Zola décripté all mechanisms of sale: desire, possession, temptation, compulsive buying. Mouret is a tempter of the woman she wants to seduce, he "offers" all the trappings, a devil of a man who ends up succumbing to the only virtuous figure, one that is not client.
The descriptions of the displays of fabrics and lace suggest the vision of alcove where these fabrics, cotton, satin, lace, sewn, stitched, intermarried, coating the female body to develop, will fall on the mat , spread as inert at first.
There below there a part of the forbidden fruit, but sometimes the snake Eve terrace ... and what writing!