Representation of time in modern novels by Zola and Balzac

Emile Zola and Honere De Balzac were writers that embraced their century and time period. They wrote comprehensive histories of their respective contemporary societies. Although they share a similar interest in dissecting time throughout their novels, Emile shows a more modern take on time than does Honere De Balzac. In fact, his methodical approach to the social, moral, and sexual landscape of the late nineteenth century proves Zola as the quintessential novelist of modernity. Zola shows this through irregular change in his novels: The Drinking Den, Germinal, La Bete Humaine, Nana, and The Debacle. Whereas Balzac, in his work, Le Comedie Humaine, Eugenie Grandet, and Father Goriot, follows an old fashioned classic style of realism that focuses on the upper class. Balzac shows time through detail and structure, Zola through change and dynamic fluidity.

Zola's epic kind of realism is shown through variety and complexity. His characters are all different and come from various backgrounds. Some are poor, others crazy, and some rich. He was, in his work, actively engaged in his era. He critiqued in several art forms from literature to painting. And although he was influenced by Balzac's style, even so much as creating Les Rougon-Macquart to rival Balzac's s Comedie humaine, his commentary on modern society made him different from Balzac. He researched everything from mining to the way his characters would talk to offer a more authentic perspective to his stories. Balzac was similar in this style, except his focus was narrow and based on the lives of the wealthy. It was Zola's inclusion of every person that made his work appear more modern than his classically styled predecessor.

The first of Zola's novels to describe the everyday man and perhaps the downtrodden man is The Drinking Den. It is in this novel that readers become aware of what happened during that time and how people lived their lives. Beautiful portraits such as that from page 112 elaborate on the despot reality some of the people in his world faced. "Gervaise pitied Father Bru from the bottom of her heart, he lay the greater part of the time rolled up in the straw in his den under the staircase leading to the roof. When two or three days elapsed without his showing himself someone opened the door and looked in to see if he were still alive."(Zola, and Buss 112) Tme to Zola was not just in that instant or in that moment. To him it transformed and changed within the setting of each scene.

It is through his descriptions of, for example, Father Bru, that the representation of modern time is clear. Page 66 is a great instance of his descriptive language to indicate age and time lapse. "Father Bru, with his white beard and his face wrinkled like an old apple, sat in silent content for hours at a time, enjoying the warmth and the crackling of the coke." (Zola, and Buss 66) People of the modern age wasted a lot of time doing nothing. It cannot be applied to all, but some who were depressed or lost spent their days like minutes in a state of silence, much like that of Father Bru. Unlike Balzac, Zola sought to show the varied side of people, not just the "shiny," drama filled sides.

However, Zola did use drama to quicken the plot and demonstrate the growth or lack thereof, of his character. On page 98, Zola mentions the possible dismissal of Mme. Putois. "But she was mistaken, and soon it became necessary for her to dismiss Mme. Putois, keeping no assistant except Augustine, who seemed to grow more and more stupid as time went on. Ruin was fast approaching." (Zola, and Buss 98) She, like other characters in the story, have a short shelf life, much like most workers in modern times. He continues to discuss the continual downward spiral of Gervaise and Coupeau by using alcohol and pride as a means of advancing time.

An example of this on page 76: "The men kept time with their heels and the women with their knives on their glasses. The windows of the shop jarred with noise."(Zola, and Buss 76) People use entertainment and chaotic atmospheres like that in bars to speed up time. Zola uses these details to aid in better representing people and their existence in his era. And much like how it is presently, his character's perspectives are similar. Balzac on the other hand uses fancy settings and uppity scenarios to limit his representation to a point where it almost reaches romanticism.

La Bete Humaine another of Zola's novels with the homicidal tendencies of Lantier and his affair with Severine. Zola uses the imagery of the train and the railroad as a way to represent the innovations of his time. On page 70, the setting as seen through the rail way shows the vast expanse of possibility that the railroad brings to people during this time."but beyond, the vast expanse of sky on to which it opened was already ablaze with a conflagration of sunbeams, while gradually the whole horizon was turning pink, with every foreground detail sharply delineated in the pure air of a fine winter's morning." (Zola, and Pearson 70) In fact, a lot of the story focuses on and around the railroad and the tran the rides it.

Page 167 discusses Lantier's affair with Severine: "Over to his left a storm had been following him ever since Rouen, moving up the valley of the Seine with great, blinding flashes of lightning; and from time to time he looked around anxiously, for Severine was to come and meet him that evening."(Zola, and Pearson 167) Modern texts depict time through drama and action. And so as Zola puts these two characters in a love affair, so does this help the plot speed along. Zola sticks to a realist aesthetic in the motives behind the characters and even in Lantier's cowardice when confronted with the opportunity of killing people, including Severine's husband. Much the opposite of Romanticism, where characters when confronted with obstacles face it with bravery and gumption, Lantier is much so that he faces it as a normal person would, with caution and fear.

A lot of the descriptions in the novel help herald in a setting that Balzac fails to represent in his stories. Page 168 has a good example: "On the left, beside the line of vices used for repairs, a sheet of boiler-plate which had been left upright rang out with the echoing chime of a church bell." (Zola, and Pearson 168) In his descriptives, Zola is able to represent everything from what people did for a living to how they measured time. This "footprint" the writer leaves with his settings helps instill in the reader the memory of Zola when he himself was in the towns and locales he went to or researched.

It was mentioned before how Zola uses drama to move along the plot and progress the characters. The railroad, the theme set out in the book, represents the fluidity and quickness of modern times. The way the characters view and handle the trains that move along the railroads indicate how people handled the transport innovation of the time. As is mentioned in this following quote: "From then on he proceeded with extreme caution, but without being able to reduce speed because the wind resistance was enormous and delay of whatever kind would in any case be just as dangerous."(Zola, and Pearson 183) the railroad was a dangerous place. People could get mugged in the train carts and crashes killed hundreds of people in the train. It was a necessity as well as a danger that propelled people forward. Balzac seldom does this in his work. He remains stagnant and steadfast instead of moving forward.

Nana Zola's take on the end of the Second Empire in France, uses Nana, the protagonist as a man eater who financially ruins all the men who pursues her. She ultimately dies a horrible death of smallpox and in her death shows the mark of the influence of Napoleon in France. This perhaps is another reason why Zola has a better modern representation of time than Balzac because he tries to stay current and writes about what's happening, what's interesting at the time he's writing, whereas Balzac sticks to what he's interested in and then tries to meticulously write in the details. Page 112 shows a great example of the time in which Zola writes this and the research he did when placing Nana as a coquette."She did not sit down again but began pacing feverishly to and fro between the fireplace and a Venetian mirror hanging above an Italian chest." (Zola, and Ripoll 112)

Money like in France at the time, was all Nana could think about. Decadence was the theme of Nana and in page 302 the reader sees the extent of it."Before her departure she had treated herself to a new sensation: she had held a sale and had made a clean sweep of everything -- house, furniture, jewelry, nay, even dresses and linen. Prices were cited -- the five days' sale produced more than six hundred thousand francs." (Zola, and Ripoll 302) To see the extent of spending that Nana did and the constant attentioned she garnered from men, helped paint a portrait of the coquettes of Zola's time as well as the way people interacted with the starlets of France. Zola continues Nana's escapades that lead to men committing suicide and writing scathing articles.

As were in many of his novels, Zola uses time in a way that changes from scene to scene. Minutes may seem like days in some scenes and days may seem like seconds in others. A good example of this is on page 136: "The very armchairs, which were as wide as bed, and the sofas, which were as deep as alcoves, invited to slumber oblivious of the flight of time and to tender whispers in shadowy corners." (Zola, and Ripoll 136) This fluidity and immeasurability of time brings in the sense of modern aesthetic because it steers away from the rigidity of classical literature. Time has no bounds and ideas are varied.

Zola has a great way of encasing so many ideas of his time in his writing. Page 276 describes Nana's effect on the workers. In those few lines, Zola is able to show what was happening at that time in France with the extravagance of the upper class and the destitute disparity of the working class. "where in a small provincial town workmen, blackened with coal dust and soaked with sweat, day and night strained their sinews and heard with bones crack to satisfy Nana's pleasures. Like a huge fire she devoured all the fruits of stock-exchange swindling and the profits of labor."(Zola, and Ripoll 276) The novel in of itself is a marker, a time stamp for the happenings of that era in a specific section of entertainment the French enjoyed.

Germinal, presumably, the best and best selling of Zola's novels deals with the impoverished people of a mining strike and their idealist leader Etienne. Zola again researched thoroughly the lives of miners and actually went inside mines to see their work conditions. This prompted him to produce vivid and haunting detail that further places him in the category of modern writer. "Three times they pulled me out of there half dead, once with my hair singed off, another time with my gizzard stuffed with dirt, the third time with my stomach swollen up with water like a frog..." (Zola, and Pearson 8) Interestingly his representation of time in this novel is accurate because of the way the miners dealt with the impoverished conditions and their failure as a result.

It is in the scenes of family and repose that Zola does his best in portraying the poor people in his story and gives them a realistic appeal. Page 76 describes a scene between Alzire and Estelle. "She gently laid her down in her still-warm bed and got her to go back to sleep by letting her suck on her finger." (Zola, and Pearson 76) People can associate themselves with this kind of scene because it a woman and child or a parent and child socialization in such a sincere and heartfelt way is apart of the very fabric of society. Especially when one is poor, family at times is all a person has to get through the day.

Modernist writing/literature pulls from various perspectives. Whereas Classic or Romantic literature pulls from a select pool, usually an aristocratic, educated perspective. Balzac, as will be shown in his novels, appears to take the classic perspective in a lot of his writing. His characters lead great lives and exist in a time that is stagnant and calm, whereas Zola's characters have constantly changing dynamics and surroundings. Page 458 shows a good example of this. "They didn't dare exchange a word in this intensification of their anguish, and they gloomily continued to respond to the taps with the heel of the clogs, without hope, retaining only the mechanical need to let others know they were still alive." (Zola, and Pearson 458)

Interestingly on page 140 Zola's scene of women feeding their children is another great way he shows a modernist take on the world. He shows women being mothers and not caring about the expected social norms set before them."Women kept arriving, to find their husbands and bring them home; groups of children followed them, and the mothers, abandoning any sense of modesty, took out long, drooping, blond breasts like sacks of oats, and spattered the chins of their chubby babies with milk." (Zola, and Pearson 140) It's scenes like this that show the diveristy of perspective Zola has and that is needed for Modern writing.

The Debacle a story set against the background of the political and military events that ended the reign of Napoleon III and the Second Empire in 1870, in particular the Franco-Prussian War, the Battle of Sedan and the Paris Commune. The main theme of the book is brutality in war faced by common soldier and the suffering of the civilian population as it is hit by losses of family and friends as well as economic hardship. Early in the story Zola sets up the character and the setting. "From the very first days, Maurice had been absolutely certain of victory. For him, the Emperor's plan was clear: they would throw four hundred thousand men at the Rhine, cross the river before the Prussians were ready, then cut the northern half of Germany off from the south"(Zola 15)

The feelings of loss and grief were set early on as Macquart, the widowed farmer, has to face the onslaught of the Prussians. The lives of the soldiers, as Zola does for miners, coquettes, poor people, and drunkards, is shows in beautiful detail and realism. "But it was ten o'clock; Gaude rose up from the black earth where he had disappeared, and was the first to sound the curfew." (Zola 78) In fact a lot of the first part of the book helps describe what a soldier may have actually gone through during that time. For him to write about the issues plaguing people of that particular year or decade is amazing and really lends to a feeling of history.

Even as the soldiers faced defeat, Zola showed their desire to live, to sleep, to eat as seen on pae 168. "The officers had already warned their men that they would be leaving at about four in the morning, to make up for lost time; and everyone made haste and slept gluttonously, thoroughly worn out."(Zola 168) So depressing was the time period and Modernist literature is in fact depressing at times because it tries to present a realistic and accurate depiction of all of life in a certain era. Balzac, who is a great writer, and at times a modern writer, fails to fully grasp this concept. His representation of time in a modern sense is muted.

La Comedie Humaine, a series of novels that inspired Zola to do his own, reflect a detailed spin on French life in an idealist and restrictive way. Women were tragic prostitutes or sullen love lorned brides and men were talented, yet poor, hoping to achieve success in society. A book written about this series demonstrates just how Balzac describes the world of the books."The mantelpiece has been modernized. Its condition proves that the family has lived in this room since the last century. It is carved in the style of the time of Louis XV." (Balzac, and Castex 20) His meticulous attention to detail and desire to name everything within the story adds to the realness of the image but fails to make it more modern than Zola's style.

It is because of his attention to detail and his idealist ways, that it takes away from a modern perspective. Page 45 of the book discusses this in the way Gasselin does his work and feels bored from his extra leisure time. "Gasselin's great delight lay in cultivating the garden and raising handsome fruit and fine vegetables there. He had so little work that, except for his gardening, he would have found time hang heavily on his hands." (Balzac, and Castex 45) It is in these scenarios that Balzac keeps to a classic and romantic feel and steers away from realism. Although there were people during that time that lived like that, they were few and seldom.

Women were to Balzac idealized as are many aspects of his stories. Page 107 demonstrates this:"The character of her beauty has not been of service to her, just as her fortune and her rank have enabled her to maintain a position in the forefront of society." (Balzac, and Castex 107) A lot of his feminine characters were either beautiful, tragic, or wealthy. And although some female characters that could be taken as being bisexual or lesbian, he fails to truly add depth to these characters to make them modern.

Eugenie Grandet is a story about a miserly man who has a daughter, named Eugenie who falls in love with Charles. Charles uses her and then breaks off his engagement to her, to which she responds by marrying someone else. And the families, as described on page 18, share a complex social network. "The three Grassins likewise had their adherents, their cousins, their faithful allies."(Balzac, and Spiers 18) At the end of the book Eugenie is a very wealthy widow of thirty-three who inherited her dead husband's fortune.

Even though she should be, at the time the book was written, unhappy because she was childless and widowed, she is instead quite content with what she had. She learned to live life on her own terms. She also understood the hypocrisy and shallowness of the bourgeois and where her best friends stood, from the lower classes. A lot of this seems attempting to be modern but further romanticizing everything and escaping reality. Even the description of a wealthy man living in a horrid dwelling to live a miserly life seems odd. "The melancholy dwelling where the vents of the following history took place is one of these mansions,- venerable relics of a century in which men and things bore the characteristics of simplicity which French manners and customs are losing day by day."(Balzac, and Spiers 6) It was things like this that made Balzac's writing less of a realist piece and more of a fairy tale.