# Mademoiselle Michonneau — Father Goriot character guide

> Mademoiselle Michonneau in Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mlle. Michonneau, Michonneau

**First appearance:** 0001-father-goriot

## Snapshot

A dried-up spinster with watchful eyes, she trades in other people's secrets and finds in the Maison Vauquer a chance to profit from them.

## Who they are

Mlle. Michonneau sits at the boarding-house table measuring everyone's weaknesses, her sour virtue masking an appetite for gain. When the police need eyes inside the pension, she becomes their instrument, dragging the hapless Poiret along. Her cold transactionalism shows how the same house that shelters Goriot's devotion also breeds betrayal for a price.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/father_goriot_se/characters/mademoiselle_michonneau
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/father_goriot_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/father_goriot_se/characters