For most people, the answer is yes. Not to mention those who, like the protagonist in this book, lost their last gold coin and are ready to commit suicide by drowning, there are still many people in the world who, under the temptation of money and material enjoyment, forget their reputation, status, family, motherland and even their own lives, and are willing to kill, set fire to and cheat despite the resistance of morality, law and public opinion.
However, Barzhaksin worked hard to get this little donkey skin. After ten years of suffering, Balzac deeply realized the power of money and the pain of poverty, and knew that if a person pursues money crazily, almost nothing in the world can stop him. Balzac's first thought is the condemnation of conscience and special diseases. In this novel, the host of the big banquet is Fan, and the Red Hotel is repeatedly mentioned in the novel, which shows that Fan is a frequent figure in Balzac's mind. Why does this image haunt Balzac? It turned out that in the Red Hotel, Tai Caliso was a murderer. He killed a businessman with his best friend's scalpel, stole the businessman's jewels worth100000 francs, and fled every day, resulting in his best friend being sentenced to death by a military court. Tai Caliso made a fortune, became a banker, and owned property worth one million yuan. When he appears in social places, he loves to laugh and acts like a kind old man. He has completely escaped the punishment of the law and is enjoying his ill-gotten gains. Balzac didn't impose human sanctions on such people in violation of reality, just as Tai Caliso said after Raphael got 6 million inheritance in The Story of Donkey Skin: "Mr. Raphael has become a rich man with 6 million francs and ascended the throne of power. He is the king. He can do whatever he wants. He is above everything, like all rich people. For him, from now on, the so-called "everyone is equal before the law" is just a lie recorded in the Magna Carta. He will not obey the law, but the law will obey him. Millionaires have no guillotine and no executioner to execute them. " Raphael replied, "They are all executioners who execute themselves."
What is the executioner who executed himself?
Balzac gave Tai Caliso physical sanctions in The Red Hotel, just as nature gave AIDS sanctions to people with disordered sexual life: Tai Caliso had a headache. "The poor man insisted that there were small animals gnawing at his brain: every nerve had a sharp pain, like a saw, and it was like a nerve being pulled violently." Finally, Tai Caliso died of this disease.
Is this for your own executioner?
Of course not. Although Tai Caliso died of a headache, he died from his sickbed, which can be said to be a natural death. It is not the author's will to let a murderer die naturally. But there is no other force in the world to give sanctions, so we can only turn to supernatural forces. Donkey skin meets this demand.
As long as you have any desire, whether it is good or evil, once the desire is realized, the donkey skin will shrink immediately and its life will be shortened. You stare at that donkey skin all day in fear that it will continue to shrink and you won't enjoy it. People who love can't grow old together. This is your real executioner!
In the capitalist world of money, the incidents of cheating, killing and stealing goods are endless. When the wicked succeed, the law and public opinion often feel that they can't do it. Balzac, who felt that justice could not be done, issued a profound curse to the evil people: if you accept the donkey skin, you are the executioner who executes the death penalty for yourself! This is the cry of "The Story of the Donkey's Skin", which is also the reason why the book has such a tragic ending.