# Between Four Planks explained — Les Misérables

> Chapter companion for Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

## What happens

Jean Valjean, hidden inside a coffin, experiences the harrowing process of being buried alive in the cemetery. He endures the journey, the lowering into the grave, the funeral rites, and the first shovelfuls of earth before losing consciousness.

## Themes in this chapter

### Suffering and Sacrifice

Jean Valjean endures the terror of being buried alive as part of his sacrifice to protect Cosette and escape Javert.

### Redemption and Transformation

Valjean's symbolic death and near-burial represent a transformative ordeal on his path to redemption.

## Character check-ins

### Jean Valjean

Buried alive in a coffin, he maintains composure until the earth falls and he loses consciousness.

### Father Fauchelevent

Arranged the coffin and plans to retrieve Valjean after the gravedigger leaves.

### Father Mestienne

The gravedigger whose cooperation Fauchelevent and Valjean rely on for the escape.

## Key lines

> The four planks of the coffin breathe out a kind of terrible peace. It seemed as though something of the repose of the dead entered into Jean Valjean’s tranquillity.

The coffin's confined space paradoxically gave Valjean a sense of calm, as if the stillness of death had seeped into his own composure.

_Highlights Valjean's extraordinary mental fortitude in a life-threatening situation._

> All at once, he heard over his head a sound which seemed to him to be a clap of thunder. It was a shovelful of earth falling on the coffin.

Suddenly, a noise like thunder struck above him—a shovel of dirt landing on the coffin lid.

_Marks the moment Valjean's plan begins to fail and his terror peaks._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters/vi-between-four-planks
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters