Character Ecologies in Zola's Rougon-Macquart : Beyond Heredity, Beyond Metaphor

Abstract: This article reframes Zola's character networks in the Rougon-Macquart as ecologies. By comparing episodes of transgression in La curée and La faute de l'abbé Mouret , I demonstrate how characters become fused with plants and gardens in each novel, forming a singular, merged entity. Consequently, I argue that narrative setting not merely serves as a location in which a story unfolds, but rather is endowed with a human-like agency. The alliance between character and environment therefore urges a reexamination of the writer's conception of milieu , which expands to include an ecological dimension, alongside the social and hereditary.