The Paradise of Women by Émile Zola Zola's portrayal of men and their attitude towards women may be the relationship between that of those who control and those who are controlled . It is made to believe that it is men who control women, and although this is the case in most cases in Ladies Paradise, there are two people who manage to resist against all odds, to get hit by the car that has fascinated and swallowed the bourgeois domestic unit of the late 19th century. They are the elegant Mademoiselle Boudu and the brushed-browed Monsieur Bourras. One of the main characters, Monsieur Mouret ("governor" of the Ladies' Paradise), spectacularly uses the lower classes as a tool to heighten the perception of what goes on in his shop. So as to invoke French middle-class ladies to not only enter its lavish trap set for the nineteenth-century consumer, but also to create their desire to acquire greater material goods than they might actually need. Another implication is that the insatiable consumerist appetite created by Mouret results in the development of kleptomania, exemplified in the latter stages of the book by a bourgeois wife of a magistrate, Madame de Boves, as well as long-time employees of the department store. Mouret is the quintessential Renaissance man of France with his bold ways of charming women and subjugating them to his desires by making them believe that his actions are always in their favor and interest. Monsieur Mouret had the utmost respect for women and their habits; this is the case until the boredom of them in his private life exceeds his desire for them, in which case he moves on to the next victim. In the public arena he continually presents himself as a gentleman's gentleman... middle of paper... to be filled anyway, so it was only right that Mouret did so. Irreverence for filial morality was necessary to realize the contemporary model of doing business. Denise saw this new functioning of the business and, although she had her reservations about seeing the degeneration of the social order, she still participated in it. Not only that, she implored others to follow her, because she knew that her momentum would overwhelm them if they didn't heed her advice. And that's exactly what happened to Mr. Bourras, his uncle Boudu and his family, as well as the other small shops in "old" Paris. And as for the unfortunate thefts that took place without discrimination of class or position, they were simply insignificant consequences of modern conquests. They would be approached naturally just like the organic evolution of the nineteenth-century establishment.