Les Misérables Volume 4, Chapter 4 Summary

Summary

In the Marché Saint-Jean a group of student-revolutionaries led by Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Combeferre and Feuilly has gathered, having been joined by Gavroche and others including Bahorel, Jean Prouvaire, Bahorel, and Feuilly’s cry of solidarity. They are armed in a makeshift way—hunting guns, an old cavalry musket, pistols, a rifle, a sword and a naked sword—wet, dishevelled and eager, moving toward the Quai Morland. Bahorel’s theatrical, provocative behavior (tearing down a placard and mocking an archiepiscopal admonition) amuses and impresses the streetwise Gavroche, who studies him as a model of daring and learns a bit of Latin slang from him.

As the group proceeds a pale young man watches from a window and someone calls to him for cartridges. The ragged retinue includes students, artisans and longshoremen; their energy is violent and playful by turns. Among them moves an old, unarmed man who hurries to keep up despite his age and has a thoughtful look. Gavroche, puzzled, asks Courfeyrac about him and dismissively calls him an “old duffer,” but the old man is revealed as M. Mabeuf, whose presence contrasts with the youthful fury and suggests a different kind of commitment and sensitivity amid the tumult.

Key events

1. Gavroche links up with Enjolras’s band at the Marché Saint-Jean.
2. The young men parade armed with a mix of weapons and shout revolutionary slogans.
3. Bahorel theatrically tears down a placard and amuses Gavroche.
4. A pale young man at a window is recognized and shouted to for cartridges.
5. An old, unarmed man hurries to keep up with the group and is identified as M. Mabeuf.

Analysis

This chapter concentrates on the street-level energy of the insurrectionaries and frames generational contrast by juxtaposing youthful bravado with the quiet determination of an elderly figure. The vivid, almost cinematic listing of weapons and the rain-soaked, lightning-eyed description establish a charged atmosphere of improvisational militancy. Bahorel’s irreverence—tearing down a religious placard—illustrates the students’ contempt for established authority and their appetite for symbolic gestures; Gavroche’s admiration for such petty transgression shows how small acts of daring attract and socialize the young into the movement.

Narratively, the insertion of M. Mabeuf among the hotheaded youth creates a deliberate tonal shift: his unarmed, thoughtful haste punctures the bravado and hints at diverse motives that draw Parisian citizens toward the barricades. The chapter thus broadens the social composition of the rebellion and prepares the reader to see commitment in forms other than armed fury. The narrator’s close, often ironic observance of gestures and vocabulary (Latin interjections, shouted slogans) underscores Hugo’s technique of mingling lofty causes with street-level detail, using incidental moments to reveal character and to foreshadow the complex human composition of the uprising.

Important quotes

“Feuilly, with a naked sword in his hand, marched at their head shouting: “Long live Poland!””

NarratorShows the band’s militant posture and Feuilly’s role as an impassioned leader invoking international solidarity.

“He had no arms, and he made great haste, so that he might not be left behind, although he had a thoughtful air.”

NarratorDescribes M. Mabeuf; contrasts his unarmed, reflective presence with the youth’s armed, impulsive energy.

““Keksekça?” said he to Courfeyrac.”

GavrocheGavroche’s street dialect and curiosity when he notices the old man, revealing his blunt, observational voice.

Characters in Volume 4, Chapter 4

• Gavroche
• Enjolras
• Courfeyrac
• Combeferre
• Feuilly
• Bahorel
• Jean Prouvaire
• M. Mabeuf
• Archbishop of Paris