Thérèse Raquin

Eight months later, Laurent’s boss tells him that he’ll be fired if he ever leaves work again—he has, his boss says, been taking too many liberties. He’s depressed for the rest of the day and can sense later that night that Thérèse is angry at him over dinner. At the end of the evening, he finds a brief moment to tell her that they won’t be able to see each other anymore because of what his boss said. That night, Thérèse is distraught and becomes determined to find a new way to continue their affair, but no ideas come to mind. For the next month, the only time they see each other is in the presence of others.

The problem with the affair’s abrupt end is that Laurent has come to rely on the satisfaction he derives from his relationship with Thérèse. He realizes that he’s completely in love with her, though the idea of feeling so strongly for a woman would have been absurd to him just a year ago. Now, though, he can’t even think straight. He feels so desirous of Thérèse that he even worries he’ll do something brash, feeling as if he literally needs her in order to go on living.

Thankfully for Laurent, he soon receives a letter from Thérèse, who tells him to stay at home that night. She makes up a story to Camille and Madame Raquin about needing to collect a customer’s forgotten payment, and though they think this is unnecessary, they don’t object. She thus has the opportunity to make her way to Laurent’s apartment, where they make love for a long time. Suddenly, though, the clock strikes 10 and Thérèse realizes she has to go. Laurent wishes she could stay, but she says she can’t—in fact, she won’t ever be able to sneak out like this again.

Both Laurent and Thérèse are so distraught about the idea of never having sex again that they start complaining about Camille—if it weren’t for him, they would be able to do whatever they pleased. Laurent asks if there’s some kind of trip Thérèse could send Camille on, just to get him out of the way for a while. Thérèse says this is impossible, since there aren’t any trips that would be long enough to make a difference; there is, after all, only one kind of “journey” from which people never return. Both lovers then speak yearningly about how convenient it would be if Camille were to die. Before they know it, they’re talking about how it’s sometimes possible to murder someone in subtle ways—in ways that make the death look like an accident.

Laurent brings the conversation to a close by assuring Thérèse that they will soon be happy together. He is going to figure everything out, but it might mean staying away from each other for a little while—all he wants, he says, is for her to know that he’s working on a plan to make it possible for them to be together. She promises that she will be patient and that she “belong[s]” to him, and then she takes her leave.

That night, Laurent lies awake thinking passionately about Thérèse and realizing, without any apparent sense of shame, that desire and love have driven him to plan a murder. Except for the possibility of getting caught, the idea seems perfect: killing Camille would let him marry Thérèse and inherit Madame Raquin’s money, making it possible for him to retire and live the “lazy life” he has always wanted.