Therese And Laurent: The Collision Of Temperaments

The collision of temperaments: The analysis of relationships between people with different physiologically determined temperaments
An individual’s character can be determined by many factors. People learn behaviour from external factors like the environment they grow up in and by observing the people they interact with. Human behaviour is also impacted by the emotions people experience and the manner in which they express them. However, a theory from ancient times states that character is strictly determined by a person’s biological factors. A temperament is a person’s natural disposition; the mental, physical, and emotional traits that makes a person who they are (Definition of Temperament). The theory of the four temperaments suggests that
They become almost obsessed with each other. Their opposing temperaments balance each other out and put each of them in a state of blissfulness and tranquility. It’s as though “Nature and circumstances seemed to have made this man for this woman, and to have driven them towards one another. Together, the woman, nervous and dissembling, and the man, lustful, living like an animal, they made a strongly united couple. They complemented one another, they protected one another” (43). The idea Laurent has animal like tendencies is a recurring motif in Therese Raquin, which is one of the traits for a person with a Sanguine temperament. Like an animal he does only what benefits him and acts on all of his impulses, which are some traits that are later adopted by Therese through their relationship. By being in a relationship with someone of an opposite temperament, their individual temperaments get balanced out as they change and integrate the other person’s temperament into their own. Their obsession of each other becomes so intense that they are both willing to take any measures to ensure that they can be together at all times to satisfy their desire and hunger for each other. This infatuation is what leads them to murdering Camille, which also develops the plot and brings it to its climax. Therese’s old nervous and reserved character would not be capable of committing such an act and neither would Laurent because his selfish nature would prevent him from putting himself in risk of losing his comfortable life. They both change one another’s character, which influences them to behave differently. Their actions then determine their fate. After murdering Camille everything goes downhill for them. They lose the equilibrium in their relationship and both become extremely neurotic and fearful of everything. They no longer make each other happy, but instead