Heading Towards ther Barricade

Marius heads towards the barricade, drawn by the ‘voice of Fate’ (capital ‘F’, p943). He’s devastated and despairing as Cossette has apparently disappeared without informing him. His mood and the emotions provoked by the imminent Revolution is reflected in the darkness, the emptiness of some of the streets and the murmuring crowds in some other streets. The crowds are made up of the working men and the poor. Marius carries on, towards the Les Halles area.

Hugo provides a bird’s eye view of the Les Halles area of Paris setting the tone: ‘The ancient quarter of Les Halles...would have looked...like a huge patch of darkness in the centre of Paris, a black gulf.’ (p945). The street lights have been broken, the windows have been shuttered and everywhere is silent. The city is waiting. Les Halles is like a ‘monstrous cavern’ filled with ‘menacing darkness’ (p946). There can be no draw, only victory for one side, and there is foreshadowing that the Government will be victorious in the way that Hugo describes the future ‘disastrous clamour of the crowd’ and the contrast of the silence with the sound of the bells: 

Only one sound was to be heard, awesome as a death-rattle, sinister as a malediction, the tocsin of Saint-Merry. Nothing could have chilled the blood so surely as did the tolling of that desperate bell crying its lament into the night. (p947).

The crowd are compared to both dangerous animals and to God in the way that Hugo uses animal noises such as ‘sombre growling’, ‘a fearful and awe-inspiring voice in which were mingled the snarl of animals and the words of God’, and ‘coming at once from the depths, like the roaring of a lion, and from the heights like the voice of thunder.’ (947). By using a lion to represent the masses it is clear that Hugo is associating them with nobility.

He ensures that the reader understands the historical significance and gives location information through the historical landmarks such as the copper shaving bowl which was shot at above his head: ‘That punctured shaving bowl was still to be seen on the Rue du Contrat-Social, near the pillars of Les Halles, in 1846.’ (p943). 

Waiting for the battle to begin Marius muses on his father and how he was a brave soldier. That, along with his suicidal impulses prompted by the loss of Cossette causes him to finally grow a backbone. He debates being on the side of the revolutionaries and the morality of civil war, but ultimately chooses to join the revolution. 

Gavroche returns and the flag is shot down from the barricade. Enjorlas looks for someone to undertake the suicide mission of replacing it. Mabeuf volunteers and is duly killed, earning him both a speech from Enjorlas and the use of his coat as a new flag, representing the ultimate brave sacrifice the old man has made.  Hugo links Mabeuf with the Revolution of 1793, it is almost as if the old revolutionaries are handing it over the new order. This is quickly followed by Marius entering the fray, just as Bahorel is killed and Gavroche and Courfeyrac are about to be killed. Marius single-handedly and simultaneously saves them, then is saved himself by a boy in workman’s clothes who gets shot in the hand in the process. Marius threatens to blow up the barricade, but the attackers have run off. Enjorlas nominates him to be the leader. One of the ‘bravest and best’ (p962) revolutionaries, Jean Prouvaire, is shot. 

Marius visits the small barricade and finds the boy in workman’s clothes. It is Eponine, who is dying. She gives him a letter from Cos that she has been keeping to prevent Marius and Cos from being together. She confesses to Marius that she was ‘a little bit in love with you.’ (p966). She can give him the letter now as she expects that everyone will die and she will be re-united with him in death. Eponine doesn’t get really get much of a death scene, but I think that this is a big criticism I have of the book, all of a sudden everybody’s dying and Hugo doesn’t have the resources to write emotional scenes for all of them, despite the length of the book. Also Eponine is a sadly neglected character who has an effect on quite a few plots within the novel. I would’ve far preferred more of her and her life as a male impersonator, daughter of a rogue and in unrequited love for Marius than all that stuff about how much Marius and Cos were in love. In fact, I don’t even know why she is was in love with Marius as up until now he’s been wetter than wet, I suppose she must’ve just fallen for his unobtainability, respectability and handsome good looks. He’s so busy mooning over Cos he hardly notices her, but at least he honours her wish to be kissed on the forehead after she’s died. 

The letter explains that Cos is going to England with her father.  Marius switches from boring despair to boring ecstasy, but fears that he is about to obey Eponine’s dying wish of dying alongside her, so he decides to write Cos a letter to inform her what’s happened and he loves her etc. etc. and to save Gavroche’s life in the process by making him deliver the message. He’s a bit more noble, but still deadly-dull.