Les Misérables · Chapter
First Sketch of Two Unprepossessing Figures explained
This chapter introduces the Thénardiers, describing them as belonging to a bastard class between the middle and inferior classes, combining defects of both without the virtues of either.
What happens
This chapter introduces the Thénardiers, describing them as belonging to a bastard class between the middle and inferior classes, combining defects of both without the virtues of either. Thénardier is portrayed as a potentially dangerous man with a shadowy past, possibly a former soldier in the 1815 campaign, while Madame Thénardier is depicted as a coarse, vicious woman influenced by sentimental romances. Their daughters are named Éponine and Azelma, reflecting the romantic and social trends of the era, which also include the displacement of names between classes as a sign of equality stemming from the French Revolution.
Themes in this chapter
Social Injustice and Poverty
The Thénardiers are depicted as belonging to a bastard class that combines the defects of the middle and inferior classes, highlighting social stratification and the lack of virtue among those who have risen or fallen in status.
The Human Condition and Fate
The chapter describes the Thénardiers as having 'crab-like souls' that retreat towards darkness, using experience to augment their deformity, illustrating a deterministic view of human nature and moral decay.
Characters to notice
- Thénardier
Introduced as a coarse, potentially dangerous man with a shadowy past, possibly a former soldier in the 1815 campaign, who runs a hostelry and painted its sign himself.
- Madame Thénardier
Described as a coarse, vicious woman, twelve to fifteen years younger than her husband, who reads sentimental romances and has developed from a pensive attitude into a Megaera.
- Éponine
Mentioned as the eldest daughter of the Thénardiers, named after a character from a romance.
- Azelma
Mentioned as the younger daughter of the Thénardiers, nearly named Gulnare but given the name Azelma due to a romance by Ducray-Dumenil.
Key passages
“These beings belonged to that bastard class composed of coarse people who have been successful, and of intelligent people who have descended in the scale, which is between the class called “middle” and the class denominated as “inferior,” and which combines some of the defects of the second with nearly all the vices of the first, without possessing the generous impulse of the workingman nor the honest order of the bourgeois.”
The Thénardiers are part of a mixed class of crude successful people and fallen intelligent people, sitting between the middle and lower classes, with the vices of both but none of the virtues of workers or the honest bourgeoisie.
This passage establishes the Thénardiers' social and moral standing, emphasizing their lack of redeeming qualities.
“There exist crab-like souls which are continually retreating towards the darkness, retrograding in life rather than advancing, employing experience to augment their deformity, growing incessantly worse, and becoming more and more impregnated with an ever-augmenting blackness.”
Some people have souls that move backward into darkness, using their experiences to become more twisted and evil over time.
This metaphor describes the Thénardiers' moral regression and increasing wickedness.