Beyers

Author: (French) Balzac
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-09-01
Features: Berthe is a rather special character in Balzac's works. The novel is named after her, showing the author's emphasis on her. She is driven by a certain passion, but her character is quite complex. She embodies both "ugliness" and "evil," which is the impression she leaves on readers. The author portrays her as a repulsive and frightening caricature, and also gives her an equally repulsive and frightening jealousy. This innate eccentric psychological trait torments her own soul and ruins others' happiness; after her licentious union with Valérie, it becomes an even greater, even an "evil force capable of destroying an entire city." However, Berthe's character is far from being merely an incarnation of "evil." The author places Berthe and Uncle Goriot under the same general title of Poor Relations, yet "Poor Relations" are victims of the social divide between the rich and the poor, and Balzac shows deep sympathy for them. "The old musician (referring to Uncle Goriot—author's note) is a Poor Relation, kind-hearted, subjected to unjust heavy pressure; Berthe is a Poor Relation, living among three or four families, subjected to unjust heavy pressure; she is determined to avenge her suffering."① Jealousy arises from suffering "unjust heavy pressure," and from jealousy, she resorts to all means to retaliate—this is the thread that runs through Berthe's character. It is difficult to deny the plausibility of her motives by condemning her behavior as base and despicable, or to affirm the cruelty of her actions by justifying her motives out of pity. The underlying tone of her character is complex and subtle. Moreover, in the author's portrayal, Berthe is also a figure at the intersection of the "savagery" and "civilization," or the "countryside" and "Paris." As a "savagery" or "countryside" person, she is poor, hardworking, hates social inequality, possesses abundant energy and an indomitable will. At the same time, she is also ugly, selfish, narrow-minded, ignorant, fierce, and cruel. When she comes to Paris, under the influence of the "capital," she learns about the law and understands society, and begins to restrain her passion with reason, using "civilization" to dominate "savagery," forming a more complex hue. On one hand, Berthe's sense of inequality becomes stronger, and thus her desire for revenge intensifies. In her jealousy and fury, there seems to be an element of rebellion. On the other hand, Paris corrupts the "nature of this countryside person" with its "civilization," making her cunning, hiding her cleverness behind simplicity, and subtly disrupting the lives of Adèle and her family, causing chaos and disintegration. The "savagery" refined by "civilization" reveals an even more terrifying power. If we do not insist on simplistically defining the character's good or evil or regulating their class attributes, then it is not difficult to see through Berthe's character the author's profound exposure of social decline. Social injustice is creating resentment and rebellion, as well as and; social corruption is eroding both the aristocracy like Ursus and the poor like Berthe. Behind the two opposing poles, the deep-seated sins of society can also be discerned. While Berthe tries in every way to harm her opponents, she also sinks into a dirty mire, poisoning her own soul, and ultimately destroying her own life. During the Paris period, Berthe's jealousy already contains a desire for money, power, and vanity. She is a victim of social injustice, yet she deals with society through unjust means. Berthe as a typical character belongs to Balzac's style and also shows the deepening of his creation. She is a "manic" figure, yet also a complex composite: city and countryside, civilization and savagery, rebellion and decline, all intricately woven together, imbued with rich life content and social awareness. Like many of Balzac's works, this is also a close reflection of reality. The author began writing in August 1846, serialized in The Constitutional Gazette from October 8 to December 3, 1846, and revised and edited into a book between 1846 and 1847. It was included in the first edition of La Comédie Humaine in Volume 17 in 1848. The main plot of the work spans from July 1838 to February 1846. Therefore, it can be said that the author wrote about life that had just passed, or had not yet fully passed. This period belonged to the later stage of the July Monarchy, a time when social flaws were increasingly evident. Marx once summarized it as follows: "Everywhere, from the court to the lowest cafes, there was prostitution, shameless fraud, and avarice—wealth gained not through production but through cunningly deceiving others of their property. It was precisely at the upper levels of bourgeois society that unhealthy and immoral desires were expressed in unrestrained, even every step in conflict with bourgeois law forms. In this form, wealth gained through speculation naturally sought satisfaction, and pleasure turned into debauchery, with money, filth, and blood merging into one stream."① Marx sought the roots of the February and June revolutions in the corrupt reality. Balzac was not interested in revolution and even opposed it, but with the sincerity of a historian and the sensitivity of an artist, he sketched this absurd picture, as if also foreshadowing the unsustainable nature of the existing order.