Maybe it's a bit late, but I hope I can help you out with the question. =)
So I've just watched the movie and if I'm not wrong, I understood that their marriage was a happy one at the beginning, over the first 5 months or so, and they used to have sex then. After that, Gabrielle realized she didn't feel comfortable with her husband (because he wasn't passionate, etc.) but did nothing, they just kept going: Jean thinking he had the perfect marriage and Gabrielle thinking that it was okay, that she'd just get used to it, or something (I'm referring both to the lack of sex life and the lack of true love as she expected it).
Even if it seems unbelievable, Jean was able to "resist" this... let's call it "latent frustration"...until he founds out about Gabrielle's lover. And that's when his desire comes out again, thinking about what he could have had with her all that time and how that other man had gotten it that fast. In other words, I'd say he'd been more kind of jealous or possessive and excited about having a wife, about having a good woman as his eternal companion, because he mistook love with the fidelity and continuity of a relationship. In fact, by the end of the movie, Jean is totally desperate and cries "I love you", while Gabrielle replys sarcastically "You never loved me". I guess that's the point where Jean finally realizes his dependency on a love that never existed and was not to exist in the future, and decides to leave, hopeless. I was wondering if he was even thinking about killing himself...
I don't think she offered him sex to test him, but rather as a way to calm him dowm and try to solve the situation suggesting him to forget about everything and start again. Otherwise, she'd have had to leave the house and live in very bad conditions or bear that (more and more deranged) man for the rest of her life!
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