Laurent Timeline and Summary

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Laurent Timeline and Summary

  • Laurent runs into Camille at the Orléans Railroad Company, and Camille takes Laurent home to meet his family. 
  • Thérèse is uber attracted to Laurent. Dude can't help but notice her attraction for him, so he decides to seduce her. 
  • Laurent paints Camille's portrait. The day the painting is finished, Laurent takes advantage of being alone in the studio with Thérèse and kisses her violently. 
  • Bow-shicka-wow-wow. 
  • Laurent begins having an affair with Thérèse. 
  • One day, Laurent is prevented from meeting Thérèse because his boss tells him he'll be fired if he keeps slacking off. 
  • Thérèse and Laurent become so desperate to see each other that the two conspire to murder Camille. They think this will free them of their despair.
  • While out on a boat trip, Laurent pushes Camille overboard. Before Camille falls into the water, he bites Laurent on the neck. 
  • Sneaky as ever, Laurent is able to pass of Camille's death as an accident. 
  • After Camille's death, Laurent begins to develop more of Thérèse's 'nervous' temperament. The mixture of his blood with Thérèse's nerves even transforms him into an artistic genius. But he is only able to paint one image: the face of the drowned Camille. 
  • Scary, huh? 
  • Laurent and Thérèse get married, but they are unable to arouse their former passion. Laurent has hallucinations and nightmares about Camille's ghost. His scar also starts acting up, and his neck constantly feels like it's burning. 
  • After Mme Raquin suffers a stroke, Laurent and Thérèse accidently reveal their crime to her.  
  • Laurent grows increasingly violent toward Thérèse, and at one point strikes her, causing her to have a miscarriage.  
  • He soon becomes so paranoid that François the cat can talk—and so will reveal his crime—that he throws François out the window. (Animal cruelty = not okay, BTW.) 
  • Unable to endure the misery of married life, Laurent finally plots to kill Thérèse. He visits his chemist friend and brings home a bottle of poison. 
  • The next day, after dinner, Laurent puts poison into Thérèse's glass. But he simultaneously notices her holding a kitchen knife. Realizing that she's also out to kill him, Laurent can no longer take being alive and being such a bad person and being in such a bad marriage, all at the same time. 
  • He commits suicide with Thérèse by drinking the poison he procured.