Les Misérables Volume 1, Chapter 6 Summary

Summary

The chapter gives a close, room-by-room description of the Bishop’s dwelling in D——: a ground floor with three rooms, an upper floor occupied by two women, and an attic; a garden with a small stable and kitchen annex formerly part of the hospital; and the Bishop’s simple oratory and bedroom. The layout is practical and unpretentious: an oratory at the suite’s end, a winter salon in the cow-shed, a bare table and straw chairs, and an iron hospital bed with a green-serge canopy. Small, worn luxuries remain—six silver forks and knives, two large silver candlesticks—but the Bishop treats even donated altar-furniture by giving money to the poor rather than keeping ornaments. The household is scrupulously clean, maintained by Madame Magloire and Mademoiselle Baptistine, whose thwarted desire for fine yellow Utrecht velvet furniture is noted with gentle irony.

The second paragraph emphasizes the Bishop’s habits and moral choices: he sends half the cows’ milk daily to hospital patients, tends a flower plot because “the beautiful is as useful as the useful,” and keeps the main door almost always unfastened, having removed locks and bolts. He explains his openness as a theological and pastoral rule—“the door of the priest should always be open”—and records personal marginal notes expressing his evangelical charity and refusal to ask a visitor’s name. When a local curé worries about leaving the house unguarded, the Bishop answers with the Latin verse “Nisi Dominus custodierit domum, in vanum vigilant qui custodiunt eam,” stressing trust in God’s protection and a tranquil form of clerical bravery. The chapter functions as both physical portrait and moral program, showing how the Bishop’s domestic choices embody his spiritual convictions.

Key events

1. The house layout is described: ground floor rooms, first-floor tenants, garden and annexes.
2. Furniture and humble comforts are listed: straw chairs, whitewashed rooms, iron hospital bed, two portraits.
3. The Bishop’s charitable practices: sending half the milk to the hospital, giving altar money to the poor.
4. Madame Magloire and Mademoiselle Baptistine maintain cleanliness; Mademoiselle’s thwarted luxury is noted.
5. The Bishop removes locks and keeps the main door unfastened as a principle of openness.
6. He explains his policy with marginal notes and the Latin verse about the Lord guarding the house.

Analysis

This chapter functions as a character-study in architecture: the Bishop’s interior and habits concretize his moral theology. The detailed, almost forensic description of rooms, furniture and domestic rituals dramatizes humility—cleanliness, spare furnishings, and the deliberate refusal of ostentation—and frames charity as daily practice rather than rhetorical piety. Small objects (worn gilt frames, six silver forks, shabby curtain mended into a cross) become symbols: retained silver gestures toward human attachment to past status; the cross-shaped seam on the curtain and the borrowed prie-Dieu quietly signal sanctity lodged in ordinary things. The garden plot devoted to flowers rather than salads articulates the Bishop’s belief that beauty holds moral value equal to utility.

Narratively, Hugo uses close description and the perspective of minor household figures (Madame Magloire, Mademoiselle Baptistine) to contrast social expectation with the Bishop’s choices, foreshadowing how his openness might attract the needy. The removal of locks and the Latin maxim provide thematic clarity: trust in divine guardianship and an ethic of hospitality. The chapter’s calm, domestic voice also establishes tonal contrast for future moral tests—the Bishop’s tranquil bravery is shown in ordinary routines, making any later moral action more credible and rooted. Stylistically, the passage blends precise detail with aphoristic asides, allowing the physical setting to function as moral argument.

Important quotes

““I am paying my tithes,” he said.”

Bishop MyrielExplains why he sends half the milk from his cows every morning to the sick in the hospital—a practical act of charity.

““The most beautiful of altars,” he said, “is the soul of an unhappy creature consoled and thanking God.””

Bishop MyrielJustifies giving money meant for a new altar to the poor and expresses his valuation of spiritual good over material ornament.

““Nisi Dominus custodierit domum, in vanum vigilant qui custodiunt eam,””

Bishop MyrielHis Latin answer to a concerned curé, encapsulating his trust in divine protection and his reason for keeping the house door always open.

Characters in Volume 1, Chapter 6

• Bishop Myriel
• Madame Magloire
• Mademoiselle Baptistine
• the curé