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
Fifteen months pass, and life returns to its boring monotony. Laurent visits the haberdashery often, but he and Thérèse don’t try to see each other in private. For now, at least, the intensity of the murder has snuffed out their passion—killing Camille strangely satisfied their powerful yearnings for each other. In fact, committing the crime was almost satisfying enough to render their sexual connection insignificant in comparison. They even go so far as to avoid spending time alone, and whenever they shake hands in public, the touch of each other’s skin makes them feel a little sick.
Laurent and Thérèse murdered Camille so they could be together, but now they’re not very interested in spending time with one another. The obvious reason for this change of heart is that they remind each other of their own gruesome behavior. What’s more, the murder was so emotionally intense that it oddly seems to have satisfied them in ways that are similar to how sex satisfied them. Considering that Laurent conflates passion and aggression, it’s not all that surprising that killing Camille gave him a certain rush that resembles the rush he used to experience while sleeping with Thérèse.
Themes
Despite their slight revulsion toward each other, Thérèse and Laurent convince themselves that they wanted their passion to fade in this way. They insist to themselves that they still love each other just as much as they did before killing Camille, making abstract plans to get married at some undetermined point in the future. During this period, Thérèse feels at ease and picks up reading, enjoying the feeling of immersing herself in a book. She even falls in love with a young student for a little while, though he eventually moves away. Every once in a while, she thinks about Laurent with a combination of yearning and fear.
The murder has driven Thérèse and Laurent apart. Although her attraction to Laurent originally fulfilled her longstanding desire for a more exciting life, Thérèse no longer sees him in this light—rather, she sees him as a reminder of her own immoral decision to kill Camille. It makes sense, then, that she seeks out some other escape from her life, ultimately finding that escape in reading. The sad thing, of course, is that she could have easily found joy and freedom in reading before embracing adultery and murder.
Themes
Reading novels shows Thérèse what it means to live a life of “kindness and gentleness.” It also shows her that it’s perfectly possible to find happiness “without killing one’s husband.” Meanwhile, Laurent feels mostly at peace, though sometimes he suddenly fears the prospect of someone finding out what he and Thérèse did. He didn’t think much about the possible consequences when he was planning the murder—a detail that bothers him now, as he realizes just how much his passion for Thérèse kept him from thinking rationally. He blames Thérèse herself for his lack of control, chastising her in his head for making him “intoxicated” with lust.
Thérèse feels some slight regret about killing Camille, as she realizes that doing so was an extremely excessive way of dealing with a fairly common kind of unhappiness—she could have just found pleasure in reading instead of seeking it out in a murderous man who would help her hatch a plot to kill Camille! Funnily enough, even Laurent questions the original decision to kill Camille, realizing that his judgment was clouded by the intense passion he felt for Thérèse. Now that his passion has cooled, it’s hard for him to wrap his head around why he would have been willing to commit such a serious crime.
Themes
Laurent continues to fret over the possibility of being arrested and executed for murdering Camille, but he also slips into a life of laziness and monotony. He thinks every once in a while about marrying Thérèse at some point, but he’s in no rush. While visiting an old painter friend one day, he meets a beautiful young model. She comes back to his apartment and has sex with him, beginning an affair that pleases Laurent without making him feel guilty for betraying Thérèse—something he doesn’t even really consider.
The spark in Laurent and Thérèse’s relationship is all but nonexistent. In fact, they’re so uninterested in each other that they both pursue other people: Thérèse falls in love with a young student, and Laurent takes a young model as his new lover. Considering that their original feelings for one another were so strong, the fact that they’re now so indifferent about their relationship illustrates that even the most intense passion can fade.
Themes
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While Laurent enjoys having a new lover, Thérèse stops wearing black mourning clothes. But Laurent feels uncomfortable around her. He’s perfectly content right now, so why change anything? But then he remembers that it has been 15 months since they killed Camille. It would be pointless—and even “abhorrent”—to have murdered him for no reason. Plus, it might be unwise to offend Thérèse by choosing another lover over her, since she might retaliate by telling everyone what really happened. In any case, the matter soon becomes a moot point, since the model leaves Laurent.
There’s a certain sense of obligation at play in Laurent and Thérèse’s failing relationship, as Laurent feels like they have to follow through with their original plan to get married. Even if he doesn’t feel all that guilty about murdering Camille, he still thinks it would be a waste to have committed such a heinous act for no reason. Furthermore, his worry that Thérèse might confess if he doesn’t marry her hints at a new tension in their relationship, as it becomes clear that they each have power over the other: they can, after all, come clean at any moment, a fact they could both use to manipulate each other if necessary.
Themes
Laurent goes back to the haberdashery and asks Thérèse one night if he should sneak into her room. She gives him a terrified look and says they have to be careful, but he says he’s waited long enough. After a moment, she says they should get married—then she will be his.
At last, Laurent and Thérèse agree to get married. But this is not a particularly romantic moment. The only reason Laurent wants to sleep with Thérèse, it seems, is because his other lover left him, so he has nobody to help him satisfy his sexual cravings. He also thinks he has a certain responsibility to follow through with the original plan by marrying Thérèse—an idea that isn’t an especially romantic sentiment. Similarly, Thérèse seems completely unenthused by the idea of marrying Laurent. Even though she’s the one to suggest that they get married, it seems as if she only does so as a way of putting off having to sleep with him.
Themes
