Previous
The Bitemark Scar
Laurent’s habit of visiting the morgue comes to represent the ways in which murdering Camille causes him to lead a depressing, grotesque life. In the weeks after killing his friend, he goes to the morgue every morning to look for Camille’s body. The task involves walking through rows and rows of dead bodies and examining all of the drowning victims at great length—a gruesome endeavor that gives Laurent terrible nightmares. At the same time, though, Laurent also seems to get a perverse thrill out of looking at some of the corpses, taking special note of the nude female bodies, which fill him with a strange feeling of “fearful lust.” His trips to the morgue thus take on an even more disturbing quality, suggesting that Laurent has conflated death and violence with sexual arousal. More broadly, though, the fact that he goes to the morgue so much is symbolic of the unsettling trajectory his life has taken in the aftermath of the murder, as he finds himself surrounded by death and unable to stop obsessively thinking about it at all times.
The Morgue Quotes in Thérèse Raquin
The Thérèse Raquin quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Morgue. 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 13
Quotes
His visits to the Morgue gave him nightmares and fits of shuddering which left him panting for breath. He shook off his fears and told himself not to act like a child; he wanted to be strong, but, despite himself, his body refused, and his whole being was overcome by revulsion and horror as soon as he found himself in the damp, sickly-smelling atmosphere of the mortuary.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Thérèse Raquin LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Morgue Symbol Timeline in Thérèse Raquin
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Morgue appears in Thérèse Raquin. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 13
...Camille was dead, he’s unsettled by the lack of closure, so he starts going to the morgue every day before work. It’s a terrible routine, since he has to carefully study the...
(full context)
Just when he can take the nightmares about the morgue no longer, Laurent tells himself he’ll only go twice more—and then he finds Camille. His...
(full context)
