In many ways, paternity and fatherly love may be seen as the central theme of Le Père Goriot. It takes various forms, from the redundant affections of Taillefer towards young Victorine, to the almost totally selfless and obsessive love that the old man Goriot gave to his daughters. On his deathbed at the end of the novel, Goriot exclaims, "La société, le monde roulent sur la paternité." The novel attempts to study the effects of such paternal love and how the respective recipients react to it, but is Balzac's portrayal of Goriot finally a condemnation of this love? It is important to examine the role of the father.

In the Lear-like tale the old vermicellier's ideal as a father was to give everything to his daughters, to lavish them with all the riches he had attained in his lifetime, convincing himself that this was the right way to act. By spoiling them in this way he sows the seed for his own undoing; they learn to take without giving back, developing rich tastes and selfish materialistic natures. It was Goriot though who had taught them that money was everything - "L'argent, c'est la vie. Monnaie fait tout." - and this unfortunate truth lies at the heart of Balzac's Paris. The whole of society is orientated by money. Madame Vauquer is extremely tight-fisted and her only concerns regarding her lodgers when they are in crisis is how much money she will be losing . Mme Michonneau and M. Poiret are easily bought by the police and betray Vautrin for three thousand francs . Goriot knew that to keep his daughters in the high society to which they were not born, they would need vast amounts of money. The same situation applied to Rastignac.

In order to maintain his much longed-for place in Parisian society Rastignac is early on forced to obtain money from his own family. They give it in much the same selfless way as Goriot. This parallel is useful as it shows us that Rastignac is becoming corrupted; he may scorn the Goriot daughters for their selfishness, but here he is really no better. There is no more mention of ever giving anything back to his family in the novel. So we are shown images of the family as the selfless giver, prepared to sacrifice all for the ambitions of their loved ones. It is important to note however that he wishes not for his father to know, for he may refuse to simply hand out cash to his son whenever he desires it. It is this type of paternal authority that it seems Goriot lacks, and he allows himself to be bled dry.
Rastignac is also the recipient of two other father figures in this tale, one being Goriot himself, the other being the wily Vautrin.

It is as well he refers to himself as 'Papa Vautrin' for his character is more honestly paternal towards Rastignac than Père Goriot, as he sees a lot of himself in the young student. He admires his ambition - "Avoir de l'ambition, mon petit coeur, ce n'est pas donné à tout le monde." - and wishes him to succeed, for he still has his own ambitions to emigrate to America and own a tobacco plantation, notably away from Paris, which he, the supposed villain, is disgusted by. His moral influence on the young student is strong; he instructs him, and offers sound advice on Parisian society's real values. He even makes arrangements for a marriage with the now wealthy Victorine Taillefer, stating with sincerity exactly what he wants from the deal . He seems spiritually closer to Rastignac than Goriot to his daughters, and genuinely wants to help him succeed. Of course, Rastignac refuses, but eventually falls in with Vautrin when he accepts the bill he has given him . Goriot, on the other hand, again falls short of the mark in his own fatherly influence on Eugene, as he more or less uses Rastignac simply as a means of getting closer to his daughters.

It is through Vautrin of course that the Taillefer dispute is settled. Victorine's father is another interesting parallel to Goriot, in that he holds back all love and money from his daughter in favour of his son, yet she continues to love him all the same . When she finally gets her dowry it is at the expense of her brother, killed in a duel engineered by Vautrin, but she is tearful; she is not tarnished by the spoils of wealth or its promise. Money didn't buy her love; yet again this highlights Goriot's great failure.

So what then is the value of fatherly love in this novel? The character most seen as the good man, le Christ de la Paternité, for his selfless sacrifice, is really the least successful in his aims to make his daughters love him. When we look closely it is noticeable that those characters supposedly seen in a darker light, including Rastignac's father, from whom his lifestyle he wanted to keep secret, are actually better fathers, for they, like Vautrin, are sterner but possibly more just. I would not say that it is a final condemnation of fatherly love, but a comment that in this world, the nicer people do not always make the best people.

by Pete Scully, 1998