never have set foot, temptations present themselves as [she] pass[es], and [she] succumb[s] (237). Mourets innovative idea materialized in the nineteenth century and still survives today. As people walk through a department store, they see things that they would have never passed had the store not been organized in such a manner and will sometimes succumb to passing temptations. This creation of spontaneous desire condenses all shopping habits into a pure societal love for spending.When there is such a variety of methods to create desire, the actual desire created in the women also varies, ranging from psychologically healthy to torturously unhealthy. Zola captures each type of craving in one character, specifically in one of the upper middle-class women who regularly shop at the Ladies Paradise. First, Madame Bourdelais manifests the psychologically healthy type of desire, the love of shopping combined with thriftiness. In the words of Uwe Spiekermann, Indeed, the woman was always attracted by the low prices and special offers which were the constant theme of advertisements. Thus, shopping in the department store seemed to be the sacred duty of a woman who was supposed to run her household as economically as possible (Crossick 141). Mothers were the stereotypical bargain-hunters because of the need to save money for their childrens future. Contrary to a housewifes thriftiness, Madame Desforges, an extremely refined middle-class woman, buys only house wares at the large stores because she dresse[s] with such extreme elegance (79). Akin to todays window-shoppers, Madame Desforges friend, Madame Guibal, walks the aisles of the Ladies Paradise without ever buying anything, happy and satisfied by merely feasting her eyes (79). All three of these women are able to control their desires in the interest of money and finesse. On the other hand, Madame Marty, married to a teacher earning a low salary, successfully squanders her husbands salary ...
