Les Misérables Volume 1, Chapter 4 Summary

Summary

Half-awake, the mayor notes the chill wind, an extinguished fire, and a candle burning low. From his window he sees two red points of light on the street that he first mistakes for stars but then recognizes as the lanterns of a tilbury. A carriage approaches; a light tap at his door reveals the portress, who announces the tilbury and says the coachman claims it has come for Monsieur le Maire. The name M. Scaufflaire is spoken and immediately unnerves him; after a pause he composes himself and tells the portress to say that he is coming down.

The chapter gives both the detailed nightmare text—presented as a paper in the mayor's own handwriting—and the immediate waking scene, creating a link between inner torment and an intrusive external summons at dawn.

Key events

1. Mayor walks for five hours, sits and falls asleep at three a.m.
2. He dreams of a barren plain, silent ash-colored men, and deserted streets
3. A crowd of such men surrounds him; one declares he has been dead
4. He wakes cold, finds his fire out and candle low
5. Sees two red carriage lanterns; mistakes them for stars
6. Portress announces the arriving tilbury and names M. Scaufflaire
7. Mayor is shaken by the name but agrees to come downstairs

Analysis

This chapter functions as an intimate interlude that exposes the mayor's inner disturbance and vulnerability. The extended nightmare is given in the first person and reproduced as a document, reinforcing the novel's interest in documents, testimony and the inner life. The dream's barren plain, mute watchers and the assertion that the narrator has been dead emphasize isolation, alienation and the uncanny quality of suffering—key themes in the novel's portrait of moral and social desolation. The repetition of silent, earth-colored figures and the motif of doors and thresholds suggest boundaries between life and death, community and solitude. The sudden intrusion of the real world—the chill wind, the guttering candle, the carriage lanterns—creates a stark contrast that underlines how inner anguish persists into waking life.

Narratively, the chapter slows the plot to probe psychological depth, while foreshadowing that external calls (like the arrival of the tilbury) will confront the mayor with duties or memories that disturb him. The naming of M. Scaufflaire acts as a trigger, linking dream-image isolation to social obligations and hinting that the mayor’s inner disturbances have consequences in the world outside his chamber. The technique of reproducing the mayor’s own written nightmare lends authenticity and intimacy, making the reader a confidant to private suffering.

Important quotes

“I was in a plain; a vast, gloomy plain, where there was no grass.”

NarratorOpens the mayor's nightmare and establishes the dream's barren, lifeless setting.

“Whither are you going! Do you not know that you have been dead this long time?”

NarratorA confrontational line in the dream that crystallizes themes of alienation and existential dread.

“I, Monsieur le Maire.”

Sister SimpliceThe portress announces herself at the door, bringing the external summons that ends the chapter's nocturnal solitude.

Characters in Volume 1, Chapter 4

• Bishop Myriel
• Sister Simplice
• M. Scaufflaire
• the coachman
• Monsieur le Maire