Thérèse Raquin

Laurent and Thérèse feel as if their secret relationship is “inevitable,” like it’s already been going on for a long time. But they still have to be careful about how they meet. Since Thérèse can’t leave the shop during the day, Laurent makes up excuses to step away from work for a few hours each day. He then sneaks through an alleyway and up a small outdoor staircase that leads to the Raquins’ backdoor, which opens into Thérèse’s bedroom. Thérèse simply makes an excuse to go upstairs, leaving Madame Raquin in the shop while she goes to meet her lover. Whenever Laurent makes his way to the apartment, he’s overcome with desire, and when he sees Thérèse, her beauty and passionate expression dazzle him.

Thérèse throws herself into her and Laurent’s sexual relationship. She revels in his strong, powerful body, feeling as if she has been jolted alive by something primal and raw. She’s so passionate when they embrace that Laurent starts to worry—he has never had such intense romantic embraces. When he leaves for the day, he stumbles into the street as if drunk. Sometimes, he tries to keep himself from going to visit her, but then he loses his willpower and rushes over. Although he had reservations about the relationship, he can’t help but give himself over to it. 

Thérèse tells Laurent at one point about her past, complaining about how miserable it was to grow up sleeping in the same bed as the sickly Camille. Sometimes she even had to take the same medicine as him, just to encourage him to swallow it. She admits that she doesn’t wish ill on the Raquins, but she hated growing up with them and is now eager for a life of freedom and enjoyment. The pleasure she has with Laurent, she believes, is like taking revenge on the Raquins for forcing her to lead such a dull, dreary life. She resents them for making her into a “passive,” hesitating person who has settled into a meaningless existence of comfort and tedium.

Thérèse says she loves Laurent, though she doesn’t know how, exactly, that happened. When she first saw him, it was almost as if she hated him—his presence unnerved her and made her suffer. But her suffering was just a form of passion, and all she wanted was for him to embrace her. After she says this to Laurent, they fervently make love. Every time he comes over, in fact, they make love with alarming intensity, as if their caresses are “violent.” He begins to worry that Thérèse will yell out too loudly in pleasure, but she isn’t afraid, insisting that Madame Raquin is oblivious. Sure enough, when Madame Raquin comes upstairs one day, all Thérèse has to do is throw some clothes over Laurent and claim to be sick, and Madame Raquin politely goes away.

One day, Laurent is unsettled by François, the Raquin family cat. François stares at him and Thérèse, but Thérèse makes a joke of it, imagining what it would be like if François could talk—he’d surely tell Camille everything that goes on in the bedroom, saying that Thérèse and Laurent do all sorts of “naughty things.” She laughs, but Laurent is uncomfortable. Feeling afraid but not wanting to show it, he picks up the cat and puts it out of the room.