The Ladies Paradise Analysis

Inside the Belly of Paradise
By the 1860’s the Industrial Revolution had settled into the lives of Europe and was taking a firm hold on the social norm, cultural expectations, and the business practice in its entirety. In their wake, machines of the Industrial Revolution replaced human artistry. It was precisely because of these that made human craftsmanship outdated and obsolete; it was precisely because of these that the big department store, an emblem of capitalism, was able to emerge, dominate, and swallow up smaller competition. As a contemporary issue for its time, it is no surprise that The Ladies’ Paradise, by Émile Zola, concentrates on the struggle of the smaller shops and the immense success and dominance of the big, new department
Denise first witnesses Ladies’ Paradise come alive and “felt that she was watching a machine working at high pressure”; its gears – the materials – coming to life: “the laces shivered… even the lengths of cloth… were breathing… while the overcoats were throwing back their shoulders” and the dummies seemed to have “flesh and blood… heaving breast and quivering hips.” It was as if the “continuous roar of the machine” exhibited “the customers crowding into the departments” being
However, as aforementioned by many characters in the book and by the narrator himself, the Paradise was a monster as well as a machine, using people in anyway it saw fit in order to grow in affluence and supremacy. Thus, in this way, this high functioning machine was missing a soul, for everyone inside the belly of paradise was there for shallow, shelf-interested reasons. Only when someone, only when Denise enters does the tight reign on the operation of business soften and make way for the interest of others. Denise not only embeds a soul into the gears of Mouret’s machine, but also becomes the very soul necessary to complete its industrial revolution. The Ladies’ Paradise has finally become part machine and part