Therese Raquin characters

Appears from the start

A young woman raised by her aunt, Madame Raquin, and married to her sickly cousin Camille. She works in the family's dim haberdashery shop in the Passage du Pont-Neuf and has learned to conceal strong feelings beneath a passive exterior. Her outward obedience masks a deep resentment of the confined life chosen for her.

Appears from the start

Thérèse's aunt and Camille's devoted mother. After years of managing the family around her son's fragile health, she sells her country business and establishes a small shop in Paris. She sees the marriage between her niece and son as a natural arrangement that will keep all three of them secure.

Appears from the start

Madame Raquin's son and Thérèse's husband, a narrow-chested young man whose childhood illnesses have made his mother intensely protective. Self-satisfied and limited in outlook, he insists on moving to Paris to take an office job and assumes that his mother and wife will continue arranging life around him.

First appears in chapter 4

A former police commissioner and old friend of Madame Raquin. He attends the family's regular Thursday gatherings, where his confidence in his own experience and judgment gives him informal authority among the guests.

First appears in chapter 4

Michaud's son, a police employee who joins the Raquins' Thursday domino evenings. Conventional and confident in official routines, he comes with his quiet wife Suzanne.

First appears in chapter 4

Olivier's reserved wife and one of the Raquins' weekly guests. She develops a mild friendship with Thérèse within the repetitive, carefully ordered social life of the shop.

First appears in chapter 4

An older railway employee who attends the Raquins' Thursday gatherings. His predictable habits, limited conversation, and enthusiasm for dominoes make him part of the dull routine that Thérèse silently endures.

First appears in chapter 5

Camille's former schoolmate, now a large, idle young man employed as a clerk while imagining himself a painter. He begins visiting the Raquins after encountering Camille in Paris. His physical confidence and casual appetite immediately distinguish him from the constrained household.

Appears from the start

Madame Raquin's large striped cat, a familiar presence in the shop and apartment. François watches the household from its usual places and becomes an unsettling witness in the imaginations of its increasingly disturbed occupants.