Red on Gray: Thérèse Raquin

The composition of Emile Zola's Thérèse Raquin (1867) reveals the novelist's abiding preoccupation with colors and color imagery. His naturalistic bent is also clearly evident. Gray is the dominant color; nonetheless, red plays an equally important role. Reds of heat, blood, and simple color form a red filter, that widens and narrows. lightens and darkens, to affect the reader's reactions to characters and events and thus to provide clues to the central themes. The contrast between the reds and the grays exposes Zola's pessimistic vision of a world where human beings are obviously, painfully incapable of coping with their own emotions. (WEMcC)