Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Ladies’ Paradise, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Consumerism and Excess
Women, Exploitation, and Power
Tradition vs. Modernity
Class and Mobility
Summary
Analysis
Denise and her brothers Pépé and Jean walk into Paris after arriving on a train (in the third-class carriage) from rural France. Denise is 20 and thin, Jean is 16 and handsome, and Pépé is five. They are frightened and lost. They stop pedestrians to ask for directions to the Rue de la Michodière—the street where their uncle Baudu lives. They are wearing mourning clothes because their father has recently died.
Denise and her brothers rode into Paris in the third-class carriage of the train, revealing not only that they are poor, but that they are the poorest of the poor. Their arrival in Paris in mourning clothes shows that with their father dead, they had nothing to keep them in rural France.
Themes
Suddenly, Denise stops on the corner of the Rue de la Michodière. They are standing in front of a drapery shop, and the windows burst with color. It is 8 a.m. and the streets are empty, but the drapery shop buzzes “like a beehive.” Above the huge glass doors, two gilded women with bare breasts unfurl a scroll that reads “the Ladies’ Paradise.” Jean comments that this shop is grander than the drapery shop in Valognes where Denise worked for two years.
When Denise sees the Ladies’ Paradise, she stops in her tracks, an action that reveals how immediately captivating the Ladies’ Paradise is. Her attraction to it is counter-intuitive; the nudity of the gilded statues holding the sign suggests immodesty and promiscuity—qualities that can’t be ascribed to Denise.
Themes
A lump rises in Denise’s throat and she feels excited. The Ladies’ Paradise occupies five storefronts and a second floor where salesgirls are bustling about. Furs and fabrics are piled at the front door. Under a lean-to of umbrellas in a display window, silk stockings and gloves are strewn among roses. A brilliant spectrum of silks, satins, and velvets is arranged in another window. Denise exclaims at the low price of the beautiful goods. She stares at this “chapel of woman’s beauty:” a display of mannequins in fur- and feather-lined outfits with price tags stuck in the mannequins’ necks. The stylish outfits are multiplied at every angle in mirrors placed behind them.
The Ladies’ Paradise is a place of abundance. It occupies a huge amount of space, has piles of goods, and multiplies the mannequins with mirrors behind them. Denise’s excitement—which is enough to make a lump rise in her throat—might seem inconsistent with her character in the sense that she is not one to be materialistic or caught up with appearances. Rather, the Ladies’ Paradise seems to signify opportunity, perhaps in terms of employment.
Themes
Jean gazes at the Ladies’ Paradise and blushes. Pépé clings to Denise, anxious for affection. A white-haired man staring angrily at the Ladies’ Paradise glares at them. Denise and Jean, remembering their uncle, look up and notice that this man is standing before a shop named Au Vieil Elbeuf—the name of Uncle Baudu’s shop. It is a low-ceilinged shop with dingy paint and prison-like windows. Denise, Jean, and Pépé approach their uncle’s shop. After their mother and father died in quick succession from a fever, Baudu wrote to Denise that she and her siblings could stay with him. However, this was over a year ago and Denise now feels bad to spring a visit on her uncle unannounced.
The striking contrast between the Ladies’ Paradise and Au Vieil Elbeuf right across the street immediately introduces the opposition of the old and the new. The Ladies’ Paradise exudes wealth, whereas Baudu’s shop is on the verge of bankruptcy. Furthermore, the Ladies’ Paradise represents modern values, or at least a doing away with modesty and tradition. Baudu’s shop and Baudu himself—as an older, white-haired man—represent the past and tradition.
Themes
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Denise approaches the white-haired man and introduces herself. Baudu is stunned, and repeatedly asks why they have come. Denise explains that her father left them no money, having spent it all on his dye shop. She and Jean worked for a year but were unable to scrape by. However, Jean developed a skill for ivory carving and has an internship lined up in Paris that offers room and board. Denise does not mention that they left partly because Jean was having an affair with a nobleman’s daughter. Baudu comments that he had warned Denise’s father that the dye shop would fail. He casts another angry glance at the Ladies’ Paradise and then welcomes his niece and nephews inside.
When Baudu wrote to Denise a year ago, his business must have been stable enough to assure him that he could support guests. His obvious consternation that Denise and her brothers have shown up suggests that a lot has changed with his business in a very short amount of time. However, Denise’s father left his children no money and no business, suggesting that small businesses have been struggling to make it under present conditions for at least a few years.
Themes
Denise, Jean, and Pépé hesitate in the threshold of Baudu’s shop, unsettled by the gloom inside. The shop is blackened by smoke, stacked with dark piles of fabric, and smells of chemicals. Baudu introduces his wife, Madame Baudu, and his daughter Geneviève. Geneviève stares at Denise’s small parcel, and Denise explains that she left their trunk at the train station. Bluntly, Baudu explains that business is not going well. The Baudus raised five boys, three of whom died and two of whom left home, leaving only Geneviève to help with the store. Moreover, Baudu has invested all his money in a dilapidated house in the country. Baudu says that he has nothing for Denise. Denise says that they will go away, but Baudu softens and says they can spend the night.
Business has been so bad for the Baudus that their quality of life has severely declined. As well as the conditions of poverty, Denise finds the very structure of the small drapery shop depressing. The smell of chemicals and dye and the stacks of fabric—which are normal things for a drapery shop and not just consequences of their poverty—add to the gloom. In this way, the Baudu’s life is depressing to an outsider’s perspective not only because of their financial hardship, but also because of their old-fashioned way of business.
Themes
Madame Baudu says that Pépé can stay with Madame Gras, a woman who runs a children’s boarding house. Baudu plans to take Denise to Vinçard—a man who is looking to hire a salesgirl—after lunch. Meanwhile, no customers come into the shop. Denise caresses Pépé and assures Madame Baudu that Pépé is well-behaved. A maid appears and Baudu calls everyone to lunch, including his assistant Colomban. Baudu serves veal in exactly equal portions. Denise finds the gloomy dining room depressing.
In the traditional business model, sales assistants live and dine where they work. This is how Denise plans to support herself, by finding a job as a salesgirl and living onsite. However, Denise is depressed by the Baudu’s dining room—the home side of their home-business environment—and is turned off by the traditional shop model altogether. This suggests that Denise dreams of a different future for herself.
Themes
Baudu asks why Denise didn’t marry anyone in her hometown. Denise laughs at the idea, thinking how she has no money, has two siblings to care for, and is not pretty. Baudu says that Geneviève and Colomban will be married in the spring when business is better. It is tradition in his family for the girls to marry an assistant who takes over the business. Baudu says that, although Colomban’s father drank and chased women, Colomban is a hard worker.
Baudu follows social traditions in addition to the traditional small business model. Instead of passing his shop on to his female heir, he is marrying his daughter so that he can pass the shop onto a male heir. Denise, in laughing at the idea of marrying to get out of her poverty, reveals that she’s not a social climber—at least if she has to marry to ascend the ladder.
Themes
Denise looks at Geneviève and Colomban sitting close together. The inevitability of their marriage meant that they don’t desire each other. Instead, they fell in love “like a flower in a cellar” from being cramped in the shop together their whole lives, and eventually Geneviève will realize this. Denise says that love makes everything possible, and then Baudu passes around jam—a luxury saved for guests.
Geneviève and Colomban’s arranged marriage has no chemistry. Their relationship, like Baudu’s dying business, is sick, like a flower growing in the dark. This suggests that all things traditional—whether business or conventions of marriage—have no life, at least not in the modern times.
Themes
After lunch, Denise stands in the door and watches the Ladies’ Paradise open. A mob has gathered in front. As people begin to shop, the outfits and materials seem to come to life. The bustle of sales at the counter seems to create heat and light, and the buyers move as if caught in the wheels of a machine. Denise feels both afraid and tempted by the Ladies’ Paradise and is repulsed by Baudu’s old-fashioned shop. She remarks at the success of the Ladies’ Paradise, and Madame Baudu turns white. Geneviève looks suspiciously at Colomban, who is slyly enraptured by the Paradise. Baudu changes the subject by leaving with Denise for Vinçard’s. He sends an assistant for Denise’s trunk.
The Ladies’ Paradise has the look of a machine to Denise, suggesting that its energy and activity has an impersonal air. Baudu’s traditional shop is the opposite: small and personal, and the suffering of the people who work there is palpable. Denise feels excited by the impersonality of the Ladies’ Paradise and repulsed by the opposite nature of the Vieil Elbeuf, again suggesting that she identifies more with modern business practices. However, she is also afraid of the Ladies’ Paradise, highlighting that encountering a modern business is a new experience for Denise.
Themes
Denise and Baudu find Vinçard in his shop conversing with two men, Robineau—an assistant from the Ladies’ Paradise—and Gaujean, a silk manufacturer. Vinçard, who’s trying to sell Robineau his shop, blames how slow business has been recently merely on his health. Robineau interrupts him to say small shops are being ruined by the presence of the Ladies’ Paradise. Gaujean rejoins that big stores are ruining France’s textile industry, and that the Ladies’ Paradise is exploiting people: they promised Robineau a promotion and never gave it to him. Insulted, Robineau says he’ll think about Vinçard’s offer.
The Ladies’ Paradise is revolutionizing the whole mode of trade in Paris by removing the need for small shops and middle-man manufacturers. In considering Vinçard’s offer to buy his small shop, Robineau is going backwards towards the traditional ways—which are proving outdated—instead of continuing to move forward and essentially sell out to a bigger business.
Themes
Baudu asks Vinçard if he is hiring a salesgirl. Vinçard says he hired someone two hours ago. Feigning apology, Robineau chimes in that they are hiring at the Ladies’ Paradise and advises Denise to visit Madame Aurélie, the Paradise’s buyer, in the morning. Baudu exclaims against it, but Denise feels a mixture of fear and pride. She thanks Robineau, and she and Baudu leave. Baudu mutters that it is Denise’s choice.
Denise is torn between two lifestyles and value systems: she is related to Baudu who sticks to traditional business, but she is drawn to the Ladies’ and the opportunities there. Her interest in the Ladies’ Paradise draws her out of the class she was born into, but she remains connected to the troubles of the lower shopkeeping class.
Themes
On the way back to Baudu’s shop, Baudu and Denise pass Bourras, an umbrella carver with a tiny, dilapidated shop squashed between the Ladies’ Paradise and a tall mansion. Bourras tells Baudu that someone from the Paradise wrote his landlord requesting to buy his shop. Furious, Bourras swears that this man will never take his shop from him. Trembling, Baudu leads Denise back to The Vieil Elbeuf. There, Denise’s trunk has arrived but Jean has disappeared. The Baudus are appalled to hear that Denise was offered a job in the Ladies’ Paradise.
The fact that the Ladies’ Paradise has offered to buy Bourras’s shop suggests that it plans to expand not only its customer base, but also its footprint. This foreshadows its future physical as well as monetary growth. The small old-fashioned shops are being threatened financially by the Ladies’ Paradise, and also territorially. Not only will some of them lose business, but the shop owners themselves could become homeless.
Themes
The Baudus and Denise sit down for dinner. Baudu tells Denise the story of the Ladies’ Paradise. Octave Mouret—an adventurer and womanizer—showed up in Paris and married Caroline Hédouin, the widowed daughter of the Deleuze brothers, who founded the Ladies’ Paradise. Madame Baudu says that Mouret killed Madame Hédouin; she fell in a hole on the building site, staining the foundation of the Ladies’ Paradise with her blood. Baudu explains that when Caroline was alive, Mouret persuaded her to buy up all the storefronts. Mouret wants to overturn all of Paris, but Baudu thinks that he invested too much money and is heading for a terrible crash.
Marrying Madame Hédouin allowed Mouret to rise in class, since before his marriage to her he was nothing but “an adventurer” with no money or remarkable familial connections. In this way, marrying Madame Hédouin and thus becoming an heir—although a traditional move—led to success that was unprecedented for someone born outside of the high class in a society where class divisions are rigid and stratified.
Themes
Baudu speaks disdainfully of how the Ladies’ Paradise carries everything, like a bazaar, and how it treats their customers and employees like commodities. In contrast, Colomban knows the art of the old trade: one should not sell a lot but instead should sell at a high price. The people at the Ladies’ Paradise have no love of family, and they always eat out. Privately, Baudu is afraid that the Ladies’ Paradise will force him to leave his tiny world where he is comfortable. Baudu insists that it is unfair for a shop to start selling everything, and to put small, specialized shops out of business. It is appalling that the Paradise sells gloves and umbrellas.
Baudu makes complaints against the Ladies’ Paradise on a variety of different grounds: taste, tradition, and values. However, his main complaint is that the Ladies’ Paradise sells more than one item, that it has become a “bazaar” or marketplace. This complaint has no real grounds other than the fact that it is “unfair,” and that it has put the small shops out of business. Baudu feels that his way of life and business is comfortable, and so is appalled by the innovations of The Paradise.
Themes
Baudu confesses that, if Vinçard sells his shop, they all may as well leave. He dreams briefly of starting a union of small retailers. Then he boasts that, although the Ladies’ Paradise has taken some of his business, he doesn’t need to use tricks to sell. Geneviève names Baudu’s loyal customers. Madame Baudu explains how the Paradise grew overnight, whereas Baudu’s has been the same for generations. Denise can see that Madame Baudu has tied her life to the little shop.
The Vieil Elbeuf’s selling points are all based on the assumption that people are modest, honest, and endowed with integrity. Baudu counts on his customers’ loyalty and on their disinclination to be seduced by beauty and excess. The Ladies’ Paradise holds a lower view of people, knowing it can manipulate them into being consumers.
Themes
Baudu lapses into silence, regretting his outburst. He feels that his family, unlike Mouret, has never had any luck. Also, he bought a retirement house in the country that cost him more to repair than it earned him from renters. Baudu presses Denise about working at the Ladies’ Paradise. She deflects and goes to stand in the doorway. It is dark and the rain makes muddy water flow right into the gloomy shop. This image of “old Paris” depresses Denise.
Baudu believes that his misfortune has to do with bad luck, when really his hardship has to do with the way he does business—a traditional model that, the novel shows, is quickly becoming outdated and not profitable. Denise separates Paris into the old and the new; Baudu’s shop and everything stands for represents the old while the Ladies’ Paradise represents the new.
Themes
Across the street, the lamps at the Ladies’ Paradise are being lit. Denise is drawn towards the humming “machine.” She sees the salesclerks counting money among a profusion of lace. Against the “chapel-like” background, the merchandise seems to clothe women hurrying through the rain to festivities. Denise is seduced, and she dreams of a future full of unimaginable things. She feels hope and joy. Behind her, Baudu points at Bourras, who is standing in the rain staring at the Ladies’ Paradise. All the Baudus gather and watch the Ladies’ Paradise—the thing that is destroying them. Baudu guesses that Denise will go in the morning to ask for a job, and Denise says she will.
Whether they’re for or against the Ladies’ Paradise, everyone is obsessed with it. The chapel-like atmosphere suggests that the Paradise has a religious effect on people, and the machine-like quality has the effect of pulling everyone towards it. In this way, the Ladies’ Paradise ensures that it is the center of attention, even if this means it is the center of negative attention. The Baudus, in watching what destroys them, are pitiful, whereas Denise appears pragmatic as she decides to ask for a job at a business that seems to be booming.
Themes
