Les Misérables Volume 4, Chapter 4 Summary

Summary

In the Rue de la Chanvrerie the insurgents hastily transform the street into a defensive position. Courfeyrac, with light-hearted compassion, attempts to reassure the widowed proprietor Mame Hucheloup (Mother Hucheloup) as comrades smash shop fittings and requisition household items to construct the barricades. The widow is bewildered but placated in the same comic, resigned way as a woman who expects a symbolic revenge rather than practical help. Meanwhile revelry and grim industry alternate: recruits and workmen arrive carrying barrels of powder, vitriol, torches, and fire-pots, and gangs of men dismantle nearby lanterns to darken the area.

Enjolras, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac organize two right-angled barricades that pivot on the Corinthe house, one blocking the Rue de la Chanvrerie and a narrow one of casks and paving-stones closing Rue Mondétour. The improvised force is motley—students, artisans, longshoremen, and a few poorly equipped fighters—who mix camaraderie, boastful talk, and practical labor. In the kitchen and billiard-hall women, including Mame Hucheloup, Matelote, and Gibelotte, make lint while insurgents cast bullets from pewter tableware. Gavroche dominates the scene: omnipresent, irrepressibly cheerful, and driving men to work, he scolds, jokes, and pleads for a gun, urging builders to pile up casks, paving-stones, and even glass doors to make the barricade more effective. Enjolras promises arms will go to children only after the men are equipped. The chapter closes with a comic failed recruitment of a dandy who flees at Gavroche’s patriotic entreaty.

Key events

1. Courfeyrac consoles Mother Hucheloup as insurgents dismantle her shop
2. Recruits bring powder, vitriol, torches and fire-pots; street lanterns are smashed
3. Enjolras, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac direct construction of two perpendicular barricades
4. Insurgents cast bullets from pewter tableware while women make lint in the billiard-hall
5. Gavroche exuberantly organizes and animates the workers, demanding a gun
6. A dandy is mocked and flees when Gavroche tries to enlist him

Analysis

This chapter shifts focus from individual backstories to collective action, showing how ordinary people and marginal characters coalesce into a revolutionary force. Hugo uses detailed, often comic, scene-painting—Mother Hucheloup’s baffled gratitude, the slapstick exchange about a glass door, and the heteroclite weaponry—to humanize the insurgents and emphasize the improvisational nature of popular uprisings. The juxtaposition of domestic objects (tableware, glass doors, dish-cloths) repurposed as instruments of war underscores the theme of everyday life transformed by political violence. Gavroche functions as both mascot and moral engine; his ubiquity and boundless energy personify youthful courage and social spontaneity, while Enjolras embodies organizational authority and austere leadership. The narrative technique alternates close, lively focalization on characters with panoramic description of the barricades’ construction, accelerating the pace and creating suspense through accumulation rather than explicit forecasting. Symbolically, the smashing of street lanterns and darkening of the quarter suggest deliberate erasure of the city’s ordinary order, preparing a space where a new collective identity can emerge. The chapter foreshadows the physical and moral trials to come by testing solidarity, improvisation, and resourcefulness under pressure—qualities that will be crucial for the group’s cohesion and fate.

Important quotes

“Well, Mother Hucheloup, we are avenging you.”

CourfeyracCourfeyrac tries to reassure the bewildered widow, framing the destruction of her shop as retributive justice.

“When there are enough for the men, we will give some to the children.”

EnjolrasEnjolras articulates the priority of arming adults before children, highlighting order and discipline among the insurgents.

“Courage! more paving-stones! more casks! more machines! Where are you now?”

Narrator (Gavroche's speech)Gavroche cheerfully drives the work, exhorting comrades to keep building and improvising materials for the barricade.

Characters in Volume 4, Chapter 4

• Bahorel
• Courfeyrac
• Mother Hucheloup
• Mame Hucheloup
• Gibelotte
• Matelote
• Enjolras
• Combeferre
• Gavroche
• Pépin (grocer)