Les Misérables Volume 4, Chapter 2 Summary

Summary

Marius leaves M. Gillenormand crushed by his grandfather’s blunt rejection of his politics and way of life. The encounter leaves him in a numbed, febrile state: he wanders the streets aimlessly, sleeps fitfully at Courfeyrac’s, and moves through the day barely conscious of weather, food, or even bathing. He pockets the loaded pistols Javert once gave him, though he cannot say why.

That night the single fixed point in his mind is his promised meeting with Cosette at nine o’clock. He reaches the Rue Plumet filled with hope, but finds the shutters closed and the garden empty. Overcome, he sits on the steps resolved that, with Cosette gone, life has no meaning. He is then called from the street by a hoarse voice that sounds like Éponine: someone tells him that his friends are waiting for him at the barricade of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, and a young man dashes away into the dark, pulling him toward political action and another direction of his fate.

Key events

1. Marius leaves Gillenormand in despair after a blunt confrontation.
2. He wanders the city in a feverish, half-conscious state and sleeps at Courfeyrac’s.
3. He carries the pistols Javert gave him; their presence is ominous but unexplained.
4. He returns to Rue Plumet at nine to meet Cosette and finds the house and garden empty.
5. Marius resolves that with Cosette gone his life is over and sits on the steps.
6. A hoarse voice (like Éponine’s) calls to him: his friends are at the Rue de la Chanvrerie barricade.

Analysis

This chapter contrasts private, romantic despair with public political agitation and begins to pivot Marius from a solitary anguish toward collective action. Hugo uses Marius’s inner dispersal—his wandering, fevered sensory lapses, and the loaded pistols in his pocket—to dramatize a threshold moment: personal loss and political summons converge. The closed shutters at Rue Plumet function as both a literal absence and a symbolic barrier between Marius and his chosen future (Cosette). Narrative technique alternates close psychological interiority (detailed description of his stupor and hope) with abrupt external interruption (the call to the barricade), creating tension and foreshadowing a shift in impulse from self-destruction to engagement.

Themes of youth, naivety, and the contrast between private love and public duty are emphasized: Hugo’s aside about youth being free of suspicion frames Marius’s inability to entertain darker motives. The loaded pistols and the mention of General Lamarque and the barricade introduce political stakes and imminent unrest without spelling them out, so the chapter functions structurally as a hinge—ending a phase of romantic longing and directing the plot toward the collective historical moment. The voice like Éponine’s provides a human link from Cosette’s world to the street world, suggesting overlapping social networks and the inextricability of personal and political paths.

Important quotes

“He put in his pocket the pistols which Javert had given him at the time of the adventure on the 3d of February, and which had remained in his hands.”

NarratorMoments earlier explained possession of the loaded pistols—an ominous, unexplained detail that hints at danger and Marius's unstable state.

Characters in Volume 4, Chapter 2

• Marius Pontmercy
• Gillenormand
• Courfeyrac
• Enjolras
• Feuilly
• Combeferre
• Javert
• Cosette
• Éponine
• General Lamarque
• Cousin Théodule
• Othello
• Candide