Les Misérables · Chapter
Old People Are Made to Go Out Opportunely explained
In the evening, Jean Valjean goes out, and Cosette dresses herself more attractively than usual before going to the garden.
What happens
In the evening, Jean Valjean goes out, and Cosette dresses herself more attractively than usual before going to the garden. There, she is surprised by Marius, who has secretly entered the garden. He confesses his love, having watched her from afar for nearly a year. Overwhelmed, Cosette faints into his arms, and they share a kiss. They sit together on the bench, exchanging confidences and declarations of love, learning each other's names for the first time.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Compassion
The chapter centers on the romantic love between Marius and Cosette, culminating in their first kiss and mutual confession.
Characters to notice
- Cosette
Dresses up and goes to the garden, where she meets Marius and confesses her love.
- Marius Pontmercy
Enters the garden secretly, declares his love to Cosette, and shares a kiss with her.
- Jean Valjean
Goes out in the evening, leaving Cosette alone in the garden.
- Toussaint
Busy in the kitchen while Cosette is in the garden.
Key passages
“She arranged her hair in the most becoming manner, and she put on a dress whose bodice had received one snip of the scissors too much, and which, through this slope, permitted a view of the beginning of her throat, and was, as young girls say, 'a trifle indecent.'”
Cosette dressed up, styling her hair and wearing a dress that showed a bit of her neck, which she thought was slightly daring.
Shows Cosette's unconscious desire to appear attractive, foreshadowing the romantic encounter.
“He seemed to be not yet a ghost, and he was no longer a man. He had flung away his hat in the thicket, a few paces distant.”
Marius appeared ethereal, almost like a spirit, having discarded his hat nearby.
Highlights Marius's intense emotional state and the dreamlike quality of the meeting.
“She took his hand and laid it on her heart. He felt the paper there, he stammered:— 'You love me, then?' She replied in a voice so low that it was no longer anything more than a barely audible breath:— 'Hush! Thou knowest it!'”
Cosette placed Marius's hand over her heart, where she kept his letter, and when he asked if she loved him, she whispered for him to be silent, acknowledging her love.
The moment of mutual confession, using the letter as a symbol of their connection.
“How does it come to pass that the birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that May expands, that the dawn grows white behind the black trees on the shivering crest of the hills? A kiss, and that was all.”
Their kiss was as natural and inevitable as the changing seasons and the beauty of nature.
Poetic description of their first kiss, linking it to the natural order.