Les Misérables Chapter 2 Summary

Summary

Sixteen years of insurrectionary experience have made the June 1848 barricaders more efficient than those of 1832; the Rue de la Chanvrerie redoubt, though small, is well prepared. Under Enjolras’s strict command the improvised barricade is repaired, strengthened and organized during the night: iron bars are planted, a citadel-like staircase is rebuilt, the tap-room and kitchen are cleared and converted into an ambulance, weapons and powder are gathered and cartridges made. Dead bodies are removed and piled in the Mondétour lane; four suburban National Guards are among the corpses. Enjolras orders two hours’ sleep, though few take it, and Feuilly carves “LONG LIVE THE PEOPLES!” into a wall.

At dawn the defenders number thirty-seven. The torch is extinguished; the shelter resembles the deck of a disabled ship. Hunger and scarcity dominate: no bread or meat remains, and the men resign themselves to fasting; Enjolras forbids drinking and reserves fifteen sealed bottles of wine found in the cellar, having them hidden under Father Mabeuf’s table. The wounded—five gravely hurt men and two municipal guards—are tended first. The women have slipped away to nearby houses, easing the cramped situation. As morning light outlines the chimneys and roofs, conversation revives among the insurgents: Joly offers a comic, metaphysical remark about a prowling cat; Combeferre leads a reflective discourse on martyrdom, civic murder, and the remorse that follows violence, invoking historical figures such as Brutus and Charlotte Corday. The talk veers into classical allusion and literary comparison—Virgil, Homer, Cicero—mixing political severity with aesthetic and moral debate, while Bossuet summons Homeric enthusiasm from a heap of paving-stones.

Key events

1. Night work fortifies and reorganizes the barricade; weapons, powder and wounded tended
2. Dead bodies removed and piled in Mondétour lane; uniforms stripped from four National Guards
3. Enjolras commands a two-hour rest; Feuilly carves LONG LIVE THE PEOPLES! into the wall
4. The women quietly leave the barricade to nearby houses
5. At dawn, Enjolras forbids drinking and secures fifteen sealed bottles of wine
6. Conversation at dawn ranges from comic remarks to deep reflections on violence and history

Analysis

This chapter tightens the novel’s focus from broad insurrectionary panorama to the intimate, disciplined life within a single barricade. It shows Enjolras as an austere, almost ascetic commander whose decisions—rationing, forbidding wine, dedicating space for the wounded—shape the moral economy of the group. The scene juxtaposes physical preparation and scarcity with intellectual and moral debate: the men repair and arm themselves while discussing martyrdom, justice, and literary exemplars. That juxtaposition emphasizes Hugo’s interest in the coexistence of action and thought during rebellion; the insurgents are not mere fighters but reflective citizens and students, turning the confined space into both hospital and forum.

Symbolically, the extinguished torch, the disabled ship image, and the hidden wine bottles all dramatize restraint, impending doom, and moral resolve. The carved slogan LONG LIVE THE PEOPLES! functions as a material inscription of revolutionary idealism amid decay. The narrative technique oscillates between precise, almost documentary detail (lists of tasks, inventories) and dialogic moralizing, which both humanizes the combatants and positions them within a tradition of political sacrifice. Foreshadowing is subtle: scarcity, the piled dead, and Enjolras’s strictness suggest an approaching test of endurance. The chapter deepens character: Combeferre emerges as the philosophical conscience, Courfeyrac and Bossuet display morale and culture, and Mabeuf’s presence anchors the scene’s pathos.

Important quotes

“LONG LIVE THE PEOPLES!”

Insurgents / FeuillyFeuilly carves this slogan into the wall during the night; it embodies their revolutionary ideal made permanent in stone.

“At a given moment, every barricade inevitably becomes the raft of la Méduse.”

NarratorThe narrator compares a besieged barricade to a foundering ship to stress isolation, scarcity, and the sense of doom among the defenders.

“It is three o’clock; at four we shall be dead.”

Jeanne (recounted)Recounted by the narrator as an expression of Spartan resignation among insurgents faced with hunger and imminent death.

Characters in Chapter 2

• Enjolras
• Marius Pontmercy
• Feuilly
• Combeferre
• Bossuet
• Grantaire
• Joly
• Courfeyrac
• Mabeuf
• Father Hucheloup
• Jean Prouvaire
• Bahorel
• Cabuc
• Father Mabeuf
• Jeanne