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
Thérèse starts responding to her own misery in a different way. Instead of acting like Camille’s memory doesn’t haunt her, she tries to show remorse for what she’s done. She acts as if she loved Camille, saying nice things about him and begging for forgiveness. She even cries to Madame Raquin, apologizing for killing Camille and asking the old woman to forgive her. After a while, she begins to believe what she’s saying, which makes her feel a little better about herself. She therefore makes a habit of showing her atonement to Madame Raquin. All the while, her crying pains the old woman, who easily recognizes that Thérèse just wants to make herself feel better.
Thérèse’s behavior toward Madame Raquin is yet another sign of just how selfish she is. It’s obvious that Madame Raquin wouldn’t want one of her son’s killers coming to her for forgiveness. Because the old woman can’t object, though, she has no choice but to endure Thérèse’s crying fits, which are clearly just self-interested attempts to absolve herself of her terrible crime.
Themes
Thérèse manages to delude herself into thinking Madame Raquin has forgiven her. Meanwhile, Laurent chastises Thérèse for always crying to Madame Raquin, thinking that she’s only doing it to bother him. He doesn’t like seeing her express remorse, worrying that she might end up turning them in. But she doesn’t listen to him when he tells her to stop—to the contrary, she adopts an air of superiority and encourages him to acknowledge his own wrongdoing. He needs, she says, to repent. He hates it when she says such things, but he secretly wishes he could feel remorseful, since it might help him. Because he can’t figure out how to express regret, though, he instead beats Thérèse.
Laurent’s guiltless attitude comes to the forefront of the novel when Thérèse tries to get him to repent. The fact that he’s unable to feel remorse once again suggests that he’s only interested in himself—in fact, he even sees remorse as a potential way of making himself feel better, further emphasizing his self-interested motivations. The idea that he doesn’t feel guilty but is still quite miserable is interesting, underlining the novel’s notion that it’s possible to suffer as a result of a bad deed without actually regretting that deed from a moral standpoint.
Themes
