Les Misérables Volume 3, Chapter 6 Summary

Summary

This short chapter centers on M. Gillenormand’s response when a servant brings him an infant left by a dismissed maid, Magnon. Rather than anger, Gillenormand greets the accusation with a bemused arrogance: he calmly cites historical examples to dismiss the scandal, then accepts responsibility when a second child appears the next year. He agrees to pay eighty francs a month for the two children on the condition that Magnon cease sending more and treat them properly, and he promises to visit them from time to time.

Hugo uses the episode to sketch Gillenormand’s personality in detail. We learn of his age (eighty-four), his self-image as a “brisk spark” with “royal renown,” and his penchant for grand gestures even in petty matters. The narrator supplies anecdotes about Gillenormand’s family background: a priest-brother who gave miserly alms and other aristocratic examples to excuse improbable fatherhoods at old age. The passage closes with further characteristics—his snuff-taking, his lace-plucking habit, his two marriages, a son-in-law who is a disgraced veteran, and Gillenormand’s weak religious faith—consolidating a portrait of a proud, charitable, old bourgeois with comic vanity and genuine kindness.

Key events

1. A servant-maid formerly dismissed presents a newborn boy to M. Gillenormand, claiming it is his.
2. Gillenormand reacts with amused disbelief, citing examples of elderly men who fathered children.
3. A year later the same woman, Magnon, brings a second infant.
4. Gillenormand agrees to support both children at eighty francs monthly and demands Magnon treat them well.
5. He promises to visit the children occasionally and the narrator gives extended character details about Gillenormand.

Analysis

This chapter functions as a character vignette that deepens our understanding of M. Gillenormand and the social texture around Marius. Rather than advancing the plot, Hugo pauses to present a comic yet revealing portrait: Gillenormand’s mixture of hauteur, benevolence, and old-fashioned aristocratic pride. The anecdote about the abandoned infants exposes themes of legitimacy, social appearance, and old-age vanity. Gillenormand’s readiness to be flattered by scandal and his subsequent paternalistic charity highlight a moral complexity—he is both vain and genuinely generous.

Narratively, Hugo uses digression and exemplification (the citing of historical figures) to create distance between narrator and character, letting the narrator’s sardonic voice frame Gillenormand’s behavior. The chapter’s small domestic episode also foreshadows the novel’s concern with parentage, care, and social responsibility without revealing later plot developments. Symbolically, the found children function as instruments for revealing adult character rather than as agents of their own fate here; they catalyze Gillenormand’s mixture of comic self-regard and authentic compassion.

Important quotes

“Well, what now? What’s the matter? You are finely taken aback, and really, you are excessively ignorant.”

GillenormandGillenormand replies with amused incredulity when told a maid claims he fathered a newborn.

“I insist upon it that the mother shall treat them well. I shall go to see them from time to time.”

GillenormandHe sets the condition for his financial support of the two children and promises occasional visits.

“That was indecently done! I am really ashamed of this pilfering. Everything has degenerated in this century, even the rascals.”

GillenormandAfter being swindled in business, Gillenormand protests with mock-solemn indignation that even thieves lack decency.

Characters in Volume 3, Chapter 6

• Gillenormand
• Magnon
• M. le Duc d’Angoulême
• M. Virginal, Marquis d’Alluye
• Abbé Tabaraud
• the servant-maid
• the two children