Many people consider Balzac to be the greatest of all novelists. Eugenie Grandet, his spare, classical story of a girl whose life is blighted by her father’s hysterical greed, goes a long way to justifying that opinion.

For better understanding of the novel, there are three people they need deep analyses. They are Grandet, his daughter-Eugenie and Charles.

Firstly, this thesis puts their emphasis on Grandet.

Grandet was one of the central roles in the novel. He was terribly greedy. He was the representative of greed and money. In his mind, money was everything, and he could not live in the world without money. He had a strong desire to possess money, though he had an abundant of money. He always left himself in a back room, and appreciated money for a long time. When he was dying, he asked his daughter to put money on the table, and money could make him feel warm.

In order to collect money, he lost human nature. He considered no love was in the world, and money is even much more valuable than his life. For example, Grandet had a servant, who had worked for 30 years. But he never received any gift from Grandet, except one old watch.

Though Grandet was a Christian, but actually he was not a real one. In his opinion, the existence of God was for his need. For him, money was real God and all the hope.

Compared with Grandet, his daughter was very kind and humane. She considered money as a method for helping others. She devoted her whole life to serving the people. And she had done a lot of public works. For example, she had built one restroom, eight primary schools and one library; she used money to help those who need it.

Lastly, they should put their attention on Charles. He was born in a rich family and spoiled. The turning point in his life was to do business abroad. The change of life condition made his moral standard and value concept change. He became a very self-fish man. He wanted to become rich. In order to possess money, he gave up his true love, and pursued a nobleman’s daughter. To some extent, his outlook on money was similar to Grandet’s. Both of them were materialists and the lovers of money.

II.Grandet Phenomenon in America