Les Misérables · Chapter
I: The Sewer and Its Surprises explained
Jean Valjean, carrying the wounded Marius, escapes into the Paris sewers after the barricade battle.
What happens
Jean Valjean, carrying the wounded Marius, escapes into the Paris sewers after the barricade battle. He navigates the dark, labyrinthine passages, facing the risk of getting lost or drowning, while trying to find a safe exit. The chapter describes his descent into the sewer, his careful choice of paths, and the sudden appearance of police lanterns behind him.
Themes in this chapter
Suffering and Sacrifice
Jean Valjean endures physical and mental suffering while carrying Marius through the perilous sewer, risking his own life for the wounded man.
The Human Condition and Fate
Valjean's journey through the dark, labyrinthine sewer symbolizes the uncertainty and struggle of human existence, guided by providence and chance.
Characters to notice
- Jean Valjean
Carries the wounded Marius through the sewers, navigating the dark labyrinth and avoiding traps.
- Marius Pontmercy
Wounded and unconscious, carried by Jean Valjean through the sewer.
Key passages
“It was in the sewers of Paris that Jean Valjean found himself. Still another resemblance between Paris and the sea. As in the ocean, the diver may disappear there.”
Jean Valjean found himself in the Paris sewers, which are compared to the sea because a person can vanish into them like a diver.
Opening lines establish the setting and metaphor of the sewer as a place of disappearance.
“He advanced with anxiety, but with calmness, seeing nothing, knowing nothing, buried in chance, that is to say, engulfed in providence.”
He moved forward anxiously yet calmly, blind and ignorant, immersed in chance or, in other words, in providence.
Highlights Valjean's state of mind and the theme of fate guiding his steps.
“Behind him, in the portion of the passage which he had just passed through, at a distance which appeared to him immense, piercing the dense obscurity, flamed a sort of horrible star which had the air of surveying him. It was the gloomy star of the police which was rising in the sewer.”
Behind him, far off in the dark passage, a terrible star-like light appeared, watching him—it was the police lantern rising in the sewer.
Climactic moment where Valjean realizes he is being pursued by the police.