How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
In a word, I wanted only one thing: given a powerful man and a dissatisfied woman, to search out the beast in them, and nothing but the beast, plunge them into a violent drama and meticulously note the feelings and actions of these two beings. (Preface, 5)
In the Preface, Zola states that the goal of his novel is to put a dissatisfied woman into contact with a sexually powerful man, in order to examine what happens next. He's really acting like he's mixing two chemicals together, and then watching them explode. (All while taking exhausting notes.)
Quote #2
She preferred to remain idle, staring, her thoughts vaguely wandering. Meanwhile, she remained even-tempered and easygoing; all her will was bent on the effort to make herself into a passive instrument, supremely compliant and self-denying. (3.23)
At the beginning of the novel, Thérèse is extremely unhappy with her dull life. She languishes away in a constant state of passivity, hiding her true feelings deep inside of her. Until she meets Laurent, that is. Spark, meet fuel. Boom.
Quote #3
Thérèse, living in this dank darkness, in this dreary, depressing silence, would see life stretching in front of her, quite empty, bringing her each evening to the same cold bed and each morning to the same featureless day. (3.25)
Thérèse feels stifled by the depressing atmosphere of the shop. The pressures of her environment are what will lead her to commit adultery. At least, in Zola's opinion. One could also argue that people commit adultery because they want to.
Quote #4
And Thérèse could not see a single human, not a living creature, among these grotesque and sinister beings with whom she was shut up. At times she would suffer hallucinations, thinking that she was buried in a vault together with mechanical bodies [...]. The heavy atmosphere of the dining room stifled her, and the eerie silence and yellowish glow of the lamp filled her with a vague sense of terror. (4.6)
Thérèse's dissatisfaction is often expressed as a feeling of imprisonment. Here, her hallucination that she's being buried in a vault emphasizes how trapped she feels in the habadashery shop.
Quote #5
He felt suffocated in this narrow cage, which Thérèse had left full of the heat of her passion. [...] all he had to press in his arms was his mistress's intangible ghost, present all around him; he was in a fever of reviving, unsatisfied desire. (9.48)
When Laurent is denied the sexual satisfaction of being with Thérèse, he feels as if he is "suffocated" in a "narrow cage." Again, the theme of discontent is expressed through the imagery of cages and prisons. See our "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory" Section for more on what this imprisonment bit is all about.
Quote #6
It was under pressure of events, annoyed at the idea of not seeing his mistress again, that he had spoken about the man's death. And, at that, a new corner of his unconscious being had come to light. In the passion of adultery, he had begun to dream about killing. (9.49)
Here, Laurent is said to entertain thoughts of murder because of the "pressure of events." Yeah, we know, we're tired of this point too, but: Zola believes people don't do things because they have free will. He believes we're all just animals who live out the fates of our biology and our environment.
Quote #7
A whole series of events – Thérèse's passionate caresses, the feverish drama of the murder and the fearful expectation of sensual pleasure – had driven him more or less insane [...]. From then on, Laurent had lapsed into the intolerable existence and endless horror in which he was now entrapped. (22.4)
Laurent's feeling of entrapment is a direct result of a "whole series of events." See, in Zola's scientific, deterministic mind, everything is related.
Quote #8
At times, seeing the murky glows around her and smelling the acrid scent of damp, she imagined that she had been buried alive and thought she was in the earth at the bottom of a communal grave, with the dead milling around her. The idea calmed her and consoled her. (24.6)
After Camille's death, Thérèse realizes that she still hasn't escaped the narrow confines of the shop. Similar to the beginning of the novel, when she hallucinates that she's being buried alive in a vault, here we again see Thérèse imagining that she's being buried in a grave. However, a significant shift has occurred. Whereas before Thérèse felt an uncontrollable need to escape the claustrophobic space of the shop, now Thérèse finds comfort in the idea of being buried. How depressing. She's stopped wishing for something better, and now just accepts her misery.
Quote #9
But they did not dare, they could not escape. [...] A sort of attraction and repulsion drove them asunder and kept them together at the same time. (30.7)
Despite the fact that Thérèse and Laurent hate being around each other, they find themselves unable to stay apart. Can't live with him, can't live without him, we guess? Their inability to escape each other's company places such an extreme amount of pressure on them that it leads to disastrous results. Like murder. And then double-suicide.
Quote #10
Inside, he was forced to admit that idleness made his sufferings even worse, leaving him every moment of his life to think about his despair and experience its incurable bitterness. Laziness, the animal experience he had dreamed of, was his punishment. (30.15)
When Laurent realizes that it is impossible to rekindle any of his former sexual feelings for Thérèse, he falls back into his old laziness. Only he's unable to enjoy the self-indulgent life he so coveted before. He now regards this "animal experience" as a punishment for his crime, which again raises the question of whether or not Laurent feels guilty for murdering Camille. What's your final answer, Shmoopers?