Analysis Of Mimesis: The Representation Of Reality In Western Literature

In Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, Erich Auerbach discusses Émile Zola’s use of the “imperfect” in Germinal to describe events that happen habitually. For example, Zola writes, “‘Sure!’ Maheu would answer, ‘if we had more money, we’d have things easier…Just the same, it’s perfectly true that living on top of each other is no good for anybody. That always ends with the men drunk and the girls knocked up’” (qtd. in Auerbach 513). Other quoted examples include: “The family would start from there” (513) and “Then his wife would put in her word” (514). In all of these examples, the usage of “would” denotes the imperfect tense as it implies an example “of the many conversations which arise night after night at Maheu’s