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
On his way home after agreeing with Thérèse to get married, Laurent’s yearning for his lover feels reignited. But when he reaches his apartment, he feels inexplicably afraid. He doesn’t want to open the door and walk upstairs, so he goes to a nearby bar and drinks until it closes. He then has no choice but to go home, where he spends a sleepless night having the same waking nightmare over and over. It always starts with him rushing to Thérèse’s room to have sex, the thought of her burning him up with passion. But then, because the sheets grazed the scar from Camille’s bite when he was first going to bed, he suddenly thinks of Camille’s pale face. Each time he reaches Thérèse’s door in his nightmare, Camille’s corpse appears.
The resurgence of Laurent’s desire for Thérèse comes along with some complicated feelings. Until now, it has been possible for Laurent to more or less live his life without having to think much about the murder. Now that his passion for Thérèse has been reawakened, though, it stirs up disturbing thoughts about murdering Camille, suggesting that, even if Laurent doesn’t actively feel guilty for behaving so immorally, he’s still haunted by what he’s done.
Themes
Laurent doesn’t sleep at all that night. He can’t stop the cycle of desire and horror, his thoughts bouncing between Thérèse’s alluring beauty and the grotesque image of Camille’s corpse. He feels foolish in the morning, chastising himself for thinking such lurid thoughts and feeling comforted by the idea that sleeping next to Thérèse when they’re married will soothe him. But when he sees the bitemark in the mirror while getting dressed, he is once again flooded with fear. He has a terrible, exhausted day at work, and when he goes to the haberdashery that evening, Madame Raquin tells him Thérèse didn’t sleep well, either. Looking at each other, Laurent and Thérèse know they had the same troubles.
Camille’s death has finally come back to haunt both Laurent and Thérèse. Laurent soothes himself by thinking about how marrying Thérèse will help him sleep at night, but it seems unlikely that this is actually the case—after all, his reawakened passion for Thérèse is what suddenly brought on horrifying thoughts about Camille’s corpse, indicating that she vividly reminds him (and, in turn, that he reminds her) of what happened that day on the Seine. And yet, he clings to the idea that she will make his life better, since he has nothing else to make him feel better.
Themes
