Summary of chapters 5.6.1-5.8.1:

Marius and Cosette are married on February 16th, 1833, “the day had been adorable,” and was also the day of Mardi Gras that year. Hugo explains that there are a great number of carriages on the roads that day and that the crowds of people around are in masks (as Mardi Gras is a kind of Saturnalia, or large-scale parody, at this time), and one pair of masks notices Cosette and Valjean as people they certainly recognize, and the father tells the daughter she must try to follow that carriage; he calls her Azelma. Cosette’s dress is beautiful; Marius is beautiful although his scars from the barricade are visible; the grandfather takes Valjean’s place, whose arm is in a sling; Valjean follows behind, smiling. To the couple, it seems that their long agonies have made their happiness sweeter. After the ceremony at the church, the whole group returns to the Gillenormand house, where a great number of family and friends greet the new couple. The feast is set, with two chairs on the right and left sides of the bride, for M. Gillenormand and M. Fauchelevent, but when the group sits down to eat, Valjean/Fauchelevent is not there; a servant tells them that Valjean said he was suffering from his sore hand and could not dine with the group, but that he would come the next morning. His chair is filled by Marius, and the feast proceeds happily. After he left, Valjean had gone back to the Rue de l’Homme Armé, went around the various rooms that are now empty, then back into his own room. He goes to the “little trunk which never left him,” opens the locked lid, and looks at the little black garments he had purchased for Cosette all those years ago when he took her from the inn at Montfermeil, and breaks into “fearful” sobs at the thought of how much they have shared together when she had had nobody else in the world besides him. That night, Valjean wrestles with how he should react to Marius and Cosette’s present happiness, whether he should introduce himself into their household, whether he should continue to conceal his past from them, and thinks for twelve hours about the choice between revealing his past and possibly losing Cosette and concealing his past and losing himself. In the morning, Valjean goes to the Gillenormand’s house to speak to Marius in private, who greets him and calls him “father.” Marius tells Valjean he should live there with them, as Cosette loves him very much, and that they have already prepared a room for him there where he can live happily—Valjean interrupts this cheerful talk by announcing that he is an old convict. Valjean reveals there is nothing wrong with his hand, saying it was an excuse to be absent and to not introduce forgery into the signing of the marriage documents (using a false name). He tells Marius of his nineteen years in the galleys, his breach of parole, then begins his life’s story, starting with his true name and life before the galleys, and how he found Cosette an orphan. When Marius asks why Valjean is revealing all of this, Valjean says it is from honor—he reflects on himself and on the idea that he could be a part of a family, saying he is an eternal outsider and thinks he should not mar the happiness of these two angels; he knows it would be easy to have kept this all secret, but it would have been bad wrong for his soul because to have lied would be to have degraded his soul again. He further says that to reveal this information is to save his soul and to follow his conscience, that he is honest; Marius offers to get his grandfather’s friends’ help in clearing Valjean’s name, but Valjean says the authorities think him dead, which is enough. Cosette appears, chiding both men for talking instead of being with her, and she invites Valjean to breakfast, but Marius and Valjean both say they have business to finish discussing. Valjean is concerned for Cosette when she finds out the truth about him, but Marius says he will not tell her, but that Valjean should not see Cosette again, although he recants that position and says Valjean can still come to see Cosette any and every evening. Marius, now knowing the truth about Valjean, is unhinged, confused, and angry. He thinks about the connection to Cosette and realizes he never spoke to her about the incident in the Gorbeau den, or about the Thénardiers, then thinks about the fact that Valjean revealed everything to him of his own accord, and about how Valjean’s life may have influenced Cosette, and ultimately decides that “the personal affairs of Jean Valjean did not concern him” because he did raise Cosette into the beautiful lily she now is. The next day, Valjean comes again and waits in the basement room, as he has told Marius he would do, and when Cosette enters, he is fatigued and does not get up to kiss her cheek, and then says he cannot come up into the better part of the house with her, and that she should not call him “father” anymore, but rather, “Monsieur Jean,” which confuses and upsets Cosette. He says she has no more need of a father because she has Marius now. Cosette gets very annoyed because everyone has been acting strangely to her for days, and demands to know if Valjean is acting this way because he does not like that she is happy, to which he mutters quietly that “Her happiness was the aim of my life, Now, God may beckon me away” which Cosette takes as a strange farewell, and Jean Valjean leaves.

Questions for 5.8.1:

1. What do you think Valjean means by his farewell to Cosette in the final chapter of this week's reading?
2. Did you have a favorite line or passage from this chapter? If so, what made it stand out to you?
3. Were there any instances of figurative language you thought added to the narrative of this chapter?
4. Do you have any other comments or questions about this chapter?

Final line:

Jean Valjean went out, leaving Cosette astounded at that enigmatic farewell.

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