The Dismal Science: Economic Man

Abstract

If the earlier Realists had sharp noses for the formative influence of social factors, their keenest appetites generally took them off in pursuit of their prime interest, the individual. Despite Balzac’s constant claim to be portraying social types, the argument and drama of his novels were sharply focused on individual types, often extraordinary, monstrous types: the arch womaniser, Baron Hulot; the embittered poor relation, Cousin Bette, with her terrifying capacity for revenge; the scheming outlaw, Vautrin, with his extraordinary powers of survival. Even as ‘social’ a novel as Mrs Gaskell’s Mary Barton depicted the weavers as widely differing individuals.