55 pages • 1 hour read
The Ladies' Paradise
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Character Analysis
Denise Baudu
Denise, who is 20 years old, is the protagonist of The Ladies’ Paradise. She arrives in Paris from the French countryside because she is desperate. The death of her parents in quick succession means that she needs a job to support her two younger brothers. She sees herself as the boys’ mother, putting their needs ahead of hers. Self-sacrificing determination is a key aspect of Denise’s character. While she is shy and inexperienced, she has an iron-willed resolve. She is willing to endure suffering to help others. From giving her last few francs to Jean to going without food to ensure that Pepe eats, she puts herself through terrible times to help her brothers. Throughout the novel, she refuses to compromise her morals. Pauline suggests that Denise take a lover, but she cannot bring herself to give herself to a man she does not love and who does not love her back. She is unwilling to become Mouret’s lover because she sticks rigidly to her principles, even as the other employees spread malicious rumors about her sexual proclivities. Denise never compromises and never shies away from helping others.
Denise often finds herself in the middle of opposing sides. Though she is loyal to her relatives, the Baudu family, and though she sympathizes with the small business owners who have been impoverished by The Ladies’ Paradise, she still feels drawn to the store. She has sympathy for the past but respects the modernity represented by the emergence of department stores. Though she comes from the provinces, she builds a life in Paris. She spends her days surrounded by wealthy customers and poorer employees. Denise’s character is concerned with these dichotomies. Even when she is making a good wage, she thinks of herself as working class. This is why she views a marriage to Mouret as impossible. Though Denise considers these Emerging Class Differences and Class Consciousness to be a barrier to their marriage, she ends the novel as the wife of a wealthy man. Denise represents a challenge to society’s traditions and assumptions. Through her empathy and intelligence, she transcends traditional barriers and defies the expectations placed on her.
Denise’s relationship with Mouret is complicated. She spends most of the novel denying him, but this enthralls him even more. He is attracted to her physically, but Denise’s character appeals to him the most. She is one of the few people who understands his vision for the store, offering ideas that he hopes to implement. Denise can never quite escape The Ladies’ Paradise because she is fascinated with it as a symbol of the modern world. She only accepts Mouret’s proposal once she believes he is a changed man. Only once he puts aside his love of money, once he can look at a million francs and feel nothing, is she willing to accept his proposal. Denise’s intelligence captivates Mouret, while her resolve enthralls him, and her empathy changes him, influencing the world far more than she expected.
Octave Mouret
Mouret’s past is a mystery. According to rumors, he comes from nothing. He has no familial connections in Paris, and, until he married the wealthy Madame Hedouin, he seemingly had no money. The death of Madame Hedouin is also the subject of rumors, some of which suggest that Mouret killed her. Following her death, Mouret inherited The Ladies’ Paradise. He grew the store from a small enterprise to the premier department store in Paris. At one time, The Ladies’ Paradise was just another drapery store, much like the one owned by Baudu. By the end of the novel, Mouret has turned the store into a behemoth, which earns over a million francs in a day. Mouret changed Parisian society in a relatively short time. In some sense, he is a revolutionary. Not only is he changing the way people shop, but his store is also earning record revenue. His transformation from an obscure, mysterious figure into a titan of industry happens before the novel opens. When he is introduced in The Ladies’ Paradise, Mouret is already ensconced in the wealthy social circles of Paris. With enough success and money, Mouret proves, even the most damning rumors can be ignored.
Mouret is reckless, pursuing women to satiate his need for sensual pleasure. He courts many women, from wealthy figures such as Madame Desforges to working-class employees like Clara. The social range of these women reflects Mouret’s misogynistic view that all women are simple and childish. His reckless desire for conquest is also seen in his business ventures, as he defies advice by rapidly expanding The Ladies’ Paradise. The store is already vast when the novel begins, and it only grows more. Mouret chases after expansion to validate his patronizing view that women have an insatiable appetite to purchase frivolities. Mouret’s recklessness adds to people’s perception of him as an adventurous and confident man, but it also reflects his need for validation. Money and romantic entanglements are Mouret’s way of keeping score.
Mouret claims to love women, and they are the source of his fortune, but he views them as childlike. Every marketing or commercial innovation Mouret devises is built on the idea that women will be so enthralled by flashy colors and low prices that they will buy things they don’t need. Denise refuses to conform to his expectations, however, and the result is that he falls in love with her. Mouret believes that his wealth and status should entitle him to any woman he wants. He believes that women will be so taken by his fortune and his charm, as they are by the goods in his store, that they will be easily seduced. When Denise refuses him, he eventually acknowledges her as an equal, and, in doing so, she forces him to change. By the end of the novel, Mouret no longer cares about profits. He cares about Denise, which is enough for her to accept him.
Madame Desforges
Madame Desforges has a great deal in common with Octave Mouret. She lost a spouse, revels in the freedom of being single, and has many lovers. However, she becomes gradually obsessed with Mouret. Their relationship becomes the domineering interest in her life, as she obsesses over winning him back, particularly when she learns that Mouret is in love with Denise. To Madame Desforges, Denise should be below Mouret’s interest. She is a working-class employee, while Madame Desforges is a peer of Mouret. Denise undermines Madame Desforges’s view of the world. Mouret’s love for Denise makes Madame Desforges feel old and ugly; she sets about trying to win Mouret back because she hopes that doing so will address her insecurities.
Madame Desforges becomes increasingly spiteful as jealousy consumes her, and she launches a series of schemes to win Mouret back. They are based on publicly humiliating Denise to remind Mouret of her lowly status. As a wealthy man with a high social standing, he should not love a working-class woman. She forces Denise to dote on her and makes her suffer through a litany of insults to assert her dominance over Denise and, in doing so, win back Mouret. She fails, to the point where Mouret sides with Denise over her. Madame Desforges then pretends not to care while secretly seething. She launches a rival business as revenge against Mouret, but she continues to visit his store and purchase his products. Despite what she claims, Madame Desforges never recovers from Mouret’s rejection. She is defeated on the romantic battlefield, and, as a result, her insecurities fester within.
Madame Marty
Though she only plays a small role in the novel, Madame Marty has an outsized importance. She is a middle-aged, middle-class woman who is captivated by The Ladies’ Paradise. She spends all her husband’s money in the store, as she cannot help but purchase items she does not need. Her purchases force her husband (a teacher) to take a second job. Even though she knows that she should not spend so much, she is addicted to shopping. In this way, she is Mouret’s ideal customer. Every marketing and advertising scheme that Mouret implements only exacerbates Madame Marty’s problem. The implementation of the return policy, for example, gives her a “supreme excuse” to spend even more (261). When he sees women like Madame Marty, Mouret feels that his patronizing beliefs about women are vindicated. Madame Marty functions as a foil to Denise. Whereas Denise defies Mouret’s beliefs about women, Madame Marty embodies every misogynistic, patronizing statement delivered by Mouret.
The effect of her spending on her husband is devastating. He becomes increasingly terrified by his wife’s behavior. He is forced to find extra work, which gets him in trouble with the authorities, so he must plead with Madame Desforges to speak to the authorities on his behalf. By the end of the novel, his mental health is destroyed, and Madame Marty’s only response is to spend more money. In the final chapter, she purchases vast quantities and contributes to the store’s record revenue. The decline of Madame Marty’s husband, the continuation of her spending, and the rising income of The Ladies’ Paradise are intertwined. Madame Marty’s behavior represents the dangers of the consumerist excess that Mouret spreads, while her husband’s downfall helps to chart the human cost of Mouret’s success.
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