 While Rastignac desires wealth and social status , Goriot longs only for the love of his daughters : a longing that borders on idolatry . Because he represents bourgeois wealth acquired through trade – and not aristocratic primitive accumulation – his daughters are happy to take his money , but will see him only in private . Even as he is dying in extreme poverty , at the end of the book , he sells his few remaining possessions to provide for his daughters so that they might look splendid at a ball . 
