In this blog post, I’ll explore, through Émile Zola’s ‘The Drinking Den’, the genetic and environmental factors that shape human life, as well as the animalistic instincts that stir within us.
Viewing Human Life Through the Lens of the Natural Sciences
Just as in Émile Zola’s ‘Thérèse Raquin’, the protagonists of ‘The Drunkard’ belong to the lower classes of society. This is a markedly different choice compared to the characters primarily portrayed by writers before Zola. By considering why Zola featured the lives of the lower classes in his works, we can gain insight into his unique literary philosophy.
Zola was a writer who championed the theory of naturalism and is regarded as one of its leading masters. However, the term “naturalism” often gives rise to misunderstandings. This is because it is sometimes interpreted as literature that glorifies nature. However, the “nature” referred to in naturalist literature is different from the nature celebrated in phrases like “nature is beautiful” or “return to nature.” Here, “nature” is closer to the concept of nature as defined by the “natural sciences.” Zola’s theory of naturalist literature was an attempt to incorporate the theories of the natural sciences into literature.
The 19th-century Western society in which Zola was born and active was an era when most people were enthusiastic about science. Among these fields, medicine and biology were the most captivating. As medicine began to uncover the causes of diseases—illnesses previously thought to be beyond human ability to cure and long regarded as incurable afflictions—and develop treatments for them, people became enthralled by the power of science achieved by humankind. Furthermore, as the mysteries of life—once regarded as nothing but enigmas—were gradually unraveled, a belief began to take root that there was nothing in this world that could not be explained by the power of science. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was also one of the significant discoveries that emerged amid this era’s atmosphere.
As absolute faith in science grew, the idea that there were no longer any mysterious realms in this world began to take hold in people’s minds. The belief that all things in the world are governed by the laws of natural science—and that these laws could be uncovered through the power of human science—captivated many people. This belief even led to the notion that human life within society is no exception to the laws of natural science. Zola’s naturalist theory of literature can be seen as having emerged precisely from this belief.
Zola clearly articulates his literary philosophy in ‘The Experimental Novel’. According to his thinking, a person’s life is determined by the “genes” with which they are born, the “time” of their birth, and the “environment” in which they live. Therefore, his novels were a kind of experiment aimed at uncovering these determinative laws. Through his novels, Zola sought to establish a theory about human life.
The very fact that he called his theory of the novel the “Theory of the Experimental Novel” clearly illustrates this intention. We are familiar with the process by which a scientific theory is established: first, we observe; then, based on those observations, we formulate a hypothesis; and finally, we conduct experiments to prove that hypothesis. Zola’s works were akin to experiments aimed at establishing a scientific theory of human life. Through his novels, he sought to discover the universal truths inherent in human existence.
So, who should be the subjects of these experiments? Naturally, they must be the ordinary people who make up the majority of society. The aristocracy and the ruling class—being part of a minority—are exceptional cases and therefore unsuitable as subjects for experiments aimed at deriving universal truths. It is precisely for this reason that, unlike the works of other authors, Zola’s novels feature ordinary people or members of the lower classes as their protagonists.
Why did he choose the lower classes and instinct-driven individuals as protagonists?
Nevertheless, questions remain. It is understandable that Zola chose ordinary people as his protagonists. However, the characters in ‘The Drunkard’ are not simply ordinary people; they may even appear to be close to being abnormal. If Zola sought to discover universal truths about human life through his novels, one might wonder if he should not have chosen as his protagonists more “human” individuals—those who uphold human virtues while accepting and living within the given social order.
However, Zola’s subject of study was not “humanity” as a special entity. What he observed was “man” as an “animal.” From the perspective of naturalist literary theory—which holds that humans are not exempt from the natural scientific laws governing ordinary animals—this was a logical choice.
For this reason, rather than structuring his novel around a single human character, Zola unfolds the story centered on human animal instincts and temperaments. The characters chosen in naturalist literary theory are not those who are already sufficiently “humanized” or possess a “human will.” Rather, they are characters heavily influenced by physical desires, temperament, and the nervous system. Through his novels, Zola explores how people with such temperaments behave in various environments and how they influence one another when they interact. He wrote novels to study, through the eyes of a natural scientist, how human beings—as organic living beings—change depending on the situations they face.
Zola’s literary philosophy is clearly evident even in ‘Thérèse Raquin’, an early work written before he had fully established his naturalist literary theory. However, the work in which his naturalist literary theory is most firmly revealed is ‘The Drunkard’, considered one of his masterpieces.
Emile Zola wrote the ‘Rougon-Macquart’ series—comprising a total of 20 volumes—over a period of 20 years in accordance with his literary philosophy. This series bears the subtitle ‘The Natural and Social History of a Family Under the Second Empire’. The story centers on the descendants of the children born to a woman named Adelaide Fouque from her first marriage to a man of the Rougon family and from her second marriage to a man of the Makar family. This series depicts the tumultuous lives of these descendants as they navigate the influences of both heredity and environment. ‘The Drunkard’s Tavern’, which I read, is the seventh novel in the series; it was published in 1877, and the protagonist, Gervais, is a descendant of the Makar clan.
Was Gervais’s downfall truly the result of her own choices?
‘The Wine Shop’ is a sad and harrowing novel. It depicts the protagonist, Gervais—a woman who was once pretty, kind, and hardworking—as she succumbs to laziness and idleness, eventually becoming an alcoholic, falling into ruin, and dying a miserable death.
However, what makes this novel even more poignant is that the specific trigger for Gervais’s downfall is unclear. Of course, one can consider various causes for her decline. Prominent examples include her husband, Coupau, who fell from a roof while working and subsequently went down a path of depravity, and Rantier, who once abandoned her only to reappear and encourage her downfall. Yet their influence is, after all, indirect.
Ultimately, Gervais herself suddenly became lazy one day and, despite being burdened by debt, constantly indulged in gourmet meals and squandered her money. A woman who had once been so diligent suddenly transformed into a reckless person. Watching this unfold, it feels as though Gervais was born with a fate that left her with no other choice but to end up this way from the very beginning.
So what is that fate? The answer Zola presents is hereditary destiny.
Tracing Gervais’s family history reveals that both her grandfather and father were alcoholics and violent men who abused their families. It is explained that Gervais’s limp is also due to the fact that her father conceived her while intoxicated. These genetic traits, much like the force of gravity, govern and transform a human being according to their own inherent laws. And there is no way to escape the dominion of these genetic laws. They govern a person’s life just like fate.
When viewed this way, Gervais’s life seems even more tragic. If genetic traits she did not choose determine the course of her life, and if the environment in which she lives further intensifies those traits, ultimately leading to her downfall, to what extent can a human being truly determine their own life?
I couldn’t help but ponder these questions while reading this work. Can we truly believe in such absolute laws? Just as people in the past believed in divine providence, is it acceptable for us to believe in the absoluteness of scientific laws?
Are humans truly free from their instincts?
There is something unsettling about Émile Zola’s novel. It makes one want to rebel against the idea that humans can be treated purely as objects of natural scientific inquiry. I also wonder whether it is truly possible to portray the human condition while excluding concepts such as personality, the soul, or human will. The idea that human life is predetermined by a given genetic destiny is equally difficult to accept. Since literary works are, after all, products of the imagination, one might argue that a novel cannot be written with the same attitude a scientist uses to seek truth.
I believe all such counterarguments are valid. And it is precisely for this reason that the works of Émile Zola, which enjoyed tremendous popularity in his own time, were long overlooked by scholars. However, by the mid-20th century, his works began to be reevaluated, and Zola came to be recognized as a master who left behind immortal masterpieces.
The reason for this is that it became apparent that his novels actually contradicted his own theory of fiction. Contrary to the literary theory Zola espoused, his works were the product of a rich imagination. Although he advocated a rigorous literary theory aimed at scientifically observing and experimenting with human nature, the power that brought his vivid, living characters to life in his actual works ultimately stemmed from his rich imagination.
Above all, what makes Zola’s works so valuable is that, even while depicting the lives of workers with such rigor, he expressed their desires, hopes, and suffering in their own words.
Workers and members of the lower classes did appear in the novels of other writers at the time. However, in many cases, they were merely objects of curiosity. They were often portrayed as people from a foreign world viewed through the eyes of the upper class.
Emile Zola, however, was different. Through his works, he demonstrated that workers and the lower classes were not people living in a world entirely separate from the so-called upper class, but rather people who, just like the upper class, lived their lives experiencing joy, sorrow, and suffering. His novels, rooted in observation and experimentation, paradoxically brought his characters to life as vivid, living human beings. And through the lives of these characters, his novels became important works that criticized and exposed the selfish greed and prejudice of the social elite.
Furthermore, Zola’s novels pose an important question: Are we truly free from animal instincts? Could it be that “human society” is also driven by animal instincts?
This question does not easily fade even after reading ‘The Drunkard’. Humans consider themselves rational beings with free will, yet within them lie desires and instincts of which they are unaware. And when faced with certain circumstances, those instincts can surface and alter the course of their lives.
If reading this work has given you even the slightest sense of humanity’s animal nature, it seems impossible to view Zola merely as a writer who turned his back on humanity. Zola was not merely an author who objectively explored humanity; he was a writer who used his imagination to bring the animal nature hidden within humans to life. That is why the characters in his works come across not as pale guinea pigs in a laboratory, but as living, dynamic human beings.
I believe Zola was an author who, by deeply exploring the animal instincts stirring within people, actually broadened the scope of humanity. Humans can set goals in life while elevating their souls, but at the same time, they can discover another side of themselves by feeling the animal nature stirring within. Sensing another “self” within—one we are not usually aware of—might be one way to make life even more dynamic.
The Legacy of Émile Zola and ‘The Drunkard’
Émile Zola was born in Paris in 1840. However, due to his father’s work as a civil engineer, he spent his childhood—from the age of three to eighteen—in Aix-en-Provence in southern France. Although Zola published his “Theory of the Experimental Novel” in 1880, when he was forty, he had already demonstrated his prowess as a Naturalist writer when he published ‘Thérèse Raquin’ in 1868, at the age of twenty-eight.
Over the next twenty years, he published a total of twenty novels under the series title ‘Rougon-Macquart’. Through this series, Zola laid bare the corrupt society of the Second French Empire and was recognized as the first writer to portray the lives and aspirations of workers and the common people in a raw and unvarnished manner. Among his works, some of his best-known masterpieces—familiar even to us—include ‘The Drunkard’, ‘Nana’, and ‘Germinal’.
When discussing Zola, one event that cannot be overlooked is the Dreyfus Affair. In October 1894, A. Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery captain serving on the General Staff, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a closed-door court-martial. He was accused of selling military intelligence to the German embassy. However, there was no evidence other than the fact that the handwriting on the intelligence documents secretly taken from the German embassy in Paris resembled Dreyfus’s. Ultimately, he was framed as the culprit simply because he was Jewish.
Afterward, even though the military obtained conclusive proof that the real culprit was someone other than Dreyfus, it attempted to cover up the case rather than revealing the truth. Dreyfus’s family, who had believed in his innocence and demanded a retrial, uncovered the truth and denounced the real culprit—Hungarian-born Major Esterhazy—in November 1897; however, after a perfunctory interrogation and trial, the military acquitted him and released him.
It seemed as though the matter would end there, but Zola published an editorial titled “I Accuse” in the January 13, 1898, issue of ‘L’Aurore’ in the form of an open letter addressed to the president. This sparked a public outcry, and French society as a whole was divided into the “Dreyfusards,” who maintained Dreyfus’s innocence, and the “anti-Dreyfusards,” who insisted on his guilt, leading to serious conflict. As a result of this indictment, Zola was forced to go into exile in England in July of that year. The Dreyfus Affair established Zola as the epitome of a righteous, active intellectual.
Zola died in Paris in 1902 and was interred in the Panthéon four years after his death.
“The Drunkard’s Tavern”: A Legacy Carried On Through Film and Future Generations
Émile Zola’s “The Drunkard’s Tavern” has been adapted into films on numerous occasions and has been beloved by many. Among these, the 1956 film directed by René Clément, in which Maria Schell—one of the leading actresses of her time—played the role of Gervais, is still considered a masterpiece by many. Since it remains very faithful to the original work, I believe it is worth watching after reading ‘At the Wine Shop’.
In particular, revisiting Gervais’s life through this film can make the tragedy felt in the novel even more vivid. The film faithfully portrays, just as the original does, how Gervais—who was once pretty, kind, and hardworking—gradually succumbs to laziness and idleness, ultimately falling into alcoholism and ruin.
Furthermore, after reading ‘The Drinking Den’, one naturally becomes curious about what kind of lives Gervais’s children go on to lead. Gervais’s daughter Nana, who appears in this novel, later becomes the protagonist of the novel ‘Nana’. Her eldest son, Claude, becomes a painter and appears in ‘The Belly of Paris’, and later also becomes the protagonist of ‘The Work’. The second son, Étienne, becomes the protagonist of ‘Germinal’, which depicts the lives of coal miners.
Following how Gervais’s descendants, who inherited his blood, change in different environments and how they each live their lives could serve as another reading journey to undertake after finishing ‘The Wine Shop’. While ‘The Drinking Den’ examined a single individual within the context of heredity and environment, following the stories of his descendants allows us to observe how people sharing the same bloodline transform in different environments.
What ultimately lingers longest after reading ‘The Drinking Den’ is the question of human life. Are we beings who shape our lives through our own will, or are we beings whose life paths are determined to some extent by the temperament and genetics we inherit at birth, as well as the environments we encounter as we live? Zola’s naturalist literature may seem to view humans as objects of an overly cold, scientific analysis, but after actually reading his works, one is instead led to reflect on just how complex and dynamic human existence truly is.
The Downfall of Gervais, too, cannot be read merely as the story of one woman’s failed life. As we follow her life, we are led to reflect on how the desires and instincts that exist within human beings, and the environment that stimulates them, are intertwined. Thus, ‘At the Wine Shop’ remains a novel that not only depicts the tragedy of a single individual but also constantly asks what drives human beings.
Ultimately, I believe that Zola’s relentless exploration of the animal nature within humans was not intended to deny humanity, but rather to examine the human condition more deeply. Humans possess the power to elevate their souls and set goals in life, yet at the same time, they are also driven by desires and instincts that stir within them unconsciously. It is only when we acknowledge the coexistence of these two aspects that we can gain a deeper understanding of humanity.
“The Drunkard’s Tavern” is, therefore, a work that is both unsettling and sad, yet one that is not easily forgotten. As I followed Gervais’s life, I found myself reflecting on how freely humans can choose their own paths, and on the instincts and desires that lie at the very foundation of the lives we believe we control. In the sense that it poses such questions, I felt that ‘The Tavern’ transcends being merely a novel depicting the lower classes of an era; it is a work that compels us to contemplate the very essence of human existence.
