Les Misérables · Chapter
End of the Petit-Picpus explained
The chapter describes the decline of the Petit-Picpus convent during the Restoration, noting the dwindling number of nuns and the cessation of the school.
What happens
The chapter describes the decline of the Petit-Picpus convent during the Restoration, noting the dwindling number of nuns and the cessation of the school. It reflects on the transformation of religious contemplation in the face of social progress and the need to understand the past to avoid its traps.
Themes in this chapter
The Human Condition and Fate
The chapter reflects on the inevitable decline of the convent and the human need for contemplation, which is transformed by social progress.
Revolution and Social Upheaval
The chapter discusses how the Revolution touched religious orders and how contemplation will be transformed to become favorable to social progress.
Key passages
“Contemplation is, like prayer, one of humanity’s needs; but, like everything which the Revolution touched, it will be transformed, and from being hostile to social progress, it will become favorable to it.”
Contemplation and prayer are fundamental human needs, but like all things affected by the Revolution, they will change from opposing social progress to supporting it.
This reflects the theme of revolution transforming religious practices.
“In this nineteenth century, the religious idea is undergoing a crisis. People are unlearning certain things, and they do well, provided that, while unlearning them they learn this: there is no vacuum in the human heart.”
In the 19th century, religious belief is in crisis; people are rightly discarding old ideas, but they must remember that the human heart always needs something to fill it.
This highlights the human condition and the need for meaning.