Les Misérables · Chapter
A Drinker Is a Babbler explained
Jean Valjean, having fled with Cosette to a quiet lodging in the Rue de l'Homme Armé, experiences a temporary calm after the upheaval of leaving the Rue Plumet.
What happens
Jean Valjean, having fled with Cosette to a quiet lodging in the Rue de l'Homme Armé, experiences a temporary calm after the upheaval of leaving the Rue Plumet. However, he discovers a note from Cosette to Marius revealing her love and their planned departure for England, plunging him into a profound internal crisis as he confronts the loss of her affection and the shattering of his world.
Themes in this chapter
Suffering and Sacrifice
Jean Valjean's internal torment upon realizing Cosette's love for another, and his sense of having sacrificed everything only to lose her, embodies profound suffering.
The Human Condition and Fate
The chapter explores the depths of the human soul, comparing Valjean's inner revolution to the city's convulsions, and the inevitability of fate as he discovers the note.
Love and Compassion
Valjean's complex, fatherly love for Cosette—mingled with maternal, brotherly, and romantic elements—is central, as is the pain of her love for Marius.
Characters to notice
- Jean Valjean
Prey to a terrible internal upheaval, he moves to Rue de l'Homme Armé with Cosette, experiences a brief calm, then discovers Cosette's note to Marius, triggering a deep crisis of grief and jealousy.
- Cosette
Sad and resistant to leaving the Rue Plumet, she writes a note to Marius revealing their planned departure for England, then retreats to her room under the pretext of a headache.
- Toussaint
The loyal, incurious servant who accompanies Jean Valjean and Cosette to the new lodgings, busying herself with the household and mentioning the fighting in Paris.
- Marius Pontmercy
Referenced indirectly as the recipient of Cosette's note, the 'other' who is the goal of her heart and the cause of Jean Valjean's anguish.
Key passages
“What are the convulsions of a city in comparison with the insurrections of the soul? Man is a depth still greater than the people.”
The turmoil within a single person is more profound than any urban uprising.
Opens the chapter, comparing Jean Valjean's internal crisis to the Parisian rebellion.
“Alas! the supreme trial, let us say rather, the only trial, is the loss of the beloved being.”
The greatest suffering one can endure is losing the person they love.
Reflects Jean Valjean's grief at the thought of losing Cosette to Marius.
“Cosette was his nation. Cosette sufficed for his happiness; the idea that he, perhaps, did not suffice for Cosette's happiness, that idea which had formerly been the cause of his fever and sleeplessness, did not even present itself to his mind.”
Cosette was Valjean's entire world; he was so focused on his own happiness with her that he ignored whether he made her happy.
Highlights Valjean's possessive love and his blindness to Cosette's feelings.