Les Misérables · Chapter
Originality of Paris explained
This chapter describes the unique character of Paris during insurrections, contrasting the city's typical calm and gaiety with the fear that gripped it during the June 1832 uprising.
What happens
This chapter describes the unique character of Paris during insurrections, contrasting the city's typical calm and gaiety with the fear that gripped it during the June 1832 uprising. It details how Parisians initially treat riots as minor disturbances but eventually become alarmed as violence escalates, with widespread closures, arrests, and anxiety taking hold.
Themes in this chapter
Revolution and Social Upheaval
The chapter vividly portrays the atmosphere of insurrection, civil war, and the city's response to revolutionary violence.
The Human Condition and Fate
The contrast between everyday life and the chaos of uprising reflects the human capacity for both normalcy and fear in the face of fateful events.
Key passages
“Nothing is, generally, more singularly calm than the physiognomy of Paris during an uprising beyond the bounds of the rebellious quarters.”
Paris typically remains remarkably calm during a riot, as long as it stays confined to certain areas.
Highlights the paradoxical tranquility of the city during unrest.
“At the time of the insurrection of 1839, in the Rue Saint-Martin a little, infirm old man, pushing a handcart surmounted by a tricolored rag, in which he had carafes filled with some sort of liquid, went and came from barricade to troops and from troops to the barricade, offering his glasses of cocoa impartially—now to the Government, now to anarchy.”
During the 1839 uprising, an old man with a cart sold cocoa to both sides, moving between the barricades and the soldiers.
Illustrates the peculiar nonchalance of Parisians even amid conflict.
“Evening came, the theatres did not open; the patrols circulated with an air of irritation; passersby were searched; suspicious persons were arrested.”
By evening, theaters were closed, patrols were tense, and authorities searched and arrested people on the streets.
Shows the escalation of fear and security measures during the uprising.