# VI: The Fontis explained — Les Misérables

> Chapter companion for Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

## What happens

Jean Valjean, carrying the dying Marius through the Paris sewers, encounters a treacherous quagmire (fontis) caused by heavy rain. Despite sinking deeper into the mire, he finds a solid fragment of the vaulted pavement and uses it as a point of support to escape, emerging exhausted but spiritually uplifted.

## Themes in this chapter

### Suffering and Sacrifice

Jean Valjean's desperate struggle through the mire, carrying Marius at the risk of his own life, exemplifies self-sacrifice and endurance.

### Redemption and Transformation

Valjean's emergence from the fontis, kneeling in prayer and filled with a strange light, symbolizes a moment of spiritual renewal and redemption.

## Character check-ins

### Jean Valjean

Struggles through the fontis while carrying Marius, nearly drowning in the mire before finding a solid point of support and emerging safely.

### Marius Pontmercy

Unconscious or dying, carried by Jean Valjean through the sewer and the fontis.

## Key lines

> Jean Valjean found himself in the presence of a fontis. This sort of quagmire was common at that period in the subsoil of the Champs-Élysées, difficult to handle in the hydraulic works and a bad preservative of the subterranean constructions, on account of its excessive fluidity.

Jean Valjean encountered a quagmire, a common hazard in the Champs-Élysées subsoil at the time, which made hydraulic work difficult and damaged underground structures due to its extreme fluidity.

_Describes the nature and historical context of the fontis._

> He still held Marius on high, and with an unheard-of expenditure of force, he advanced still; but he was sinking. He had only his head above the water now and his two arms holding up Marius. In the old paintings of the deluge there is a mother holding her child thus.

Valjean continued forward with immense effort, holding Marius aloft, but sank until only his head and arms remained above water, reminiscent of a mother clutching her child in ancient flood paintings.

_Highlights Valjean's sacrificial struggle and the poignant imagery of his burden._

> He rose to his feet, shivering, chilled, foul-smelling, bowed beneath the dying man whom he was dragging after him, all dripping with slime, and his soul filled with a strange light.

Valjean stood up, trembling, cold, and covered in filth, still carrying the dying man, yet his spirit was illuminated by a mysterious inner light.

_Captures Valjean's physical exhaustion and spiritual transcendence after escaping the fontis._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters/vi-the-fontis
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters