Les Misérables Volume 4, Chapter 4 Summary

Summary

Marius Pontmercy, having watched the opening phase of the street combat from concealment, can no longer resist joining the fight when the danger to his friends and the death of others becomes acute. He fires two pistols, saving Gavroche with the first shot and Courfeyrac with the second, then discards his empty weapons and moves into the tap-room. In the smoke and confusion he notices a barrel of powder near the door.

Seizing the barrel, Marius uses the obscuring smoke to glide along the barricade to the cage of paving-stones where a torch is fixed. He replaces the torch with the barrel, sets the broken barrel on the stones, and with the torch in his hand threatens to ignite it. Standing visibly on the barricade with torch lowered toward the barrel and a resolute expression, he shouts to the attackers that he will blow up the barricade. The soldiers and guards on the barrier, dreadfully close and momentarily stunned, retreat in panic. A sergeant scoffs that Marius would destroy himself as well; Marius answers, "And myself also," and lowers the torch. The assailants abandon their dead and wounded and flee headlong down the street; the barricade is left free.

Key events

1. Marius abandons hesitation and joins the fight, firing two pistols.
2. He saves Gavroche and Courfeyrac with his shots.
3. Marius notices and seizes a barrel of powder in the tap-room amid the smoke.
4. He positions the barrel among paving-stones beneath the torch and threatens to ignite it.
5. The exposed soldiers and guards recoil; Marius declares he will blow up the barricade.
6. The attackers retreat in disorder, leaving the barricade free.

Analysis

This chapter crystallizes Marius’s evolution from observer to active participant and dramatizes the theme of youthful sacrifice that runs through the novel. The barrel of powder serves as a potent symbol: it embodies both annihilation and agency, placing the power of life-and-death decision in the hands of a single young insurgent. Marius’s willingness to die as he threatens the barricade highlights the moral extremity and tragic grandeur of revolutionary commitment. Victor Hugo uses compressed, cinematic action—shots, smoke, brief commands—to heighten immediacy and to contrast the charged, personal resolve of the insurgents with the disciplined yet vacillating mass of the attackers.

Narratively, the scene functions as a turning point: the revolutionaries’ courage and dramatic bluff produce a tactical victory without a prolonged melee. The smoke motif obscures perceptions, producing confusion that both conceals practical movements (Marius seizing the barrel) and symbolizes the moral murkiness of conflict. Hugo’s technique—close focalization on Marius amid broader crowd movement, abrupt dialogue, and sharp contrasts between youth and the institutional forces—foreshadows the costs and ethical dilemmas the characters will face while reinforcing the novel’s exploration of individual conscience versus collective violence.

Important quotes

“Wait! Don’t fire at random!”

EnjolrasSpoken to prevent friendly fire as insurgents and attackers are dangerously close.

“Be off with you, or I’ll blow up the barricade!”

Marius PontmercyMarius threatens to ignite the barrel of powder, forcing the attackers to retreat.

“And myself also.”

Marius PontmercyMarius answers the sergeant’s taunt, accepting that he would destroy himself as well if he blows the powder.

Characters in Volume 4, Chapter 4

• Marius Pontmercy
• M. Mabeuf
• Bahorel
• Courfeyrac
• Gavroche
• Enjolras
• Jean Prouvaire
• Combeferre
• sergeant
• officer in a gorget
• the young workman in velvet trousers