The Development Of Gervaise In The Drinking Den

The novel “The Drinking Den” by Émile Zola revolves around a hard working women, Gervaise, who experiences difficulties taking a ride roller coaster. It can be compared to the shape of an inverse parabolic structure. Gervaise faces obstacles as the novel begins, starting with her alcoholic ex-husband, Lantier. As the novel continues Gervaise’s character development progresses positively to a certain point, but then it turns and begins on the negative development. This essay will first analyze the development of Gervaise’s character in The Drinking Den. It will then examine how Zola uses her to examine the problem of alcohol? As this essay examines the rise and fall of Gervaise, it will also demonstrate how the characters that surround her

With hard work comes the success of the opportunity to open up the shop and be able to have more money. As a result of her laziness, she begins to rack up debt in turn leading to the loss of the shop. After a while, Gervaise becomes lazy and expects to receive all the benefits of the shop without working hard. “In the central phases of her development, a dynamic combination of factors and forces is brought into play: the outrageous ill-luck of Coupeau’s fall, the debilitating effects on her will of the dirty laundry in the shop, her first ‘spells of laziness’ seemingly prompted directly by the ‘asphyxiatng’ air of the shop, her excessive generosity to Coupeau, his drunken kiss ‘amid the filth of her trade’, which ‘was like a first fall, in the slow degradation of their life” (Baguley, pg. 57). Gervaise is intoxicated by the possession of things such as the shop. There is the development of her going from possessing very little to owning more, but then abusing it to the point where she loses it. Gervaise loses her ambition for the future and slowly becomes lazier and is consumed by her spending. She is spending more than she is working which causes her to lose the shop over time. This is on the downward part of the inverse parabola as she descends into her own filth. “Of course, with laziness and poverty, in came dirt. It was impossible to recognize the lovely sky-blue shop that had once been Gervaise’s pride

Zola uses Gervaise as a symbol in societies to depict how alcohol affects people's lives. “Gervaise no longer felt the hunger that had been ravaging her. Now, she was reconciled to Coupeau and no longer resented his failure to keep his word” (Zola, pg. 340). Alcohol becomes a substitute for everything in the novel. They may not have any food, but they still continue to drink. Zola uses Gervaise's life to describe one of an alcoholic and the negative connotation that accompanies the state of being intoxicated. She was able to work hard striving towards achieving her desires, but she manages to ruin all hopes after alcohol influences her life. Beth Chapman, a student at The University of Michigan, states "Zola had wanted to create Gervaise as a type of heroine. She did have a brief period of stability in her life when she met and married Coupeau" (pg. 4). Zola wanted to have Gervaise along with her family to depict a working class family that overcome challenges, but are not able to sustain themselves. By using the influence of alcohol, Zola achieves representing the image of a working class household along with the struggles they carry during 1877. Zola shows what happens when one abuses alcohol and the intoxicating effect that it