« L’assommoir » d’Emile Zola, Gervaise, une femme tragique

More than a genre, tragedy is a philosophy that reminds man of the individulization of the collective lot. The interest in studying a female character in the indissoluble bonds of fate allowed highlighting the subtleties and the mechanisms of a phenomenon. The analysis could reveal that in the creation of Gertrude, Zola called into play the ethos and the daimon, two essential motives of the tragic. Atavism and the problem of the foot brought about a structuring absolutely intrinsic to the character. To these personal properties of Gervaise, are added a phallocentric life and the fact of making of her Lantier’sendocentric plaything. All these aspects of the character, interior and exterior, help understand the stranglehold that definitely holds her.