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Les Miserables
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BetaPart 5, Books 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5, Book 1 Summary: "The War Within Four Walls"
After a small victory, the revolutionaries feel triumphant about their "heroic defiance" (841). This joy is only momentary, however, as they learn that the majority of the city has not banded to their cause. The revolution has not taken hold throughout Paris, and they are mostly alone. Enjolras explains that the people behind the barricade have been abandoned. As such, the soldiers vastly outmatch them. Nevertheless, the rioters are filled with optimism and resolve. The soldiers prepare the next wave of attacks. Enjolras leaps up and delivers a speech. He tells any man with a wife or children to leave the barricade, adding that they must not be selfish. At first, such men refuse. At Enjolras's insistence, however, five men are selected to be sent away, using captured army uniforms as disguises. However, there are only four uniforms. Valjean arrives at the barricade, dressed as a National Guard. He offers his own clothes to help the fifth man escape safely to his wife and children.
Marius silently reflects on his situation. Javert, still tied up and held prisoner, taunts Enjolras and then recognizes Valjean among the revolutionaries. The people behind the barricade, "prouder and more confident than ever" (856), prepare for the next attack. The soldiers haul a cannon and fire it at the barricade. Valjean helps the revolutionaries by dragging a mattress into the barricade, but the protection does not last long, and the initially ineffective cannon-fire begins to take a toll on the structure. Elsewhere in Paris, Cosette feels the "vague sense of something dreadful" (863).
When the attack renews, the revolutionaries fight. Valjean is one of the best fighters among them, but he is remarkable in his refusal to kill. Enjolras takes on the role of the "true insurgency general" (866). He feels similarly about killing and regrets any lives that he must take, but he insists that he is doing so for an important cause. As the fighting continues, the revolutionaries begin to run out of ammunition. Gavroche notices this problem and climbs over the barricades, hoping to take whatever ammunition he can from the soldiers who have been killed on the other side. Just as he is about to return, however, he is shot twice. Gavroche falls face forward on the pavement, dead. Elsewhere in the city, two young starving orphan boys sneak into a private garden as the sounds of the riot can be heard in the distance. At the barricade, Marius carries Gavroche's dead body to safety. Marius does not notice that a bullet has grazed his head.
Enjolras realizes that the barricade is about to be stormed. He returns to his plan to execute Javert. Valjean recognizes his old nemesis and steps forward, offering to be the person who kills Javert. Valjean leads Javert away, but when they are out of sight he releases Javert, telling the inspector where to find him later. Valjean fires his gun into the air to convince the revolutionaries that Javert has been executed. When he returns to the barricade, Marius's face contorts in an expression of dread.
The defense of the barricade seems doomed as the battalion mounts a final attack against them. Sensing the imminent defeat, Enjolras tells the revolutionaries to retreat to safety, "single-handedly confronting a whole battalion" (892) to give his comrades time to escape. They retreat to the Corinthe wine shop. During the retreat, Marius is hit by a shot. He falls to the ground, but Valjean catches him just in time. The soldiers burst into the wine shop and begin executing revolutionaries. Enjolras accepts his death with "menacing majesty" (894).
Rather than enter the wine shop, Valjean carries Marius away. The soldiers take to the streets to hunt the other revolutionaries. Carrying the unconscious, wounded Marius, Valjean tries to find a way out of the hopeless situation. He can hear the soldiers approaching and knows that they will execute anyone they find. Finally, Valjean spots a sewer grate. He opens the grate and, with Marius slung over his shoulder, clambers down. Valjean carries the unconscious Marius through the sewers of Paris toward safety.
Part 5, Book 2 Summary: "The Bowels of Leviathan "
The narrator describes the labyrinthine qualities of the Paris sewer system. Each year, Parisians gather vast amounts of bird droppings to fertilize their crops, but they flush even more human waste beneath the city. In doing so, they "waste this wealth" (898). After many centuries of murky conditions, the late 19th century Paris sewer system is "clean, stark, straight, as it should be" (906), but the sewers through which Valjean carries Marius are "far from being what they are today" (909).
Part 5, Book 3 Summary: "The Mire, Yet the Soul"
Valjean carries the wounded Marius through the sewers. He knows that Marius will die soon without medical attention. The darkness of the sewers make progress slow and difficult, but Valjean trusts his instincts, working little by little toward what he hopes is safety. Valjean continues through the sewers with Marius, carefully avoiding police patrols and soldiers. He is tired and hungry, but he cannot give up. At the same time, a man in rags is pursued by the police until he arrives at a locked iron grating. The man has a key but decides to wait by the grating with a demeanor of "patient obsession" (919).
Eventually, Valjean arrives at an exit to the sewer. However, the way is blocked by a sturdy grating. Despite his strength he cannot force the gate open. From the darkness, a familiar face appears. The man in rags, being pursued by the police, is Thénardier. Valjean, covered in sewer filth, is unrecognizable. Thénardier assumes that Valjean is just another murderer, carrying his victim's body. Thénardier demands half of whatever the supposed victim has in his pockets in exchange for opening the gate. Valjean knows that neither he nor Marius has any money to give to Thénardier. He silently accepts the offer. Thénardier takes the small amount of money Valjean has in his pocket then opens the gate. However, while taking the money from Valjean, he rips off a piece of cloth from Marius's jacket, hoping that he might be able to identify the victim one day.
Valjean arrives on the bank of the River Seine, still carrying Marius. He feels "awesome and gentle serenity" (930) for only a moment, however, as Javert appears. Javert has pursued Thénardier and, at first, he does not recognize the man covered in filth and mud from the sewer. However, Valjean reveals his true identity to the police inspector. He asks for mercy and the opportunity to take Marius home to the house of Monsieur Gillenormand. Javert agrees. He leads Valjean and the wounded Marius through the streets of Paris. After leaving Marius at his family home, Valjean asks Javert to take him to see Cosette, as one final favor. Again, Javert agrees. When Valjean returns home, he climbs the stairs to his apartment. He enters, despondent that this will be the last time he sees his beloved Cosette. When he checks out through the window, however, he discovers that Javert is gone. As the doctor treats Marius, Monsieur Gillenormand is despondent. He accuses Marius of getting himself killed out of hatred for his grandfather.
Part 5, Book 4 Summary: "Javert Derailed"
Javert leaves Valjean. He wanders through Paris, tormented by his thoughts. Javert has spent his life with a brutal, indestructible will to enforce the law. He does not know how to deal with his indecisiveness. Although he knows that arresting Valjean is right by the letter of the law, doing so feels wrong to him. However, he cannot abide the idea of allowing a criminal to escape. He has spent his life beyond reproach and now—through Valjean's unexpected act of mercy—he no longer knows what to do. He is "forced to acknowledge that kindness [exists]" (843). Everything he once believed is falling apart. Wracked by indecision and suffering from an existential crisis, Javert decides to act. He writes a letter to his superior in which he describes "A FEW OBSERVATIONS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE SERVICE" (946). Once the letter is finished, he walks to the edge of the River Seine, watches the churning waters for some time, and then hurls himself into the "the blackness below" (947). Javert drowns.
Part 5, Books 1-4 Analysis
The deaths of Eponine and Gavroche represent a rejection by the Thénardier children of their parents' greed and immorality. For many wealthy members of society, the poor are all like Madame and Monsieur Thénardier. The wealthy believe that the economically disadvantaged are unrepentant criminals whose lack of money is due to an inherent and unchangeable failure of character. Whereas the Thénardiers seem to exist to confirm this misinformed idea, Eponine and Gavroche defy their circumstances to prove themselves worthy and upstanding members of society. Gavroche sacrifices himself by rushing out to collect ammunition from the dead soldiers when the revolutionaries run low on bullets. His death is even more profound in that it contains a reference to one of the defining moments of his father's life. Like Thénardier after the Battle of Waterloo, Gavroche was stealing from dead bodies; unlike Thénardier, Gavroche was not stealing for his own personal enrichment but for the cause of the revolution. He sacrifices himself for others, whereas Thénardier took advantage of a misunderstanding to portray himself as a hero.
Similarly, Eponine's death is due to a sincerity of emotion that her parents could never possess. Later in the novel, Madame Thénardier dies, and Monsieur Thénardier barely even cares. He claims that she is alive and insists that he needs money to feed her. Thénardier would never sacrifice himself for his wife, whereas Eponine sacrifices herself by taking a bullet for the man she loves, who does not love her back. Eponine and Gavroche demonstrate a level of selflessness which is not a product of their upbringing.
Valjean volunteers himself to execute Javert. This situation is an ironic inversion of their character dynamic which illustrates the symbolic power of the barricade. Outside the barricade, in Paris, Javert is the embodiment of institutional justice. Behind the barricade, in the world of revolution, the expectations are inverted, and Valjean is imbued with the judicial power over Javert's life. Javert faces his potential execution with a grim determination. He expects everyone to operate by the same moral absolutes that govern his life, so he expects Valjean to kill him. Instead, Valjean uses this opportunity to distinguish himself from Javert. He has previously pleaded with Javert to show mercy, but Javert's absolutist attitude to law and order has prevented him from doing so. By sparing Javert's life, Valjean shows his old adversary that a different world is possible. This act of mercy introduces a doubt into Javert's mind, causing a fracture in the stone-faced determination which has become Javert's identity. The fracture widens and widens, altering Javert's behavior. After he finds Valjean at the mouth of the sewer, for example, he returns the display of mercy. Javert shows compassion for the first time in their interactions by allowing Valjean to take Marius home and then to visit Cosette. Javert's behavior is an echo of Valjean's own life-changing encounter. Just as the bishop's act of mercy changed Valjean's perspective of the world, Valjean's act of mercy forces Javert to challenge his perspective.
Unfortunately for Javert, he cannot tolerate this existential crisis. The fleeting doubt that is introduced into his mind by Valjean's act of kindness threatens to undermine everything Javert believes he has achieved. Valjean's mercy has shown him to be a good man, but, to Javert he is also a criminal. In Javert's world, no criminal can be a good person. As such, Valjean's action throws him into a paradox from which he cannot escape. If Valjean is right, and redemption and mercy are key parts of the human condition, then Javert's entire life has been a lie. The same ruthless logic that Javert used to convince himself that every criminal was deserving of punishment is now turned inward. Javert scrutinizes himself and can no longer justify his own identity. Never one to shy away from absolutist solutions to every problem, Javert takes the only viable option in his mind. Without emotion or ceremony, he decides to die by suicide. The same grim-faced resolution and determination with which he has lived his life is now applied to his death. Javert dies as he lived, choosing to embrace absolutism one last time rather than radically alter his view of the world.
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