Considering Thérèse as a Criminal Anonymous 11th Grade

Whether Mauriac presents Therese Desqueroux to the reader as a criminal, must provoke the exploration of whether she is responsible, both morally and self-consciously, for her actions in committing that crime. There are instances in the novel, not just associated with Therese, where we see characters who do have control over their actions or at least claim that every action derives from a reason, like Bernard, and those instances where it is implied, and the reader is led to infer, that Therese is lost and ambivalent as to why she attempted to poison Bernard.

On the one hand, Therese is surrounded by Bernard, who is conditioned by his setting and class to believing there are rigid ways of living and thinking, and who, because of this, believes everyone should easily explain their actions, and thus Therese should simply confess her reasoning, and live as a criminal. On top of this, Therese is perceived as at times appearing cruel to Bernard, calculating, and fascinated with the poisoning. However, Therese is perhaps presented as pitiable and innocent when she cannot find a reason for her actions, proving herself to be a complicated character amidst simplistic Bourgeois society, in which she is merely subject to a series of...