The Ladies Paradise

Paper on Ladies Paradise

Zola's portrayal of men and their attitudes towards women may be the relation between that of, the controller and the controlled. One is made to believe that it is the men who control the women, and although this is the case in most instances of the Ladies Paradise, there are two people who ensue in resisting against all odds, at being run over by the machine that captivated and engulfed the late nineteenth century bourgeois household unit. They are the elegant Mademoiselle Boudu and the brushy eye browed Monsieur Bourras. One of the main characters Monsieur Mouret ("governor" of the Ladies Paradise) spectacularly uses the lower classes as a tool to increase the perception of happenings in his store. So as to invoke middle class ladies of France not only to enter his palatial trap set for the nineteenth century consumer, but as well to create their desire of acquiring greater material possessions than they may actually need. Another implication is the insatiable consumer appetite created by Mouret results in the development of kleptomania, exemplified in the latter stages of the book by a bourgeois wife of a Magistrate, Madame de Boves, as well as long time employees of the department store. Mouret is the quintessential renaissance man of France with his dashing ways of charming women and subduing them to his desires whilst having them believe that his actions are in their favor and interest at all times. Monsieur Mouret had the utmost respect for women and their habits; this is the case until his boredom with them in his private life overwhelms his desires for them, in which case he moves on to the next victim. In the public arena he continually portrays himself as a gentleman of gentleman, when in fact he is more to likes of a modern day Agro-Rancher feeding and herding his chattel and releasing them when he is through with their whims, fully knowing that they will return to him when they are hungry. And even their hunger is