The Trial And The Ladies Paradise: An Analysis

When cities are featured in literature, they are a guiding force for the characters. In The Trial, Franz Kafka writes about a single young banker named Joseph K. and his battle for innocence against an unexpected arrest which he cannot attain any information. Joseph K. continuously refuses to try to understand his city, Prague. In contradiction, in Emile Zola’s The Ladies Paradise a young meager woman, Denise, raises her two younger brothers as she thrust into the emerging world of the department store where she finds wealth, happiness, and love. Guided by her city, Paris, Denise successfully deciphers its message. While two very different cities, these two novels explore how understanding ones city can be an important tool for survival. Through

and Denise throughout the novel is correlated in direct opposition to one another. K., stable and profoundly lacking in any want or need in his physical life, is reluctant to wander through the maze of Prague’s devising, rather he would prefer to wait until given direction by someone fainting knowledge so he may not hazard the, even more devious, maze that is his mind. The 7th chapter of The Trial starts and finishes with an exhausted K. seated behind his desk at work, trapped in his thoughts without any sense of direction like the subsequent journey he embarks on in this chapter. K. is imprisoned by the answers he receives from others which only breed more questions, this disorients and exhausts him and the reader. K.’s only salvation lies in his ability to detach and observe his city like a flaneur with this he would rise above the maze that is Prague and be shown salvation but he fails countless times and dies. what was once a man, Joseph K., is now an animal; lost, confused and “Like a dog!” (pg 211, TT), he had to be put down. Denise, in sharp contrast to K., found extremely wanting in the basic needs for survival, navigates Paris’ intricacies with insider knowledge bequeathed to her from Paris, herself, because Denise does not fear the innermost thoughts she is able to view the true nature of the city. Denise rises again like a phoenix from the ashes of her old life and becomes a true Parisian woman. “No doubt this little thing [Denise] had grown accustomed to the air of Paris, and now she was becoming a woman – and she was disturbing, what is more, with her sensible manner and her beautiful hair heavy with passion.” (pg 200, TLP) Armed with this new persona, Denise is the embodiment of “revenge” for women and Paris to Mouret’s “conquests”. Denise stands her ground and earns money, respect, and Mouret. “[Mouret] was holding Denise to him, clasping her distractedly to his breast, telling her that she could go away now, that she could spend a