Conclusion

Abstract

In the “Conclusion,” Balzac, the proto-sociologist, used plots and several thousand believable characters to provide warp and woof for his sociological insights that describe society in detail. As themes coalesce and produce a vision, the Restoration/July Monarchy society, ideas are turned out in the guise of images, whether of relationships, plots, characters, or themes, and stylistic devices are marshaled to produce an accurate vision of Balzac’s turbulent, dysfunctional society. The old and the celibate crush youth, since the aristocracy and the Church can no longer provide order. Justice is suborned. People are compelled to discard old values and bow to the prevailing god of material wealth. Balzac said he was an “historian of manners [mœurs].” He might better have called himself a “literary sociologist.”