Les Misérables · Chapter
VI: The Grass Covers and the Rain Effaces explained
The chapter describes a plain, unmarked stone in a remote corner of Père-Lachaise cemetery, far from the ornate tombs, where a hand once wrote four lines of poetry that have since become illegible.
What happens
The chapter describes a plain, unmarked stone in a remote corner of Père-Lachaise cemetery, far from the ornate tombs, where a hand once wrote four lines of poetry that have since become illegible. The poem speaks of one who lived and died when he lost his angel, a simple passing like night falling when day departs.
Themes in this chapter
The Human Condition and Fate
The chapter reflects on the inevitability of death and the quiet, natural end of a life, emphasizing the universal fate that awaits all.
Suffering and Sacrifice
The poem inscribed on the stone alludes to a life marked by a strange fate and the loss of an angel, suggesting suffering and sacrifice.
Key passages
“Il dort. Quoique le sort fût pour lui bien étrange, Il vivait. Il mourut quand il n’eut plus son ange. La chose simplement d’elle-même arriva, Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s’en va.”
He sleeps. Though his fate was strange, he lived. He died when he no longer had his angel. The thing simply happened by itself, as night falls when day departs.
The epitaph on the unmarked stone, now fading, tells of a life ended quietly after the loss of a beloved angel.