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Laurent
Madame Raquin is an old woman who has lived outside of Paris for many years. After running a haberdashery, she sells the business and saves the profits, planning to live out her old age alongside her son, Camille, and her niece, Thérèse. Madame Raquin has devoted her life to Camille, who was constantly sick as a child. She also took in Thérèse and raised her alongside her son, but she always prioritizes Camille’s needs over all else, assuming Thérèse will help her ensure Camille’s happiness. She even arranges for Camille and Thérèse to get married, thinking the couple will live with her. Plans change, however, when Camille decides—in the aftermath of his marriage to Thérèse—to move to Paris. Madame Raquin is upset, but she decides to move with them and open a new haberdashery. She’s so attached to Camille that she doesn’t even entertain the idea of staying behind. Later, she’s utterly distraught when she learns that he has drowned, but she’s not suspicious of Laurent or Thérèse. To the contrary, she comes to see Laurent as a son of her own, since he makes a point of taking good care of her. After some initial hesitation, she even helps arrange Thérèse and Laurent’s marriage, thinking that—of all people—Laurent is the best person to take Camille’s place. As the newlyweds descend into despair, they depend on Madame Raquin’s presence, since they feel less afraid and guilty when they’re not alone. But then Madame Raquin has a medical event that leaves her paralyzed, at which point the newlyweds reveal in her presence that they killed Camille. Madame Raquin is thus forced to lead a miserable existence in which she has no choice but to live with the two people she hates most: her son’s murderers.
Madame Raquin Quotes in Thérèse Raquin
The Thérèse Raquin quotes below are all either spoken by Madame Raquin or refer to Madame Raquin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
By then Camille was twenty. His mother still treated him like a spoilt little boy. She adored him because she had struggled to keep him alive through a youth full of pain and sickness. The child had had every imaginable type of fever and illness, one after the other, and Madame Raquin had put up a fifteen-year fight against the sequence of fearful maladies which had threatened to snatch her son from her. She had overcome them all with her patience, care, and adoring devotion.
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Chapter 12
Quotes
He had decided to go there to cover himself in case anyone should suspect him, and to avoid having to break the dreadful news to Madame Raquin in person. That was something he felt peculiarly loath to do, for he fully expected her to be so grief-stricken that he would be unable to summon sufficient tears to act his own part credibly; moreover, he found the thought of her maternal anguish oppressive, although he didn’t really care about it otherwise.
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Chapter 27
Quotes
‘It’s perfectly clear, I can guess the whole sentence from the look in Madame’s eye. I don’t need things written out for me on a table, one glance from her is enough. What she meant to say is: “Thérèse and Laurent have taken good care of me.’”
Grivet had reason to feel pleased with his powers of imagination, because this time the whole company agreed with him. The guests began to sing the couple’s praises for having been so kind to the poor lady.
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Madame Raquin Quotes in Thérèse Raquin
The Thérèse Raquin quotes below are all either spoken by Madame Raquin or refer to Madame Raquin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
By then Camille was twenty. His mother still treated him like a spoilt little boy. She adored him because she had struggled to keep him alive through a youth full of pain and sickness. The child had had every imaginable type of fever and illness, one after the other, and Madame Raquin had put up a fifteen-year fight against the sequence of fearful maladies which had threatened to snatch her son from her. She had overcome them all with her patience, care, and adoring devotion.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12
Quotes
He had decided to go there to cover himself in case anyone should suspect him, and to avoid having to break the dreadful news to Madame Raquin in person. That was something he felt peculiarly loath to do, for he fully expected her to be so grief-stricken that he would be unable to summon sufficient tears to act his own part credibly; moreover, he found the thought of her maternal anguish oppressive, although he didn’t really care about it otherwise.
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Chapter 27
Quotes
‘It’s perfectly clear, I can guess the whole sentence from the look in Madame’s eye. I don’t need things written out for me on a table, one glance from her is enough. What she meant to say is: “Thérèse and Laurent have taken good care of me.’”
Grivet had reason to feel pleased with his powers of imagination, because this time the whole company agreed with him. The guests began to sing the couple’s praises for having been so kind to the poor lady.
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