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Chapter 20
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
The fireplace in Thérèse’s room is roaring when Laurent enters. They watch it without touching each other, and then Laurent stoops to kiss Thérèse’s shoulder, but she whips around and flinches. She looks at him with an expression of horror and disgust, so he just sits next to her. They haven’t made love for almost two years. They thought killing Camille would make it possible for them to have sex whenever they wanted, and that has proved to be true—now, though, they don’t want to have sex. Still, Laurent tries to talk about how they used to want so badly to be together, but he ends up saying Camille’s name, which stops him in the middle of his sentence, and both of them feel as if Camille’s ghost has suddenly entered the room.
From the very beginning of their marriage, it’s overwhelmingly apparent that Thérèse and Laurent will be unable to recapture the intense passion they used to have for each other. Even touching each other proves too disturbing, as made abundantly clear by Thérèse’s look of disgust when Laurent kisses her shoulder. Similarly, they can’t even speak Camille’s name without shuddering in pure horror—a good sign that they’re psychologically haunted by the memory of killing him.
Themes
Without speaking, Thérèse and Laurent go through the story of having killed Camille. They don’t need to talk—they each know exactly what the other is thinking. “We killed Camille,” they seem to say in their minds, “and his body is still here between us, turning our limbs to ice.” These horrifying thoughts continue throughout the night. At one point, Laurent asks for a kiss, hoping to distract himself and Thérèse from their terrifying thoughts, but Thérèse sees his bitemark scar and asks about it. When he tells her what it is, he suddenly burns for her to kiss it, forcing it down on her lips. But the kiss hurts him and makes him feel repulsed by his own aggression.
In a strange way, Laurent and Thérèse are still passionately linked with one another. Now, though, their connection isn’t based on sexual desire—it’s based on their shared sense of horror. Indeed, they’re so connected by this horror that they don’t even need to speak in order to communicate. Perhaps because he recognizes that they’re connected in this way, Laurent suddenly wants Thérèse to kiss the bitemark, as if this will somehow purge him of his fears. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth, since Thérèse’s touch just heightens the agony he feels.
Themes
Later in the night, Laurent jumps in fright because he thinks he has just seen Camille’s ghost. But it’s only the portrait that he himself painted. Madame Raquin was supposed to move it but must have forgotten, so the newlyweds decide to turn it around. Except neither of them can summon the courage to get near it. Worse, they hear a scratching noise that makes them recoil in fear, but it’s just François, the old cat. Laurent becomes convinced that Camille has inhabited the cat, so he quickly lets it out of the room. Despite all their fear, though, Laurent and Thérèse feel ridiculous the following morning. Laurent blames Thérèse for setting him off with her sullen looks, so he tells her to be “more cheerful” the following night.
The fact that Laurent and Thérèse are so afraid at night is an obvious indication that they haven’t moved on from killing Camille. Rather, they’re haunted by what they’ve done—of course, they’re not haunted by an actual ghostly version of Camille (despite Laurent’s fears about the cat), but by their own psychological misgivings. Laurent tries to blame his fear on Thérèse, hinting that he is beginning to resent her simply because he can’t deal with his own emotional torture.
Themes
