divorce from his wife four years ago, he has been living with his parents all the time. He is lazy and unwilling to go out to earn money. He asks for money from his parents. Later, his family is overwhelmed by the time. On XX, Mr. Liu quarreled with his parents again for asking for money. In the case of no result in asking for money, Mr. Liu picked up a kitchen knife and beat his father. His family had no choice but to call the police.
After receiving the police, the police summoned Mr. Liu to the police station according to law. After questioning, Mr. Liu confessed to beating his father.
Seeing this, I dare not think any more. Alas! Money can destroy human nature to such a degree! For the sake of money, I would rather give up my beloved relatives and affection. But I think that although money is a good thing, it can not buy everything.
This story, with the love of parents, shows that money corrupts people’s hearts to a shocking extent, which also sends out anger and condemnation to the naked money relationship in the real society.
Parents’ love for their children has always been unconditional and all-out. Mr. Gao is, and so are Liu’s parents in this news.
However, compared with Mr. Gao, Mr. Liu’s parents at least know how to use legal means to stop losses for themselves, which also shows that no matter how much they love their children, parents should have their own bottom line. Only with the parents’ three values can children have the greatest happiness to enjoy.
In fact, Old Gao didn’t know that his doting on his daughters was inappropriate. It was easy to see from his deathbed talk:
“Friend, don’t marry, don’t have children! You give them life, they give you death. You take them to the world, they drive you out of the world. They won’t come! I have known for ten years. Sometimes I just can’t believe it.”.
When old man Gao knew that his two daughters would not come, he was disappointed. He never expressed his anger and finally expressed it.
Old Gao has spoiled his daughters for decades and has never complained about their unfilial behavior. This is not because he feels dull, but because he can’t believe it.
“Alas! How stupid I am! I love them so much that I always turn around to accommodate them. It seems that gamblers cannot leave casinos. My hobbies, my mistress and everything I have are my two daughters.”
Some people say that old man Gao has a love complex. From this sentence, old man Gao’s love is really too much. It has exceeded the love of ordinary father and daughter.
It turned out that his wife was his “object of love and worship”. But after his wife died early, many people failed to match him. This is certainly because he loves his wife deeply, and more importantly, he has the person who can best replace his ex-wife in his heart, that is, his two daughters. He is as good to his wife as he is to his daughters. Generally, the father will educate and restrain the unreasonable behaviors of his daughters, but he satisfies almost all the desires of his daughters.
He obeyed his daughters like a mistress or wife. Apart from sex, his daughters are no different from his wife. This cannot but be said to be a psychological morbid.
There are also many points to confirm this. For example:
“He lay at the feet of his daughters, kissed her feet, stared at her eyes for a long time, and rubbed his head on her clothes; in short, he was like a very young and tender lover.”
Daughters, but Zina also said, “When we are with our father, we have to give him the whole thing. Sometimes it is really troublesome.”
Another sentence of old man Gao also reflected this point: “Ouyana, you have to love her, like his father.”. In his opinion, there is no difference between the love of lovers and that of fathers. ”
“Daughters who have loved all their lives are abandoned by their children in the end! They are filthy things, rascals; I hate them; I curse them; I climb out of the coffin at midnight to curse them”.
Old Gao loved and hated his daughters to the extreme. Father’s love is so crazy that it is no longer a simple father’s love.
Generally speaking, fathers will not curse their children because they are not around before they die. This passage shows the strong sense of abandonment and helplessness in the heart of old Gao.
“I am always thirsty without water. This is my life for ten years”.
After the daughters got married, old man Gao could not always get the comfort of his daughters.
“I have no daughters since they got married”.
“Kill Letos! Kill Newtsingen!” He hated his son-in-law just as he hated his rival.
To sum up, we can see that the love element contained in the father’s love of Gao Laotou makes him unable to become a qualified father.
The deathbed confession of old man Gao shows that he has a clear understanding of the improper nature of doting on his daughters, and his eager desire to love and be loved makes him prefer to make mistakes again.
The seemingly selfless fatherly love of old man Gao was actually mixed with selfish love. This twisted fatherly love eventually led to tragedy.
This tragedy also confirms the ancient sages’ admonition that “if you love your son, it will be far-reaching”.
