"The Story of a Donkey's Skin" is Balzac's first full-length philosophical novel published in 1831. The following are my thoughts on reading "The Story of a Donkey's Skin" carefully compiled for everyone. You are welcome to read it. For your reference. Please pay attention for more exciting content.
When I read about money, desire, love, and death in "Donkey Skin", when I read that all of these are entangled together and become a huge bondage on the human body. I was extremely surprised when I saw the inescapable web. Balzac is indeed a genius! He wrote such a great prophecy 180 years ago!
"The Story of a Donkey's Skin" is Balzac's first full-length philosophical novel published in 1831, and it is also his first full-length work that caused a sensation. It belongs to the category of "philosophical research" in his masterpiece "The Human Comedy". The novel uniquely uses a donkey skin to symbolize the contradiction between human desires and life, which fully reflects his outlook on life and values, and also reflects his overall analysis of various contemporary social phenomena, and uses it to summarize his life experience and Philosophical thinking.
A book on Balzac said that when writing this work, he went through ten years of hard work, tasted all the bitterness of life, and deeply experienced the power of money and the consequences of poverty. pain. From his own personal experience, he came to this painful conclusion: In order to survive, human beings still need to expend a huge amount of energy; if they want to pursue some great happiness and satisfy some strong desires, they will undoubtedly have to sacrifice their lives. price. I think, as he said in "Donkey Skin": "For some people who are born at the wrong time, what they need is either heaven or hell."
Rafa, the protagonist of the novel El Valentine is the embodiment of this spiritual contradiction between human desire and life. He is a painful and struggling soul. He was unfortunately penniless and restless and poor. He once exhausted his efforts in studying and thinking, and was bent on obtaining wealth and honor through his talents. However, this kind of efforts could hardly guarantee the minimum needs to maintain life. He then accepted Rastini's guidance and went to the upper class to make a fortune in the hope of marrying a rich lady, but he was mercilessly ridiculed. He suffered from desire day and night, and his desire became even crazier because it was not satisfied. After losing everything, he embarked on the road of self-destruction and wanted to spend the rest of his life in indulgence. Therefore, when the antique dealer told him that this donkey skin embedded with talismans could fulfill all his wishes, but every time a wish was fulfilled, the donkey skin would shrink by one circle, which meant that his life would also be shortened, he did not hesitate. He grabbed the donkey skin and shouted: "I just like to live an extraordinary life." Since he had planned to throw himself into the Seine, how could he be afraid of sacrificing his life in exchange for the satisfaction of his desires?
The antique dealer enlightened him with the secret of his longevity and advised him to replace material pursuits with spiritual enjoyment. Valentine was not moved at all. The antique dealer then persuaded: "Human beings deplete themselves due to his two behaviors, which are desire and energy. Desire to burn us can destroy us, but knowledge keeps our weak bodies in a peaceful state forever." And Valencia. Tan replied: "I hope you fall in love with a dancing girl. Then you will know the joy of a dissolute life. Maybe you will become a prodigal son like today and spend all the wealth you have accumulated in a philosopher's manner." At that time, Valentine was just like those prodigal sons who sold their souls to the devil. In order to obtain the satisfaction of their desires, they would not hesitate to make a deal with their life span.
But in fact, when Valentine’s first wish was fulfilled and he received a huge inheritance, what he felt was not happiness but terror, because he saw that the donkey skin had shrunk significantly. A circle, which means that his lifespan is shortened accordingly. After that, the threat of death made him lose interest in everything. He no longer dares to have desires and no longer seeks any happiness. He just strives to live a mechanical and desireless life. He lived in seclusion and entrusted all his life needs to his servants. Even the simplest needs such as food and clothing, he tried his best to avoid. He forbade his servants from asking him questions such as "Would you rather?" and "Do you want it?" He could no longer enjoy pleasures and felt that "all the joys of life were playing around my death bed, dancing before me like beautiful women. If I called them, I would die." This kind of dying patient will experience The agony of death finally destroyed his health and turned him into a living corpse. However, he could not resist the temptation of love after all, and finally ended his life in a struggle with desire.
Valentine's tragic ending is horrifying. He burned himself in desire and lay in Paulina's arms when he died. For the sake of desire, he gave his soul to the devil, and finally his desire turned into the devil and sold his soul. He, like the vast majority of all living beings, still did not escape the tragedy catalyzed by desire, and cycled his own tragedy forever.
At the end of the story, the author did not violate the sanctions imposed on such a person by reality, and was condemned by his conscience. Just as Taifan said after Valentine received six million inheritance in "Donkey Skin": "Mr. Valentine has become a rich man of six million francs and ascended the throne of power. He is the king, he He can do whatever he wants, like all rich men. From now on, the so-called "French people are equal before the law" is just a lie recorded in the Magna Carta. He will not obey the law. , The law must obey him. There is no guillotine for millionaires, and there is no executioner for their execution." Valentine replied: "They are all executioners for themselves."
Next, based on my personal understanding, I will analyze the creative techniques of "Donkey Skin".
First of all, the entire story frame structure is different. Balzac adopted such a special method: the satisfaction of desire must be based on the shortening of life, and this shortening is visible and quantified! Use this method to express the eternal topics of desire, enjoyment, love and death. However, in "The Story of Donkey Skin", Valentine can no longer have such a moment, although when he first got the donkey skin, he proudly said that with it, he would be willing to die tomorrow. But when he truly saw its magic power and discovered that all his wishes could be fulfilled and his life would wither in a moment, he completely changed. He was cautious about his words and deeds and lived in seclusion for fear of saying "I want to". ". I fully believe in the authenticity of this transformation. Just imagine, let a person see the deadline of his life in his own hands, and see that his life is so obviously shortened because of one of his desires, who would not be afraid? When some people are dying, they always ask: "Who killed me?" Now Donkey Skin tells you that it was not someone else but you who killed yourself. Does this revelation make you feel more painful than death? : It turns out that I am the murderer who killed me.
Secondly, the use of comparison method. The most obvious use of contrast in "Donkey Skin" is the contrast between Fordola and Pauline. Although the two people are equally beautiful - in fact, their beauty is also different, one is "modified", a worldly beauty, the other is natural, a pure beauty - but their hearts are so different. Fudora is a person who is used to hiding her emotions. What people see is always her mask, and no one can see her heart. However, Paulina is almost a transparent person, and she has no feelings for herself. She doesn't hide it at all, she always pours out her emotions completely; Fordola only talks about romance, never about love. She likes to be surrounded by men, but never lets them enter her heart, Polly But Na loves passionately, love is everything to her, and she can even die for love; Fordola is deep, rugged, scheming, knows the means, understands the world and the people, shrewd, and is Careful at every step, unwilling to be deceived, and pitiful at the same time, Paulina is transparent, pure, ignorant of the world, unpretentious, fanatical, willful, crazy about love, and Love is blind, almost unreal, and at the same time adorable.
In addition to the contrast between the two of them, there is also a contrast between Rafael and the antique dealer. Before, it was the antique dealer's abstinence and caution, and Rafael's willingness to sacrifice his life for it. The theory of joy, followed by the antique dealer's obsession with love, and Rafael's decision to give up all lust for the continuation of life. I have to admit that this comparison method is indeed very shocking. It is indeed more enjoyable than ordinary narratives. There is a kind of romantic pursuit in it.
Finally, the use of legendary techniques. In fact, the allegorical magical donkey skin in "Donkey Skin" is not an indispensable thing. Without it, Valentine's experiences would still constitute a complete story. His struggle, failure, indulgence, and death are completely consistent with the logic of real life; his early hardships and later excessive indulgence caused him to grow old prematurely and accepted the call of death prematurely. This is not unexpected. ending. However, Balzac uses the donkey skin as a material symbol of Valentine's life.
Connect desires with the length of life, and use concrete things to reflect profound ideological content.
What is the conclusion of "Donkey Skin"? Is it through the image of Valentine to exhort people to control their passions, cultivate their souls, and advocate a quiet and inactive philosophy of life? It seems so, but it's not. In this novel, what really impresses people is the horror of death, or the pain of living like a walking dead? Maybe different people will have different judgments. The author does not intend to make judgments for readers. He just puts out the contradiction: Either kill passion for longevity, or be willing to be a victim of passion and die young. This is our fate. Let everyone choose their own lifestyle!
As for Balzac himself, he had obviously already made his choice. He knew that satisfying his desires would require paying a price, but he never gave up on his desires. Like those indulgents, he cannot bear the slow and lifeless flow of the river of life. He wants it to roar forward like a torrent "in one fell swoop". He fights tirelessly in life, betting his life like a crazy gambler.
Perhaps it is a coincidence of fate that Balzac’s ending twenty years later is surprisingly similar to Valentine’s. He pursued glory and wealth all his life, and also dreamed of marrying a noble lady with a title and property. Just when he got his wish, the God of Death summoned him. But Balzac is very different from Valentine. Valentine was afraid of the threat of death and almost did not dare to use the power given to him by donkey skin. The author obviously deeply regretted this: "The scepter is in the hands of children." It is a toy, an ax in the hands of Richelieu, and a lever that tilts the world in Napoleon's hands... Power only makes great people greater. Rafael could have done anything, but he did nothing. "Balza. Grams made full use of the power given to him by life. He spent his life in a highly concentrated state. In order to increase the brightness of the fire of life, he did not hesitate to accelerate its burning. In just twenty years, he completed the miracle of "Human Comedy". Although he paid the price of his life, he truly fulfilled his famous saying: "To what extent do we abide by the promises we made to ourselves?" Promise is the extent to which you control your own destiny.
I think in real life, everyone has a donkey skin of their own, and they carry it with different lifestyles and beliefs. Those who can control themselves will have a longer lifespan, while those who cannot control themselves or even indulge will have a shorter lifespan. When your desires swell, the donkey skin will shrink, just like the loss of family and friendship, illness, lack of morality, etc. Even if we finally get the money and power we want, but what we lose is something more precious and can never be obtained again, we will not be able to enjoy the happiness that money and power would bring, even if it is the deepest part of our heart.
Chinese philosophy says that if the donkey skin makes your desires invisible, then it can also be a wake-up call for you. I guess Balzac also hopes to use such a piece of donkey skin to remind people not to be overly obsessed with money, power, and material enjoyment, because they will only devour people's hearts in the end. There is nothing wrong with the donkey skin itself, the key is to have the donkey skin. Whether a person has the ability to balance desires. God gives everyone a donkey skin fairly, but it is up to you how to use it.
Perhaps, reading about another era, another time. The distant and familiar stories of a country and another culture can make us look back on the past and rethink the near future in the midst of shock and pain.
I highly recommend<. /p>