Manipulation of Setting in ‘Therese Raquin’ by Emile Zola

Setting is a very important element in a story; this is what helps a story to be better understood by the readers. For some authors, the setting is used to convey a particular message and it can be effectively manipulated to suit this function. The mood of a story can be in influenced by the setting depending on how it is used and this is what happens in ‘Therese Raquin’. In this story, Emile Zola, uses setting as an element through which important scenes in the story are intensified. He uses the concept of naturalism to define the characters and show their development through setting. Setting is used in this story repetitively to help show the development of the main characters basing their experiences on the themes of the story as it progresses.

Naturalism in the story is explored through the use of personalities, where Zola assigns certain personalities to his characters to try and establish inter-character relations in the plot. Laurent for instance is associated with sanguine where he is described as handsome and full blooded; Therese is associated with misery while Camille is associated with unemotional qualities. Using this device helps Zola to add a certain amount of reality and human nature to the plot which is an essential aspect to the naturalism genre (Knutson, 2001). Naturalists such as Darwin argue that human beings just act as a response to the environmental forces around them. Human beings are basically driven by desires such as sex, terror and hunger; all this are things that they cannot regulate or even comprehend (Knutson, 2001). In the story, all these features occur throughout the story and they become predominant in the sexual connotations of the affair between Therese and Laurent.

Some of the settings that are repeatedly mentioned include ‘Thursday evenings’ and ‘the room where Theresa sleeps’ which all help in promoting the development of the themes and the characters in the story. The gatherings that happen on Thursday evenings are also used symbolically to help show how the characters continue to develop as the story progresses. During the first Thursday evening, Madam Raquin is introduced to the readers as being the entertainment for the guests, while Therese is brought out as someone uninterested in the happenings of the evenings (Zola, p. 23). This first Thursday evening places Madam Raquin and Therese at odds, where Raquin is portrayed as an extrovert while Therese is portrayed as an introvert. Therese has no desire or interest to be a part of the meetings and this firsts meeting helps to show how her introvert character changes with time and how she develops as a character with the basis of her behaviours during the Thursday meetings.

The character of Therese develop and changes in the later Thursday evenings most especially after Laurent starts to come for the meetings. At the beginning, all that Theresa does during the meetings is observing silently preferring to let her thoughts wonder and remember her relations with Laurent. These scenes are used by Zola to help develop the theme of deception. Theresa’s outward appearance of order and introversion is used to hide her inner mockery of the society around her. Zola uses this scene to develop Theresa’s character as a melancholic character, where instead of participating in events on the activities that are happening within her; she preferred to reflect on her personal thoughts.

The bedroom when the story begins is described as a cold place where Therese and her sickly husband share. The coldness of the bedroom is a description of Therese’s life which is cold, boring and sad. She is a character that is forced to live with her aunt Raquin and forced to marry her sickly cousin. She has to pretend to be contented with the life that she is living, though deep down she feels sad and regretful. The bedroom is used by Zola as a setting element that changes with the progress of the novel. When Therese meets Laurent, she begins to have an affair with him and the cold bedroom changes and becomes her source of happiness. Her hate for the bedroom stops and she starts enjoying the look of this room which she sees as the source of new found happiness. This shows a development in Theresa’s character, where she now stops being the sad self-absorbed individual that is presented at the beginning of the story and becomes more jovial and open as the story progresses. Naturalism is presented where; the taste of happiness changes the personality of Therese. She is no longer scared of narrating her sad life to Laurent and openly proclaiming her hatred for Raquin and Camille (Zola, p. 37)

Madam Raquin at the beginning of the story is brought out as a strong, outspoken deviance character. Her character however changes as the story progresses where she becomes paralysed and she is no longer able to entertain guests during Thursday meetings. The strong woman that was introduced at the beginning of the story is reduced to a sad, self-absorbed person, who has to depend on other people like Therese and Laurent to help her go on with her daily activities. At the last Thursday meeting, she acknowledges that her guests were really empty headed, because they are not able to help her expose the Laurent and Therese as murderers (Zola. p. 53).

 Every day that Therese spends with Laurent in her bedroom, changes her personality and helps her to become stronger and open to her hatred of Raquin who does not give her a chance for a better life. Therese changes her attitude from being the soft, humble woman that is presented at the beginning of the story. She adopts a more reckless attitude where she is not afraid and actually enjoys having an affair with Laurent and deceiving Raquin. Thursday evenings change for her, while at the beginning of the story they were the most dreaded days of her life. They now become more fun because they become her love sessions with Laurent, something that makes very happy.

Manipulation of setting to show to develop characters in the story is further illustrated when Theresa and Laurent are no longer able to meet at the bedroom, which is what helps their affair to grow. This is a room that has become a source of inspiration for Theresa and anything that deters her love sessions with Laurent becomes a threat to her new found happiness. Theresa at this point feels superior to all her previous fears and she is not scared of murder. At this point of the story, Theresa is portrayed as a character that has gotten over past scares and will do anything to keep her present happiness. She encourages and goes ahead with the Laurent’s plan to kill Camille just so that they can be together. Naturalism is also portrayed here where Laurent and Therese’s desire to be together forces them to develop some hatred feelings for Camille and even ends up committing murder. The idea and thought of eliminating Camille, her childhood companion who is now her husband just to keep her affair with Laurent excites her (Zola, p. 70). She is not scared to be an accessory to murder and she does not even try to stop Laurent when he drowns Camille.

The development of Theresa’s character throughout the story is viewed through the change of setting both in the bedroom and also during the Thursday meetings. The humble, sad, self-absorbed Theresa that is introduced at the beginning of the story changes to become a wild, brave woman that is not scared to express her feelings and fight for what she wants at the end of the story. This is in contrast from the character of Raquin who at the beginning of the story is brought out as an outspoken brave woman. However, the event of the story most especially the death of her son changes her reducing her to a sickly mute character that cannot defend herself. 

 

Works Cited

Zola, Émile, and Nicholas Wright. Thérèse Raquin: A Play by Émile Zola. England: Nick

            Hern Books, 2006. Print.

Knutson, E. M. (2001). The Natural and the Supernatural in Zola’s Thérèse Raquin.

            Symposium, 55(3), 140. https://doi.org/10.1080/00397700109598538