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
A week after the wedding, Camille decides that he and Thérèse must move to Paris. Madame Raquin is distraught. She already planned to grow old in their house on the Seine and hasn’t accounted for the drastic change that will surely come about if Camille moves away. But Camille whines and threatens to make himself sick if she doesn’t go along with the idea, so she relents. She decides to return to the haberdashery business, opening a small shop in Paris, where she and Thérèse can work while Camille does whatever he wants—walk around Paris, for instance, or maybe find a job.
Madame Raquin continues to spoil Camille. This time, though, she sacrifices her own vision for the rest of her life in order to please her son. She decides to go back into the haberdashery business at an old age—just so that her impulsive, selfish son can stroll around Paris. She is, it seems, unable to refuse her son. And though she could stay behind while Camille and Thérèse go to Paris, she’s so attached to Camille that this thought doesn’t even seem to enter her mind, thus illustrating the ways in which emotional dependency can interfere with a person’s ability to make informed decisions.
Themes
Camille is intent on finding a job in Paris. He’s obsessed with the idea of working for a large company, coveting the image of himself sitting at a desk with a fancy pen behind his ear. Madame Raquin goes along with his fantasy, and nobody asks Thérèse what she thinks—they’re so accustomed to her docile obedience that it never occurs to them to ask for her opinion.
Camille’s vision of himself sitting at work with a nice pen behind his ear reveals his superficiality—he’s only interested in finding a job because he wants to seem important. Unsurprisingly, Madame Raquin completely indulges his vanity in this regard, indicating that she, too, has overinflated ideas about social status and the respectability that comes along with working in an office.
Themes
Madame Raquin goes to Paris and finds a shop in the dingy corridor known as Passage du Pont-Neuf. It’s old and grimy, but she gets it for a good price—so good, in fact, that she knows that, between the profits of the haberdashery business and Camille’s job, they’ll be able to sustain themselves without dipping into her pension, thus leaving a healthy inheritance for future grandchildren. Excited by such an idea, she leaves Paris with a romanticized idea of the shop, returning to Camille and Thérèse with great things to say about the little store.
Madame Raquin idealizes the depressing little shop because it was cheap, thus allowing her to fantasize about saving money and, in that way, achieving a respectable level of financial security. Even though the store she buys is bleak and unimpressive, then, she allows an obsession with money to cloud her judgment, ultimately overlooking reality in favor of a fantasy about wealth.
Themes
When Thérèse, Camille, and Madame Raquin move into the shop, Thérèse is dismayed. It’s nothing like Madame Raquin said. She especially hates the depressing apartment above the store, but Camille doesn’t care. He says they’ll hardly spend any time in the apartment anyway. During the days, he claims, he’ll be off at work while Madame Raquin and Thérèse keep each other company in the shop. In truth, though, he never would accept such terrible accommodations if he weren’t so set on working in a nice office somewhere in the city. Madame Raquin, for her part, is surprised by Thérèse’s immediate resignation to their new reality. Whenever Madame Raquin suggests something that might improve the space, Thérèse shrugs it off, saying they don’t need “luxuries.”
The fact that Madame Raquin is surprised about how quickly Thérèse accepts her new life indicates that Madame Raquin herself is still quite aware that the store is depressing and unimpressive. Nonetheless, though, she doesn’t say anything because she has already decided to prioritize Camille’s desire to live in Paris over her own happiness in old age. Thérèse, for her part, doesn’t object to their new circumstances because she has already learned how to be passive and acquiescent—she has, after all, practiced repressing her own desires for her entire life, always yielding to whatever Camille (and, thus, Madame Raquin) wants.
Themes
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It takes Camille a month to find a job. He spends his days walking through Paris, actively avoiding the depressing haberdashery. Finally, he finds an office job at the Orleans Railway and is delighted to spend the vast majority of his time there. He even walks home leisurely, looking at the various landmarks in Paris. When he’s not working, he spends his time reading thick history books, thinking he’s vastly expanding his intelligence. He tries to get Thérèse to take an interest in these books, but she doesn’t care about them—she’d rather sit completely still and let her mind drift, dedicating herself to the task of becoming a completely “passive instrument.” Three years pass like this, with Thérèse feeling like her life will continue in this joyless way forever.
Camille thinks of himself as superior to Thérèse simply because he has an office job and reads large books. But these aren’t very good measures of actual intelligence or personal worth. Rather, they simply indicate that Camille is obsessed with the idea of seeming like a respectable, wealthy gentleman. Thérèse, on the other hand, has no delusions about what her life is really like: she knows she’s unhappy, but she’s accustomed to ignoring her own discontent and becoming a “passive instrument” in the lives of the people around her—something that will soon change when she suddenly feels the first stirrings of real passion.
Themes
