Before this class, I don't believe I've ever read a book that belonged in the melodrama genre, but it is definitely interesting noticing how the method of story telling is different from what I usually read. There were a few things I noted that I found particularly interesting, specifically the seeming random fantastical element of Goriot bending silverware, the idea of keeping secrets from the audience, and character development versus character reveal.
For the entirety of the book, I think the scene with Goriot bending the silver with his bare hands were the only part of the story that actually bordered the unbelievable compared to the unlikely, but still possible. Just as for a reminder, the justification for this scene was that one of Goriot's daughter had told him that her expenses could not be covered by her allowance as provided by her husband. And although he did not tell her at first, he really has spoiled his children and went as far as bending his precious silverware, his last reminder of his late wife, just so that his daughter can have a bit more spending money. And in order for Balzac to convince us of just how much he does love his children, he adds in this scene that is probably humanly impossible. Which makes me question the limitations of melodrama and how they relate to the sense of reality. Does it bother people at all that Goriot just bended silver with his bare hands? Or is the emotional ties between characters more important and can warrant a few breaking of the laws of physics if done well. As for my own opinion on the matter, I don't quite have an answer for it, but it would be interesting to see a story where it fails to do the same, and basically overdo its fantastical events and occurrences to the point of unbelievability.
The same passage from the book does tie in with my next thought, which is about keeping secrets from the audience. This mostly reminds of practices within mystery novels where the identification of the perpetrator is kept unknown until the very end of the novel. This practice builds suspense over a long sense of time, when that isn't a trait I typically think of when I think of melodramas. I can see suspense between moment to moment, as every second something just as important or even more so is mentioned, bringing another complex twist to the tale. For this particular scenario, it is how Goriot's daughter were never knew to be his daughters for the first part of the book, and the narrator nor Goriot ever tried to clarify the matter. And although it does get revealed eventually, the whole practice kept me curious, but I was not sure if it gave me the impression that I was suppose to feel empathetic one way or another. Whether if this was a relatively weak connection or just me, I'm not sure.
Finally, this topic is similar to the previous, but does definitely differ in some ways. Just to clarify, there are characters that grow, whose personality changes as they go events that occur in the story. This is contrast with characters who are simply a mystery or under a pretense, and it is only as events go by do we actually learn of the character's true personality. When comparing these two types of character, are they same? Do the effect they have on the story different or the same? The reason why I asked was because this subject came up in a previous class of mine and it's always been wandering in my mind and once I learned that Vautrin was actually Cat O'Nine Tails, I realised how far it was into the story. And though I didn't exactly trust Vautrin to begin with, to suddenly know that he was a wanted criminal made me feel empathetic to Eugene in the sense knowing that he was betrayed in some ways. But then I wonder, what if Vautrin was actually who he was, just a regular gentleman, and he only became Cat O'Nine Tails during the events that occur within the story while able to maintain his composure the entire time? Though I imagine, on the most basic level, I would feel the same way about him the way I do now, but I just can't seem to shake the feeling off that it could actually have an effect on the melodramatic...
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