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
No longer wasting her time apologizing to Madame Raquin, Thérèse starts going out multiple times a week. Laurent decides to follow her one day, terrified that she’s going to the police station to confess. In the end, he’s surprised to see her meet up with some bohemian people at a bar and then walk away with a younger man, going up to his apartment and embracing him. Laurent isn’t mad that Thérèse is having an affair. In fact, he thinks it’s a great idea and can’t believe he didn’t think to do the very same thing. He therefore decides to ask for money from his wife so he can entertain women and pay sex workers to sleep with him.
There’s such a lack of romance in Thérèse and Laurent’s relationship that Laurent doesn’t even care when he discovers that she’s having an affair. Rather, he’s actually pleased to make this discovery, since it leads him to the realization that he could be doing the same thing. He thus decides to seek comfort in the one thing that never failed to bring him joy in the days before he killed Camille: sex.
Themes
When Laurent asks for money, he doesn’t say what it’s for. Thérèse refuses to give him anything, vowing to never let him have any of her savings. They then have such a heated argument that Laurent declares once and for all that he’s going to the police station to turn them in. To his surprise, she agrees. They both march downstairs, intending to make their way to the station, but they stop at the front door. Thérèse admits that it’s pointless to argue about money and agrees to give Laurent the cash he wants. Pleased, Laurent goes out as soon as he receives the money, but he doesn’t find any relief in having sex—nothing brings him pleasure anymore.
Laurent thinks he can’t successfully entertain a new lover without first securing some money. Yet again, he sees money as a means of attaining a happier lifestyle. Although he doesn’t care about wealth in and of itself (like Camille did), he does imbue it with a certain power—that is, the power to bring him happiness and pleasure. He’s so motivated to get money from Thérèse that he even threatens to turn them in when she refuses to give him what he wants, indicating once again that they both have an unhealthy amount of power over each other. Unsurprisingly, though, when Laurent finally does manage to convince Thérèse to pay him, he discovers that sex no longer brings him pleasure. Murdering Camille has therefore completely ruined his ability to enjoy life.
Themes
Like Laurent, Thérèse finds no pleasure in having sex, so she stops leaving the shop quite as much. They both stick to the apartment, feeling imprisoned and chained to one another. They continue their vicious fighting and soon come to fear each other, since they often threaten to confess their crime. It becomes quite common for them to say they’re going to the police—they even go as far as the police station’s front door multiple times, but they always back down.
Thérèse and Laurent can’t help but exploit the power they each have over the other. It’s obvious that neither of them will confess to the police, but the mere possibility that they might keeps them both in a constant state of fear. Although their miserable relationship gives them something to distract themselves with, then, it also exacerbates their paranoia.
Themes
After living in misery for so long, Thérèse and Laurent each hatch a plan to kill the other. They hope getting rid of their spouse will solve their problems. Laurent runs into an old friend who works in a laboratory, and this friend tells him about a fatal poison he has been working with. Laurent later pays the friend a visit and, when he’s not looking, steals a bottle of the poison. Meanwhile, Thérèse sharpens a long knife and hides it in a convenient place in the kitchen.
Because they torment each other so much, Laurent and Thérèse seem to think that killing each other will help them move on from murdering Camille. The logic behind this thinking isn’t very good, since it’s unlikely that committing yet another murder will help them forget about the first one. But they seem to think it’s impossible to go on living with the knowledge that somebody else in the world is aware of what really happened to Camille, which is most likely why they don’t just decide to leave each other—they would always fear that the other might turn them in. The novel thus shows how one heinous act can lead to another, as both Laurent and Thérèse justify committing another murder to cover up the first one.
Themes
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