The Ladies’ Paradise explores the rise of the department store model in the late 19th century. Mouret’s big department store, the Ladies’ Paradise, brings together under one roof all the goods that previously, one had to visit multiple small shops to purchase. So, instead of visiting a fabric seller, a glovemaker, and a perfume shop separately, shoppers—who are overwhelmingly female—can now find all those items (and countless others) in one place. This business model, The Ladies’ Paradise shows, forms the beginning of modern consumerist culture by glorifying excess and turning the shopping experience into an emotional event, rather than the simple acquisition of supplies.
To create such an environment, Mouret arranges his wares in colorful displays that draw shoppers in and highlight just how much he has to offer. Additionally, he rearranges the store so that customers have to traverse the entire store in order to find everything they came for—which leads to shoppers wandering into departments they never planned to visit and purchasing more items than they intended to. Finally, Mouret makes shopping an emotionally charged event by hosting sales, where women fight over bargain items and buy excessive amounts of merchandise because they see their peers doing the same. He also serves refreshments, offers free items like flowers and letter paper, and even sells the store’s signature silk fabric at a loss, all to make his customers feel like they—rather than Mouret—are the ones coming out ahead. Of course, this isn’t actually the case: several regular customers spend so much money in the Ladies’ Paradise that their husbands can barely support their wives’ shopping habits, while Mouret rakes in a million dollars during the novel’s final sale. With this, The Ladies’ Paradise illustrates how changing the shopping experience from a dull affair into one that’s emotional, exciting, and full of surprises creates a culture of excessive spending and consumption. Moreover, the contrast between Mouret’s success and his customers’ financial strain suggests that this type of overconsumption isn’t sustainable and doesn’t bring consumers genuine happiness—it only really benefits business moguls.
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Consumerism and Excess Quotes in The Ladies’ Paradise
The laces shivered, then dropped again, concealing the depths of the shop with an exciting air of mystery; even the lengths of cloth, thick and square, were breathing, exuding a tempting odor, while the overcoats were throwing back their shoulders still more on the dummies, which were acquiring souls, and the huge velvet coat was billowing out, supple and warm, as if on the shoulders of flesh and blood, with a heaving breast and quivering hips.
“Has anyone ever seen such a thing? A draper’s shop which sold everything! Just a big bazaar! And a fine staff too: a lot of dandies who pushed things about like porters at a railway station, who treated the goods and the customers like parcels, dropping their employer or being dropped by him at a moment’s notice. No affection, no manners, no art!”
Of supreme importance […] was the exploitation of Woman. Everything else led up to it, the ceaseless renewal of capital, the system of piling up goods, the low prices which attracted people, the marked prices which reassured them. It was Woman the shops were competing for so fiercely, it was Woman they were continually snaring with their bargains, after dazing her with their displays. They had awoken new desires in her weak flesh.
Furs littered the floor, ready-made clothes were heaped up like the greatcoats of disabled soldiers, the lace and underclothes, unfolded, crumpled, thrown about everywhere, gave the impression that an army of women had undressed there haphazardly in a wave of desire.
They were all nothing but cogs, caught up in the workings of the machine, surrendering their personalities, merely adding their strength to the mighty common whole of the phalanstery.
In this final hour, in the midst of the overheated air, the women reigned supreme. They had taken the shop by storm, camping in it as in conquered territory, like an invading horde which had settled among the devastation of the goods. The salesmen, deafened and exhausted, had become their slaves, whom they treated with sovereign tyranny.
She was deeply disturbed: it was strange that a moment ago she had found the strength to repulse a man whom she adored, whereas in the past she had felt such weakness in the presence of that wretched boy, whose love she had only dreamed about!
