Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Thérèse Raquin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Passion and Pleasure
Consequences and Delusion
Dependency and Resentment
Money, Greed, and Class
Summary
Analysis
Laurent starts coming to the haberdashery every couple of days. He spends a somber half hour talking with Madame Raquin and avoids looking at Thérèse. Thankfully for him, Madame Raquin thinks he’s a hero for saving Thérèse and trying to help Camille. While Laurent is there one Thursday evening, Michaud, Grivet, Olivier, and Suzanne all arrive for the weekly gathering. They feel awkward about it but not necessarily enough to stay away—they like playing dominoes above the haberdashery each week. Laurent, for one, is thrilled that they’ve come, knowing that he’ll need to endear himself to Michaud, Grivet, and Olivier in order to marry Thérèse. For a brief moment, he and Thérèse make eye contact, and he’s relieved to feel that she still “belong[s]” to him.
Thérèse Raquin often presents its characters as if they’re merely acting on animalistic impulses. Laurent, of course, is an obvious example, since he behaves viciously simply to get what he wants. But Michaud, Grivet, Olivier, and Suzanne also behave in a certain animalistic way by sticking so closely to their mindless routine of coming to the Raquin household every Thursday for a game of dominoes—even after a terrible tragedy has taken over the household. In the same way that Laurent thinks only of his own satisfaction, then, Madame Raquin’s friends hold dearly to the fun they have playing dominoes each night, appearing to care more about that fun than about Camille’s death.
Themes
