The Ladies Paradise Analysis

The late 19th century was a monumental era for the city of Paris. As the city kept growing and increasing in popularity around the globe, the city itself was being modernized from its dated medieval layout. These modernizations had a direct impact on the culture of the city, the lifestyles of its inhabitants, and the prominence of the city across the world. Paris’ inhabitants were as social as ever, and often enjoyed themselves at cafés and bars. This modernization acted as a perfect catalyst to support the surging wave of capitalism across Western Europe. In the novel “The Ladies’ Paradise,” Emile Zola focuses on this rising capitalistic culture, specifically in the form of department stores. Like many features of Paris, the way the cities

With the leadership of Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann, the city was renovated to be more open, and to stay on par with its reputation known to other countries. What wasn’t known during these renovations was the widespread cultural impact that would occur. Around the same time this cultural movement was occurring, capitalism found its way to the city of Paris. This led to the creation of giant department stores. These stores found success among the time period by using never seen before strategies and tactics to draw in customers and maximize profits. As shown in the book “The Ladies’ Paradise,” these tactics were applied heavily, and focused on baiting in women. Before Paris was modernized, there were few places for women to socialize in public, and often to go out in the city without their husband was frowned upon (Lecture). Shop owners saw the opportunity and decided to make department stores a social venue for women by marketing towards them and giving them a sense of freedom and independence while they were

Many of the tactics put in place more than 100 years ago are still used in the exact same way today. Capitalism is represented by a department store in the sense of big business. Smaller stores that would specialize in a certain product were being shut down by large generalized stores This is illustrated in the novel where Denise, who is the main character, goes to work for her uncle’s small shop. The shop is suffering due to the rise of these big shops and is fighting to stay in business (Zola). This is a perfect example of capitalism taking over. As people create more efficient systems such as the department store, the older, more traditional systems are phased