How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The portrait was watching him, following him with its eyes. From time to time, he could not resist taking a look towards it, and then, in the depths of the shadow, he would still see the dead, flat stare of the drowned man. The thought that Camille was there [...], keeping an eye on him, [...] made Laurent completely mad with terror and despair. (21.55)
The image of Camille's eyes following Laurent reminds us of when Laurent imagines that François the cat is watching him. Zola claims that Laurent isn't suffering from a guilty conscience, but he sure seems to be exhibiting textbook signs of guilt.
Quote #8
So he would no longer dare to work, for he would always be afraid of bringing his victim back to life with the slightest stroke of the brush. [...] The idea that his fingers had this unavoidable and unconscious ability to reproduce constantly the face of Camille, made him look with terror at his hand. It seemed to him that the hand no longer belonged to him. (25.38)
Laurent is horrified by the fact that he's unable to draw anything but Camille's face. The "unconscious," almost supernatural ability of his hands to move without his controlling them is also another example of how Zola believes people have no free will.
Quote #9
His worst suffering, one that was both mental and physical, came from the bite that Camille had inflicted on his neck. There were times when he imagined that this scar covered his whole body. [...] He could not stand in front of the mirror without seeing the phenomenon that he had so often noticed, one that never failed to terrify him: the motion that he felt would have the effect of bringing blood up to his neck, making the scar purple and causing it to eat into his flesh. (30.18)
Laurent's hallucination that his scar is eating away at his flesh is yet another example of the kind of wacky, supernatural phenomena that are at odds with Zola's stated scientific goals. Make up your mind, Mr. Zola—is this book a scientific study of human nature, or just a novel?