E.ZOLA’S “L’assomoir”: Aspects of the Analysis

Abstract

The article is the author's take on E. Zola's novel "L'Assomoir", which is the so-called "roman ouvrier" (a novel about worker's life). The central character of the novel is Gervaise on her way of becoming a victim of the environment and bad heredity, her programmed tragic fate in conditions of drunkenness and poverty, her moral decay. The authors aim at making the outline of Zola's novel from such key points as human body, alcoholism, the city of Paris, celebrations, and to highlight a feature in the style of the novel, i.e. the use of comparisons and metaphors based on images of animals. The main aspects of the analysis are the system of oppositions (man-animal, the Gougetsthe Lorilleux, capitalprovince, abundant feasts-poverty), which is transmitted through the author's use of argo and familiar vocabulary, very sharp depiction of family violence, degeneracy and beastliness. Oppositions in the novel are based on using the metaphors: the trap / assomoir is both the name of the tavern, and alcohol, but also the consequences of alcohol, and the difficulties of life, and life itself; a cubbyhole is both a calm little world, the embodiment of happiness for Gervaise, and a small room -a kennel-like hole in which she dies, and the embodiment of Gervaise's fall from her happy little world into a dark emptiness. The fall of Gervaise is described through a gradual narrowing of space. Gervaise's death is inevitable but a good lesson and warning for every reader, the novel itself not losing its acuteness.