Les Misérables Chapter 9 Summary

Summary

At the barricade the insurgents are under threat from an approaching cannon whose grape-shot will shatter their position unless something absorbs the blows. Enjolras and Combeferre debate how to protect the cut; the wounded occupy the available mattresses, so none are at hand. Jean Valjean, who has been sitting apart with a gun, volunteers to help. He notices an attic window on a nearby six-story house where a mattress, placed crosswise on poles, is held by two thin ropes attached to the window frame.

Valjean asks for a double-barrelled rifle and, with calm precision, shoots the ropes holding the mattress so that it falls into the street. The mattress lands outside the barricade, between the insurgents and the soldiers, while a volley of musketry is active. Without hesitation, Valjean steps into the open, crosses the storm of bullets, hoists the mattress on his back, and returns it to the cut. He fixes it against the wall so it will stop the next discharge of grape-shot. When the cannon fires again, the mattress absorbs the buckshot and the barricade is spared. Enjolras thanks him formally; others comment in admiration and wry humour on the victory of a yielding object over the battering force of artillery.

Key events

1. Insurgents need a mattress to deaden incoming grape-shot
2. Jean Valjean notices a mattress in an attic window and asks for a rifle
3. He shoots the ropes holding the mattress and it falls into the street
4. Valjean crosses musket fire, retrieves the mattress, and carries it back
5. He rigs the mattress in the cut so it shields the barricade from grape-shot
6. The cannon fires and the mattress absorbs the shot, saving the barricade

Analysis

This short episode highlights Jean Valjean's practical bravery and resourcefulness, presented without rhetoric: he acts swiftly, uses a rifle with marksman skill, and risks his life for the collective cause. The scene ties a personal past (Valjean's poacher-like skill with a gun) to the present revolutionary struggle, showing how individual talents can reshape communal outcomes. The mattress functions as a symbol of yielding strength—Hugo and the characters ironically celebrate a soft, domestic object as a savior against military force, underscoring themes of unexpected means defeating brute power. Narratively, the episode offers a brief, kinetic interlude that relieves the larger novel's moral explication with concrete action; it also deepens Valjean's integration into the group by demonstrating his willingness to sacrifice and his practical competence.

Hugo's technique is economical here: dialogue and precise physical description drive the scene, and the third-person narrator adds a wry, reflective comment through Bossuet's jest about the mattress's glory. The image of ropes like hairs and the mattress upheld by poles paints a fragile contrast with cannon shot, foreshadowing how fragile human efforts and improvised protections can nonetheless have decisive effects. The chapter reinforces the collective camaraderie of the insurgents and marks Valjean as both an outsider skilled in survival and an indispensable participant in the group's fate.

Important quotes

“We must place a mattress there.”

EnjolrasThe initial, practical order that sets the episode in motion and reveals the insurgents' need to stop grape-shot.

“Can some one lend me a double-barrelled rifle?”

Jean ValjeanValjean volunteers his marksmanship, connecting his poacher's skill to the barricade's immediate need.

“It is immoral that a mattress should have so much power. Triumph of that which yields over that which strikes with lightning.”

BossuetA wry, reflective comment praising the mattress and underscoring the irony of a soft object defeating artillery.

Characters in Chapter 9

• Enjolras
• Combeferre
• Jean Valjean
• Bossuet
• the sergeant of artillery
• an old woman