# Requiescant explained — Les Misérables

> Chapter companion for Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

## What happens

This chapter describes the ultra-royalist salon of Madame de T., which represents the reactionary and mummified society of the early Restoration period (1814-1820). Marius Pontmercy, raised in this environment, becomes a fanatical young royalist, though he finds the salon gloomy and oppressive. The chapter details the salon's inhabitants—aged nobles, priests, and émigrés—who cling to the past, despise Napoleon, and embody the 'ultra' spirit of going beyond mere royalism into a caricature of itself.

## Themes in this chapter

### The Human Condition and Fate

The chapter reflects on the inevitable passage of time and the disappearance of entire social worlds, as the ultra-royalist salon is described as a 'mummified society' that has been 'engulfed in a deluge' by two Revolutions.

### Revolution and Social Upheaval

The text contrasts the static, backward-looking world of the salon with the dynamic forces of revolution and change, noting how ideas 'destroy and bury' and create 'frightful gulfs.'

## Character check-ins

### Marius Pontmercy

Marius is introduced as a young man emerging from his studies, a fanatical and severe Royalist who finds the salon of Madame de T. somber and cold, and who feels gloomy and grave despite his youth.

### Mademoiselle Gillenormand

Aunt Gillenormand is mentioned as the one who first had charge of Marius before his grandfather entrusted him to a professor.

### M. Gillenormand

Marius's grandfather, whose gaiety and cynicism repel Marius, and who confides Marius to a professor after his aunt's care.

### Georges Pontmercy

Marius's father, toward whom Marius feels gloomy emotions, as his feelings are described as 'gloomy' in contrast to his grandfather.

## Key lines

> that it is their mission to destroy and to bury, and how promptly they create frightful gulfs!

Ideas have the power to demolish and inter the old order, and they can swiftly open up terrifying chasms of change.

_This reflects on the transformative and often destructive power of revolutionary ideas._

> It was a mummified society. The masters were embalmed, the servants were stuffed with straw.

This society was preserved like a corpse, with the nobility lifeless and the servants hollow and artificial.

_A vivid metaphor for the stagnation and artificiality of the ultra-royalist circle._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters/iii-requiescant
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters