Zola goes on to describe the Passage du Pont-Neuf as “like some underground gallery dimly lit by three funeral lamps,” another allusion to Therese’s virtual imprisonment. Thrse, married to Camille, engages in a turbulent passion with his friend Laurent, an affair that eventually drives them to murder Camille.

It explores the lust, madness, and murder of Paris through the plot of a love affair. Just as the light is pale and flickering, Therese’s liveliness is repressed. Thrse Raquin is a renowned novel by the French writer mile Zola, first published in 1867.

The light that does appear is “only a pale glow falls on the pavement below in dim, flickering pools which sometimes disappear almost completely” (8), suggesting again the gloom that overwhelms any life or passion for Therese, who cannot live freely in her native Algeria. Madame Raquin is extremely afraid that when she dies her son Camille will end up alone, and she knows he cant survive by himself. Theyre a middle class family that lives of the interest from saved money. The sky is described as “black and coarsely rendered, as if covered with leprous sores and zigzagged with scars” (7), negative connotations that symbolizes Therese’s unhappy life, marked by her oppressive childhood and arranged marriage.The description of the sky as “covered with leprous sores and zigzagged with scars” is an allusion to the decay of Therese’s spirit and passion, and the emphasis on the sky’s darkness suggests Therese’s inability to escape her situation. The story is about madame Raquin and her morbid son Camille, and her adoptive daughter Thérèse. Zola starts the novel with the description of the Passage du Pont-Neuf in order to emphasize Therese’s imprisonment. The store Madame Raquin finds is in a depressing alleyway, but she doesn’t care because it was cheapso cheap that she hardly has to dip into her savings. In this way, she’s able to financially help Camille and Thrse while also keeping them in her life. Interestingly, Zola often uses his freedom with choice of setting to display Therese’s imprisonment within her life. Madame Raquin has sold her haberdashery but decides to open a new store in Paris. Emile Zola uses the setting within the novel Therese Raquin in order to deepen the meaning in the text, specifically focusing on the reoccurring imprisonment versus freedom theme.

Zolas raquin