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Thérèse Raquin
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Thérèse Raquin is the title of a novel (first published in 1867) and a play (first performed in 1873) by the French writer Émile Zola. The novel was originally published in serial format in the journal L'Artiste and in book format in December of the same year.
hérèse Raquin tells the story of a young woman, unhappily married to her first cousin by a well-intentioned and overbearing aunt.
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Encyclopedia
Thérèse Raquin is the title of a novel (first published in 1867) and a play (first performed in 1873) by the French writer Émile Zola. The novel was originally published in serial format in the journal L'Artiste and in book format in December of the same year.
Plot introduction
Thérèse Raquin tells the story of a young woman, unhappily married to her first cousin by a well-intentioned and overbearing aunt. Her cousin, Camille, is sickly and selfish, and when the opportunity arises, Thérèse enters into a tragic affair with one of Camille's friends, Laurent.
In his preface, Zola explains that his goal in this novel was to "study temperaments and not characters" and he compares the novel to a scientific study. Because of this detached and scientific approach, Thérèse Raquin is considered an example of Naturalism.
Plot summary
Thérèse Raquin is the daughter of a French captain and an Algerian mother. After the death of her mother, her father brings her to live with her aunt, Madame Raquin, and her sickly son, Camille. Because her son is so ill, Madame Raquin dotes on Camille to the point where he is selfish and spoiled. Camille and Thérèse grow up side-by-side, and Madame Raquin marries them together when Thérèse is 21. Shortly thereafter, Camille decides that the family should move to Paris so he can pursue a career.
Thérèse and Madame Raquin set up shop in the Passage du Pont Neuf to support Camille while he searches for a job. Camille eventually begins working for the Orléans Railroad Company, where he meets up with a childhood friend, Laurent. Laurent visits the Raquins and decides to take up an affair with the lonely Thérèse, mostly because he cannot afford prostitutes anymore. However, this soon turns into a torrid love affair.
Thérèse and Laurent conspire to drown Camille while out on a boat trip. This enables them to marry, but their guilt comes between them. They imagine they see the dead man in their bedroom every night, preventing them from touching each other and quickly driving them insane. Laurent, who is an artist, cannot paint a picture (even a landscape) which does not in some way resemble the dead man. They also have to look after Madame Raquin, who suffered a stroke after Camille's death. Madame Raquin suffers a second stroke and becomes completely paralyzed except for her eyes (as in locked-in syndrome).
During an evening's game of dominoes with friends (an attempt to keep up a facade of normality) she manages to move her finger with an extreme effort of will to trace words on the table: "Thérèse et Laurent ont t..." The complete sentence was intended to be "Thérèse et Laurent ont tué Camille" (Thérèse and Laurent killed Camille). At this point her strength gives out, and the words are interpreted as "Thérèse and Laurent look after me very well".
Eventually, Thérèse and Laurent find life together intolerable and plot to kill each other. At the climax of the novel, the two are about to kill one another when Therese breaks down and admits that she was about to kill Laurent with a table knife, and he admits that he has bought poison. They embrace passionately one last time, then both commit suicide by taking the poison.
Characters in "Thérèse Raquin"
- Thérèse Raquin - the eponymous heroine, she is the orphaned daughter of Madame Raquin's brother and an unknown Algerian woman
- Camille Raquin - Thérèse's husband and first cousin.
- Madame Raquin - Camille's mother and Thérèse's aunt. She works as a shopkeeper to support her son.
- Laurent - a childhood friend and coworker of Camille who seduces Thérèse
- Michaud - the police commissioner and friend of Madame Raquin
- Olivier - Michaud's son who works at the police prefecture
- Suzanne - Olivier's wife
- Grivet - an elderly employee of the Orléans Railroad Company, where Camille works
- François - the Raquins' cat
Major themes
Temperaments
In his preface to the second edition, Zola writes that he intended to "study temperaments and not characters." To his main characters, he assigns various humors according to Galen's four Temperaments: Thérèse is choleric, Laurent is sanguine, and Camille is phlegmatic. For Zola, the interactions of these types of personalities could only have the result that plays out in his plot.
Human beast
Also in his preface, Zola calls both Thérèse and Laurent "human brutes," and the characters are often given animalistic tendencies. Zola would take up this idea again in his La Bête humaine of 1890.
Mechanical man
Similar to the human beast who acts based on instinct, the mechanical man acts like an "unthinking machine."
Literary significance and reception
Thérèse Raquin is generally considered to be Zola's first major work.
Upon its release in 1867, Thérèse Raquin was a commercial and artistic success for Zola; enough so that it was reprinted in book form in 1868. It gained additional publicity when critic Louis Ulbach (pen name: Ferragus) called Thérèse Raquin "putrid" in a long diatribe, upon which Zola capitalized for publicity and to which he referred in his preface to the second edition.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Zola adapted the novel into a play which was first staged in 1873. The play did not receive its London première until 1891, under the auspices of the Independent Theatre Society—as the Lord Chamberlain's Office refused to licence the play.
Recent stage productions include:
The novel was made into several films, including:
An opera based on the novel has been written by the composer Michael Finnissy.
Another opera Thérèse Raquin by Tobias Picker opened in 2000.
The novel was also made into a Broadway musical entitled Thou Shalt Not, with music composition by Harry Connick, Jr..
The novel (rewritten in the style of James M. Cain) was the basis of the play "The Artificial Jungle" by Charles Ludlam.
Neal Bell adapted the novel into a play under the same title. The following represents a short production history of Bell's play. It was first produced at New York University by Playwrights Horizons Theatre School on December 3, 1991, directed by Edward Elefterion, with Katie Bainbridge as the title role. Its first professional production was at the Williamstown Theatre Festival on June 30, 1993, directed by Michael Greif, with Lynn Hawley as Thérèse. On July 10, 1994, Michael Greif, in conjunction with La Jolla Playhouse in California, put up the West Coast premiere with Paul Giamatti in the role of Camille. Its professional New York premiere was on October 27, 1997, at the Classic Stage Company, directed by David Esbjornson, with Elizabeth Marvel as Thérèse Raquin.
Publication history
- 1867, France, Lacroix Dec 1867, hardback
Sources, references, external links, quotations
External links
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