Suicide according to Zola

Objective: To investigate the fiction of Emil Zola to understand the beliefs of the author and his readers (second half 19th-Century France) regarding the triggers of suicide.

Method: Four novels were examined: Térèse Raquin (1867), The Fortune of the Rougons (1871), Germinal (1885), and The Beast Within (1890).

Results: Five completed suicides were related, triggered in two instances by loss of a spouse and in three cases by guilt. Suicide (or related behaviour) was mentioned on more than 20 further occasions, all as a consequence of settings of discontent. There was no instance of suicide secondary to mental disorder.

Conclusion: Triggers of suicide in the second half 19th-Century France were not exclusively the result of mental disorder, at least in the opinion of Zola and his readers, and were not unlike those in the contemporary Western world.