In Therese Raquin by Emile Zola, Laurent and Therese murder Therese’s husband in order to be together. This passage was chosen because it is the start of Therese and Laurent’s guilt filled relationship. The couple is overcome with fear of being caught and their lives are ruined. This passage occurs when Therese and Laurent are in their bedroom the first night after getting married. The dominant effect of this passage is guilt that destroyed a relationship.
When somebody is overcome in guilt they will do anything to stay away from the pressure that that guilt puts on them. Laurent is illustrating this when he avoids facing Therese. After looking at each other for a while without saying anything, Laurent stands up. “To drive the memories away, Laurent violently subdued the horrified fascination that held him in the grasp of
Therese’s eyes and walked a few steps around the room” (Zola 115). Therese reminds Laurent of everything that happened and makes the later feel regret. By looking away from Therese, he is trying to ignore his guilt. In this passage Therese represents Laurent’s guilt. Laurent avoids looking at her which shows how he does not want to face his guilt. Therese avoided her guilt in a different manner than Laurent. Where Laurent talked about everything, Therese barely talked at all. After Therese announces that there was a drought coming from the door, Laurent starts talking about anything that he can think of. “The man quickly started to talk about the roses, the fire, anything he could see. The young woman made an effort, answering in monosyllables, so as not to let the conversation flag” (Zola 115). Therese, although avoiding silence altogether, is only answering in monosyllables, showing that she would rather avoid talking at all. Talking to Laurent brings back the murder and Therese does not want to think about it. By complying with Laurent’s need for conversation, despite her reluctance, she is showing that she does care, to some extent, for Laurent. Her wish of silence shows her reluctance to face her guilt, which she faces when talking to Laurent, is shown by answering his monologues with one word answers. Both members of the guilty couple are avoiding facing their guilt which eventually drives a wedge in between them.
The existence of guilt in a couple has the ability to drive a wedge between the two people so that they grow apart. This occurs between Laurent and Therese. Camille was killed because Laurent and Therese believed that they were in love. Once he was dead the guilt that they drowned in drove the two apart. This is evident at the beginning of the passage when they started remembering everything. Therese and Laurent are sitting next to each other across from a fire. “Once Camille’s ghost had been raised, he came to sit between the two newlyweds, opposite the blazing fire” (Zola 115). Camille’s death has had such an impact on Therese and Laurent that his ghost remains between them. The fire that Therese and Laurent are sitting across represents the guilt that the couple experiences. Camille is placed in between the spouses which represents his interference between the couple who were in love. His placement across from the fire represents the fact that he is the cause of their guilt. Laurent and Therese are sitting in a room which epitomizes their guilt. The separation between Laurent and Therese is made
clearer at the end of the passage when the couple was talking to each other. The couple was trying to distract themselves from the guilt that they felt and ended up talking small talk as though they were neighbors or had just met. “They had drawn away from one another, trying to forget who they were and to treat each other as strangers brought together by chance” (Zola 115). The distance that Laurent and Therese feel from each other is illuminated here. The guilt that they experienced from murdering Therese’s original spouse has caused the two to become indifferent and almost cold to each other. They were trying to forget that the only reason that they were together was because they had killed Camille and by speaking to each other like strangers, they show how his murder has impacted their relationship.
Guilt can cause people to experience unwelcome memories or illusions. Both Laurent and Therese experienced memories about killing Camille that was caused by their guilt of doing so. At the beginning of the passage, the couple felt Camille’s presence and it started an onslaught of memories of his murder. “Therese and Laurent could sense the cold, damp smell of the drowned man in the hot air that they breathed” (Zola 115). Even though Camille is dead and it is impossible for somebody to come back from the dead, Laurent and Therese are both imagining that he is, in fact, next to them. This thought is caused by their guilt. If not for their guilt, they would never have thought about him. Camille’s existence between the couple represents the guilt that will never leave. Another time where Laurent and Therese’s guilt brings them terrifying memories is when they start to remember everything about Camille’s murder. The couple did not want to move because they were scared what their guilt, represented by the illusion of Camille, would do to them. “And now the whole dreadful story of their crime unfolded in their minds. The victim’s name was enough to fill them with the past and force them to relive the horror of the killing” (Zola 115). The only reason that Laurent and Therese relived the murder of Therese’s previous husband was because of the presence of Camille, or their guilt. The guilt was so much that it has caused them to relive the murder numerous times previously in their dreams. But, now that the two are together, Therese and Laurent have to relive the memory again in painful detail. Being their first night together as a married couple, they feel extreme guilt over the fact that Camille is dead because they wanted to be together.
The dominant effect of this passage was guilt. Therese and Laurent felt huge amounts of guilt about the murder of Camille. The newly married couple avoided facing the guilt by trying to avoid any real discussion. Therese and Laurent were not as close as they had been before Camille’s death because of their guilt and the guilt brought back painful memories and caused them to imagine things. Laurent and Therese’s guilt about the murder was their eventual downfall.
